This past Saturday was my birthday, so I spent most of the day indulging in a little pampering with fellow NYC Metblogger Melissa. First, we had a laid-back brunch at the Pink Pony. I had a little surprise in store for Melissa that involved sweets a little later, so I stuck to the savory side for my meal, but Melissa tried a sandwich with peanut butter, honey, and banana that I’ll definitely be going back to try. I really liked the place – tasty food, nice atmosphere, and not too horribly expensive.

Next we headed over to sugar Sweet sunshine, a small bakery started by two former Magnolia Bakery employees. I had heard good things about their cupcakes, and had sampled a couple of their brownies and blondies (the Scutterbotch blondie is ridiculously good), so I decided to shower my party guests with a few dozen assorted cupcakes. With flavors like pistachio, pumpkin, lemon, and red velvet (which is a wicked good cupcake!), you can’t really go wrong. They even decorated a couple of the cupcakes for me at no charge.

After breathing in bakery goodness for a bit, we headed over to Bliss for Melissa’s surprise – the Double Chocolate Pedicure. I’ve been going to Bliss for years, and they always manage to exceed my expectations, especially at the SoHo location (for example, the last pedicure I got from them lasted an entire month). This pedicure is freaking amazing – they soak your feet in chocolate milk to soften them up, give your feet and calves a good scrubbing and exfoliation with a sugar scrub, and then massage, buff, and paint your toes perfectly. And while they’re doing all that, they give you chocolate ice cream with brownies on top! We were both in some sort of chocolate zen trance by the end of it.

All in all, a very sweet way to spend a Saturday in NYC.