Cocoa Bakery is open!

Originally scheduled to open last year, Cocoa Bakery, like so much of New Jersey, was devastated by Hurricane Sandy and has spent the better part of a year cleaning and rebuilding while appearing at farmers markets throughout Jersey City and filling custom orders, including fun and beautiful cakes. Midweek last week, they quietly reopened and they've now announced their grand opening for this weekend, culminating with Mayor Fulop attending a ribbon cutting at 5pm on Sunday, October 20th.

Located in a lower level space on Grand Street, with a bright and welcoming entrance patio cheerfully framed by potted plants, Cocoa Bakery has lots of room to sit and linger over coffee and pastries while admiring the busy workers in the kitchen and behind the counter. There is a sense of urban hominess with delicious smells of flour and sugar permeating the air, tempting your senses but what a worthwhile temptation it is.
I've been trying different items from Cocoa Bakery all year and have yet to be disappointed. Here are several of the amazing baked delights waiting for you - trust me, your mouth and mental well-being will thank you.

Cocoa Bakery's brownies set a new standard for what brownies should be. Made as a bar and excellent for sharing (or happily enjoy on your own), these are rich, more cakey then fudgy, with a deep, dark cocoa flavor that is infinitely satistying.

These pecan sticky buns have been on offer over the past couple of weeks since the bakery opened. Yeasted bread, sweet gooeyness, with the warming flavors of pecan and cinnamon, these are a wonderful way to start your day.

Cake truffles are known as one of Cocoa Bakery's specialties - they come in an array of flavors and are made of cake crumbs and frosting blended together, covered in the appropriate chocolate and rolled in very fine cookie crumbs. Pretty sizeable, they are a different but delicious way to enjoy cake with an intensity of flavor you wouldn't otherwise experience. I've only had this one (I believe it was a caramel nut), but I think it's well worth trying them all.

 

 I tried this recently and absolutely loved it - the chocolate almond cookie (gluten free).  It's sticky and dense, but with such elegant, layered flavor. The almonds weren't in giant pieces that I had to get through to enjoy the chocolate like so many other cookies, but beautifully worked in to become part of  the overall delicious flavor.

 And lastly, what has proven to be my favorite: coffee cake. These are individual cakes, reminiscent of a muffin, but somehow, so much better. The cake is always perfectly baked, never dry, with a somewhat dense but delicate crumb. It has one of the best cinnamon crumb toppings I've ever had, and it's not just added on top, but it's marbled within the cake itself, adding to the sweet, slightly salty deliciousness. I brought one in to work one day to split with a friend and within 5 minutes, had four people asking that I bring them in the next week for them to enjoy - that's how amazing they are. Everything about this is comforting, delicious, and satisfying.

There's so much more on offer at Cocoa Bakery and now that they're open, I can't wait to keep trying them all. Beyond sweet items, they also bake some savory goods (I recently saw a picture of cheese straws) and as I mentioned, create beautiful and unique custom cakes. I highly recommend following them on instagram or twitter to see their beautiful creations and keep in touch with what they are baking. While their prices are not exactly low, the quality and size of everything I've bought makes the cost well worth it. Please note they are looking for a barista if you know anyone looking for a job or who wishes to be trained.

Make sure to stop by this weekend to enjoy their Grand Opening, beginning at 8am Sunday at 275 Grand Street and congratulations to Cocoa Bakery!