If you’re anywhere near the normie corners of the internet, you have heard of dotcake. The simple cake topped with buttercream frosting and nonpareils has hungry trend-eaters in a frenzy.
Videos on TikTok have amassed millions of views. Food & Wine called it every sprinkle lover’s dream. Publix, Crumbl, and even 5-Hour Energy want in. Dupes are cropping up in cities across the US, from Los Angeles to Boston. Vogue says we’re having a dotcake summer.
Long Island-based bakery The Dotcakes has been selling their eponymous treat exclusively to Butterfield Market locations in New York City since September. Lines for these single-serving indulgences begin at 6 a.m., sometimes earlier. Millions of viewers around the world are watching videos of people dragging and tapping their plastic spoons on the cake’s sprinkled shield before digging into the very normal-looking vanilla cake and frosting.
Copycats and artistic interpretations have exploded into the socialsphere in recent weeks as bakeries, coffee shops, restaurants, and even nail techs are eager to seize the moment. One of these is Yonkers Cafe, a bakery at 3815 Noriega St. in the Outer Sunset.
Elsewhere around the city, food places are dot-ifying whatever they got. Boichik Bagels, this week, announced a very dotcake-esque iced latte, which is topped with strawberry cream and the obligatory nonpareils. Inner Richmond ice cream joint Toy Boat by Jane has made their own dotcake sundae, featuring soft serve in place of buttercream.
Yonkers, in addition to its humble subs business, advertises hard-in-the-paint confectious interpretations of internet trends such as Dubai chocolate and caramel apple cups. A month after the dotcakes craze took over New York (and not a minute too soon by San Francisco standards), Yonkers Cafe dropped their dotcakes this week. Sure, taking the N out there may feel as long as a flight to JFK, but at least you won’t have to brave a lengthy line.
Save yourself the trip. I ordered two flavors, vanilla and chocolate, and was handed two to-go soup cups with nothing but cake shoved into them — no icing or dots. It was a physical manifestation of sad trombone.
Really, if you’re looking for some moist cake with icing and nonpareils on top, your best bet is going into a panaderia for some cortadillo. This traditional pan dulce, also known as Mexican pink cake, is essentially a dotcake sliced into a rectangle or triangle instead of served in an individually-portioned cup. No wonder so many Mexican-Americans are scoffing at the dotcake trend.
A Dotcakes dotcake will run you $8 at their Long Island shop and $11 in Manhattan, per the New York Times. Yonkers’ was $6. My perfect cortadillo from La Victoria at 3249 24th St cost me $2.
