Sugar Rush: Chocolate-Pecan Pies at Butter Lane

[Photograph: Kathy YL Chan]

Say hello to pie, one of the few non-cupcake items offered on occasion at Butter Lane. I like these even better than their cupcakes, so let's hope they expand the pie repertoire. It's no looker, and even the girl who sliced up this wedge ($4) noted how difficult it was to cut a clean piece. But it's worth it. It's cake and pie mashed into one with a thin sugar cookie crust, a pie "filling" of dense chocolate and a gooey pecan topping that could pass for salted caramel. It oozes and sinks into every nook and cranny of that chocolate cake. Sometimes the ugliest things are the most delicious.

Butter Lane Cupcakes

123 East 7th Street, New York, NY 10009 (map) 212-677-2880
butterlane.com