Jane’s Sweet Buns in East Village – Robust, Liquor-Infused Pastries

Bakery front, Neon sign, and Interior

A little more than a week ago, Jane’s Sweet Buns opened its doors to the public, baking cocktail inspired pastries and cakes and serving it to the public. Cienfuegos mixologist, Jane Danger is the red-headed temptress behind these goods and yes, she can bake very well. (I’ll get into detail a little later.)

Born and raised in the Midwest and learned how to bake by Martha Stewart, she hit her stride over the years baking cakes for friends and recently, adding liquor to make more interesting to adults.

Sheet pans of liquor-infused buns and a few of their tartletts

Entering this eclectic decorated bakery that looks sweet and colorful from the white and yellow stripes with strawberries printed on every other white stripe; to the little bit of naughty from seeing a small watercolor of a woman clad in vintage lingerie with bartender knickknacks and vintage liquor posters on the opposite wall. I can’t explain it but it does fits right in the neighborhood.

Anyway, the other thing that hits you beyond the decor, is the wonderful aroma of warm cinnamon and sweet, yeast buns. It’s very welcoming and it won me over.

I walked over to the display case and the bakery does live up to its mission of having cocktail-inspired baked goods. Seeing names of the sweets like the Old Fashioned, Rum Runner, and Harvey Wallbanger, you have a pretty good feeling this isn’t the typical bakery filled with colorful frosted cupcakes and sugar cookies. Even talking to the proprietress Jane for a couple of minutes, she surely isn’t going to do that anytime soon. (And thank goodness, I’m sick of seeing more cupcake bakeries popping up in Manhattan!)

Pastries to be eaten

Of course, I cannot leave there empty-handed and brought the Old Fashioned, Rum Runner, and the Southern Special. The bakery’s signature The Old Fashioned was pretty damn delicious. A decadent, buttery, cinnamon-y sticky bun densely topped in huge pecans, coated in a caramel flavored with bourbon, sugar, vanilla, and Angostura bitters. The Rum Runner is similar to the Old Fashioned – a very good, gooey, plump raisins that were infused aged rum and Galliano.

My absolute favorite of the three pastries I tried is the Southern Special. This enormous (as in the size of a dessert plate) sweet-savory pastry that has a similar yeast dough as the Old Fashioned but a lot less sweeter and not as puffy. The first thing I tasted was smoky, salty bacon and the white cheddar then the sweet elements (bourbon, brown sugar, and nectarine), rolled in later. Funnily enough, Jane said this was her interpretation of the McGriddle and she admitted she never had one. I haven’t eaten McDonald’s for more than half my life and obviously, I can’t vouch for that either but all I can tell you this was kick-butt amazing. And I don’t mind eating a sheet pan full of this particular pastry everyday.

Head over to this bakery now and get some amazing, booze-infused pastries. But save some Southern Specials for me, please.

To see more photos of my visit here, please scroll through my slideshow below:

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Information:
Jane’s Sweet Buns
Website: http://janessweetbuns.com
102 St. Mark’s Place (between 1st Avenue & Avenue A)
New York, NY 10009 (Map)
Telephone (212) 777-6707
Hours:
Sunday to Tuesday 11 AM – 10 PM
Wednesday & Thursday 11 AM – 11 PM
Friday & Saturday 11 AM to 12 AM