[Photo: Kathy YL Chan]

Since our last visit to Dessert Club Chikalicious, this beloved East Village sweet spot has rolled out all sorts of new desserts.

We'll start with petits fours, which actually have been on the menu for awhile, though only available though special order. But now you can buy them by the piece and devour on the spot. They do seven different petits fours ($2 each), but there are only four you need to pay special attention to. First, a tiny caramel profiterole tart dotted in choux pastry buttons, like a miniature croquembouche. Then there's a pillow-soft meringue dipped in crushed pistachios on shortbread; and a dark chocolate and orange ganache—alternating layers of ganache and paper-thin chocolate sheets. And finally, a single-bite cube of strawberry shortcake with fresh strawberry jam tucked between the shortcake layers.

And remember this Cookies-N-Cream Sundae? An "everything" chocolate cookie crushed, the chunks folded into housemade vanilla bean soft serve. If you thought that was great, look out for the Strawberry Shortcake Sundae ($6.95) in which they fold buttery shortcake squares, whipped cream, and fresh strawberry slices into the soft serve. Heaven in a plastic cup, the truly enormous portion size best shared between two people at the very least. It uses the same strawberry shortcake base as the petit four, and also the normal-size slice.

But we're not done yet. There's a new line of mini cupcakes ($2.25 each). They come in four flavors including a chocolate-banana topped with a single chocolate-dipped banana slice, pistachio, and my two personal favorites. This first is a lychee cupcake featuring vanilla cake with lychee buttercream and a center of fresh lychee. This fruit is so often used in Asian desserts but we rarely get to see it in the world of cupcakes. My other favorite is a matcha cupcake with a matching matcha-dusted buttercream. It's picture-perfect like so many of their deserts, and their buttercream is one of the smoothest in town.

Just in time for the holiday season there's the Pumpkin Pie ($4.95) which substitutes a traditional pie shell with a double "crust" puff pastry. The pie filling hints gently of cinnamon and nutmeg, and is pudding-soft, making each triangle a dreamy, flaky hand-held pie. Unfortunately they don't warm it up for you, but I've taken one home in the past, toasted it in the oven for a few minutes, and it goes from delicious to even more so.

Dessert Club Chikalicious

204 East 10th Street, New York NY 10003 (map)
212-475-0929
dessertclubnyc.com

About the author: Originally from Honolulu, Kathy YL Chan writes A Passion For Food, where she chronicles her eats and travels adventures between Hawai'i, New York and beyond. She firmly believes that there is always room for dessert.