Flour Bakery + Cafe

For quite some time, I've been salivating over a particular episode of "Throwdown with Bobby Flay" on the Food Network: the one in which Joanne from Flour Bakery + Cafe bests Flay in the battle for the nation's best sticky bun. According to the Flour website, they contain "dark, sticky caramel and toasted pecans."Luckily for me, I attended college in the greater Boston area, where Flour Bakery is located. Unluckily, the massive $2.75 sticky buns sell out bright and early each morning, and I've never woken up early enough to commute to one of the bakery's two locations. But, judging from the photo above, I can easily understand why they're so popular!

Today, my friend Emily and I went to the Flour Bakery location in the South End for an afternoon snack: Emily opted for a decaf iced coffee with soy milk and the "Chunky Lola" cookie. If I recall correctly, the giant cookie was full of chocolate chunks, pecans, oats, and coconut:Hovering over the glass display case, I immediately honed in on the gargantuan Boston Cream Pie/Cake hybrid......because, when you're in Boston, if you can't have an enormous award-winning sticky bun, a slab of a Boston dessert classic is a welcome stand-in: