NY Adventures

Let them eat cake

It's deflating to learn the scrumptious New York cupcake is genetically twinned with the fairy cakes your mum used to bung in the oven. Maybe the sprinkles in New York are a soupçon more risque.

Cupcake mania struck Manhattan in the mid-Nineties when a bakery called Magnolia opened in Greenwich Village. It's where Sarah Jessica Parker hung out in Sex and the City, and for that reason alone the queues at the counter can be punishing.

For a taste of Magnolia without the wait or the crowds, head north a few blocks to Chelsea where you'll find Billy's Bakery. It's owner Billy Reece spent years working at Magnolia and took all that know-how, poured it into paper cases and cooked it at 180C for 18 to 20 minutes.

Billy isn't around anymore (and he's now called Lauren) but the quality of his work remains for all to savour. Gobble up the cupcakes if you want to be obvious, but for absolute fulfillment order a fat chocolate cheesecake and a glass of full milk. Take a seat in the sunshine, slide a fork into densest dessert ever to pass your lips and know you've tasted heaven.

Billy's Bakery
184 Ninth Avenue between 21st and 22nd Streets

PITCHER PERFECT

Here's a factoid to kill a conversation dead: baseball is the seventh most popular sport in the world. The first six are (admit it, you want to know now) football, cricket, hockey, tennis, volleyball and table tennis. Yes, volleyball.

In America, baseball romps in second favourite. In New York, it is unsurpassed. The New York Yankees have been the most successful sports team in the history of the country. Baseball is big business in the Big Apple.

Sadly, the rules make less sense than a thatched hen. If the off-side rule still causes cranial bleeding, it's probably best to skip the intricacies of baseball's OPS statistics:

"The hitter's on base percentage (hits plus walks plus hit by pitches divided by at bats plus bases on balls plus hit by pitches plus sacrifice flies) is combined with their slugging percentage (total bases divided by at bats)."