Claire’s Corner Copia

Following my fabulous pizza lunch, I set out to find Claire’s Corner Copia in New Haven, which ended up being only a block from Bar. I came across a review on Serious Eats of the Lithuanian Coffee Cake from Claire’s. I fully intended to get myself a slice.

Upon entering, I was not prepared for the array of 20 different cakes and cookies in addition to the coffee cake. I suddenly had a wealth of options, ranging from vegan chocolate cupcakes to raspberry thumbprint cookies, chocolate chip ricotta cake, and two kinds of carrot cake.

The friendly and smiling girl behind the counter, Ana, helped me through my indecision. She too has an affinity for carrot cake with a thick layer of good cream cheese frosting and said theirs is excellent.

Ultimately though, I decided to go with the best seller. This cake is different from traditional coffee cake in that this one is actually made with coffee. A sour cream bundt cake is filled with a ring of raisins, walnuts, brown sugar and coffee grounds and topped with a wonderfully sweet buttercream frosting.

The cake part is modestly sweet and not overly rich, which leaves room for plenty of decadence in the frosting and the filling. The coffee grounds lent a unique flavor to the filling, which is moist and syrupy due to the brown sugar mixture. The frosting is my favorite grainy, sugary vanilla buttercream. I would not be opposed to more of both the filling and frosting. It was fun and new, but I am excited to try many of the other confections.

Claire’s is also a full kosher and vegetarian restaurant, with dishes you can eat in their cute cafe or take to go. But the cakes and other sweets are definitely what will bring me back very soon.

Claire’s Corner Copia
1000 Chapel Street
New Haven, CT