As a dessert lover, I have always been curious about this dessert festival, Dessert Goals. I didn’t get to purchase the ticket last year before all the ticket got sold out within minutes…so, this year, I was ready and I got the tickets! Also, they doubled up on their tickets, which helped as well. I went for the pricier ticket, called Extra Sugar Rush ($35/person) which get you all the offerings of general admission, plus it gets you in 30 minutes before the general admission. It also comes with a gift bag. The location changes each year, and this year was at Sound River Studios in Long Island City. It was a very cold, breezy day, but we made it!
They already had lines forming with other Extra Sugar Rush ticket holders. The theme for this years festival was Spring Disco, and I did see some ladies dressed in a Spring-y and Disco-style outfit, which was fun. After waiting for about 30 minutes in the cold, the door finally opened and we were in! It had lots of shiny decoration for “disco,” among other fun decoration of desserts and flowers.
They had lots of dessert vendors from NYC, such as Supermoon Bakehouse, Bonsai Kakigori, Lady M, Bar Pa Tea, and Tipsy Scoop just to name a few. They were all lined up against the four walls, and people started to line up for a very popular ones pretty quick. We decided not to get in any long line, and walked around, exploring all the options.
The first one we tried was some ice cream from Mochidoki. We got Black Sesame and Lychee ($5 for two). They were both pretty darn good, a bite size mochi ice cream with really nice flavors. The mochi was not too thick, chewy, sweet and tasty. The ice cream was velvety and had strong flavor of each. I have been wanting to try their mochi ice cream for a while, so I am glad I finally got the chance to taste them.
Then, we moved onto Lady M Cakes. We are a fan of their cakes and Mille Crêpes (you can read about them here: http://www.foodlovergirl.com/lady-m-confections-boutique/, and here: http://www.foodlovergirl.com/lady-m-confection-boutiques-wtc/), but we actually never had their original Mille Crêpes. So, we decided to get a slice ($5). As usual, they had layer and layers of delicate crepes, with light pasty cream in between. The top was gently carmamelized, giving that golden hue. Elegantly sweet, melt in your mouth good…
At this point, we decided to get into one of the long lines. It was for Sugar Monster Sweets, and they had some awesome looking cakes on display, showing off their skills. For sale, they only had two items. Rainbow cake and Disco Twinkies.
About the time we got to the counter, the Rainbow Cake was already sold out! It must have been only about 20 minutes or so since we entered, and that is when the door first opened! I guess they didn’t realize how popular their cake would be… So, we got one of the last few remaining Disco Twinkie ($6).
They were certainly cute, and tasted much better than the store-bought Twinkie. It was an orange creamsicle inspired Sugar Monster Twinkie, with a paper flower and tiny disco ball to go with the theme. The cake was fluffy and airy, the orange creamsicle coating was very flavorful. Light, sweet, fun dessert.
Next up was Tiny Kitchen Treats. They had some interesting cookies that you can make it into your own dessert with cactus and rocks. Cute! But it is not so easy to make a “cookie craft” in the middle of super crowded space, with so many eager dessert lovers lining up behind you. So, even though I wanted to make my own cookie art, I wasn’t brave enough to stop the traffic to do so… Some people can get pretty annoyed and super rude, trying to cut in line and pushing people off…come one, let’s all be ladies and gentlemen…choose love, not hate.
So instead, we got an easier option that they had. We bought a cookie pop and a disco ball cookie ($7 for two), and got the staff to put our names on them. They came out pretty cute. The cookies were sweet, not very soft but rather hard, good but not great. Still a fun treat.
My hubby wanted to get a piece of pie from Petee’s Pie Co., so we went and got one. We had some pies from them before (you can read about it here: http://www.foodlovergirl.com/petees-pie-company/), and enjoyed their pies. The offering they had at the Dessert Goals were not very enticing to me… My hubby went with the Dessert Goals EXCLUSIVE flavors, Lemon Elderflower Meringue Pie ($7). It was waaaaay too sweet, it was like sugar on top of sugar on top of sugar… I didn’t really taste anything but sugar. Kind of disappointing. I needed lots of water to wash down the over-sweetened meringue.
Then we got a two little Rainbow Cookies from Zola Bakes. We didn’t get to their booth, but they had a staff bring them around on a tray, walking the floor. Clever! They had Nutella and raspberry flavor ones on the tray, and some other ones only at the booth. We got the Raspberry kind ($4/two), and they were pretty good. Even though they are called “cookies” but they are more like cakes. Soft, dense, airy and tasty. I liked the chocolate drizzle on top. Cute little fun bite.
After that, we wanted something a bit different. We headed down to New Territories NYC, for their colorful milkshakes. They had Unicorn Parade Milkshakes and Spring Goals Milkshakes ($8/each). Yet, they were very relaxed about their offering, we could mix and match the ingredients of both to make our own creation.
We chose the Spring Goals Milkshake base, which was chrysanthemum ice cream and chia seeds. Then we went with the topping of Unicorn Paradise Milkshake, that gives us whipped cream with silver sprinkles, assorted marshmallows on Pocky, and more sprinkles on the rims. It was really fun and cheerful drink, packed with sugar energy. The shake was decadent and creamy, the rainbow marshmallow made it even more whimsical. It was a good shake, I tell you, but better to share it with someone rather than to have it all to your self.
At this point, all of the offering from Super Moon Bakery was gone. I wanted to try their baked goods, but the line was crazy long at all time…and again, this was another vendor who was not ready for their popularity at this event. I will just have to go visit their store one of these days.
There are several vendors with interesting offerings. The one we found from Macaron Parlour, they had Cheetos Macaron! We did not try it, as we heard that is not so good… But then they had another one called “Giggidy” which we did try, among few others. They were all really good, I am especially a fan of their Fig and Earl Grey macaron.
Right next to the Macaron Parlour was John & Kira’s Chocolates, which is originally from Philly from what they told us. They had lots of artisanal chocolates, hand painted, shiny and adorable. We bought a few of their artistic chocolates to take with us. We also got a unique offering, a fig dipped in dark chocolate, infused with whiskey. Needless to say, it was delicious!
At this point, several of the vendors were getting low on their offerings. And it has only been less than 2 hours since the door first opened… Another cute one I saw was Rebecca’s Cake Pops, with all sorts of colorful and whimsical cake pops. We didn’t try them as we were reaching (if not already way passed) the limit on the sugar. But look at these cute little creations!
But before we left, we decided to get one last item. I found a vendor that has been on my radar for a while, Aux Merveilleux de Fred. It is basically a meringue, coated with light cream. Of course, much more elegantly done.
We got two kinds of merveilleux ($5.60 for two), white chocolate and pistachio, and they were AWESOME!!! Super light puffs like a cloud, with yet even lighter crunch that is almost quiet. The cream was like velvety pillow…the perfect items to end this event!
The even was very fun and they did have lots and lots of vendors as promised. The only thing was that I thought they will have a good amount samples, especially after paying around $40 per person including tax. The only samples they had was some candies… The gift bags didn’t really contain much of desserts either, but toothbrush, gum, pin, fruit chips and few other things. And, the fact that popular items disappeared so quickly, and didn’t even get to try them…hmmm, I am not sure if we would do this again. It might be easier to just go visit the shops and get what you want on your own time. We did have fun, they had lots of nice photo-stations for you and for your food, we took advantage off of the time limit of two hours that we had with Extra Sugar Rush ticket for sure!