Red Gate Bakery in the East Village Makes the Best Birthday Cake in NYC | Eater NY
"For me, Greg Rales does exactly what I want in a birthday cake: tall, stacked round layer cakes with a tender, plumped moist crumb, rich fillings like ganache or curd, and an aerated, buttercream-style frosting that delivers pure joy. He opened the shop in the last month of 2019 on East First Street off First Avenue, naming it after the Red Gate Farm of his childhood, where he first learned to bake; after a stint in TV and catering and a job helping open Flour Shop, he launched the bakery and kept cakes as the anchor even through COVID. There’s a permanent cake roster (classic-but-epic vanilla with chocolate sour cream frosting, the chocolate-on-chocolate Li’l Pudding, a Toasted Coconut Banana Bacon, and a Ferrero Rocher–inspired celebration cake), one cake-by-the-slice offered on weekdays, and seasonal weekend specials; last year I had the Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel for my birthday and this year ordered a custom cake riffing on Sedutto’s mocha almond fudge. Beyond layer cakes, I often stop in for other staples: the PB&J bar with pickled Concord grape jam and a miso-shortbread crust (Rales’s favorite), a brown-butter carrot loaf studded with pistachios and topped with one of the better cream-cheese frostings around, thin bendy cookies in surprising flavors like grapefruit white chocolate and the Cannibal (with crushed homemade Oreos), and wildly imaginative weekend cinnamon buns such as the Lemon Brûléeberry. He ships cookies nationwide (started January 2021), his storefront projects a warm, safe familiarity balanced with playful newness, and a “Be Gay, Eat Cookies” sign — and Rales’s own statement that his homosexuality informs daily decisions — signals the values behind the menu." - Charlotte Druckman
