My body might be back from my trip to Argentina, but my stomach is still firmly in South America. My friends and I had the requisite beef and Malbec (more on that later), but we also regularly indulged in dulce de leche, which I am still craving. In Buenos Aires we got our fix at the heladerías (ice cream shops), the best of which was Freddo. The shop has locations throughout the city, and their menu has a separate section just for dulce de leche flavors. (My kind of place.) But my favorite vehicle for the milky caramel was alfajores, a traditional South American sandwich cookie with dulce de leche filling. The best ones we had came from our hotel in Patagonia, Edenia. Opened in 2007, the modern, minimalist hotel is located away from the touristy bustle of downtown Calafate and has panoramic views of Lago Argentino. Its alfajores were crispier and less cakey than the ones in Buenos Aires, and I only wish I had packed some to bring home.  

I’ll be blogging this week about discoveries from my recent eight-day trip to London. The city was buzzing with pop-up restaurant/design projects, ambitious new hotels and hip new British comfort food joints. One of my favorite finds was at the Berkeley hotel, which just introduced the fall/winter collection of its super-popular Prêt-à-Portea (the menu changes every six months to reflect the new fashion season). This haute-couture-inspired tea service features edible designs inspired by Christian Lacroix, Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior. Adorable confections include a Roger Vivier chocolate boot cookie, a Mulberry "Bayswater" white-chocolate-and-coconut-truffle "it" bag and a cinnamon Burberry Prorsum trench-coat cookie with a caramel belt and buttons. All are served on Paul Smith china alongside a proper cup of English tea.

To end my week of candy obsession, here are a few people and situations deserving of special recognition.

Most Candy-Obsessed Chef—Jonathan Waxman. I’m not sure that he eats more candy than I do, but his list of favorites is prodigious. They are, in no order: M&M Peanuts, Planters Peanut Bar, Hershey Almond Bar, Snickers (frozen), Hershey Almond Kisses, Twix, Butterfinger, Almond Joy, Reeses Peanut Butter Cup.

Most Unexpected Trick-or-Treat Spot—Soho House New York. Chef Neil Ferguson reports that last year some 200 kids came through the restaurant—on the 6th floor of a private club. In the course of offering up all that candy, Ferguson got addicted to Sour Patch Kids. ("If you have a tough day, you can bite their heads off and not feel bad about it," he says.) My question: How did the kids get past the doorman?

Best Candy for Parents—Gramercy Tavern’s Michael Anthony handed out GT's chocolate-covered pumpkin toffee.

As I’ve already mentioned, I have a new hero: Paul Rudnick, who, in a New York Times profile, revealed that he lives on candy. (Among his insights: Halloween is about free candy, not diet tips—i.e., people who “dare to put apples in trick-or-treaters' bags.”) He and writer David Colman stopped at the candy aisle of the Food Emporium, Li-Lac and the Hershey store. I wish he’d gone to Jacques Torres, which is my vision of chocolate utopia. For Halloween, Jacques has upped the ante, creating new bars like Monster Mash (a dark chocolate mash-up with Cheerios and corn flakes) and Creepy Crawlers (white chocolate with dark-chocolate-covered Rice Krispies). And Jacques is promising Grinch-themed chocolates for Christmas—just about the time I’ll have run out of Halloween candy.

Even though I’m always all about candy (like Paul Rudnick! In today’s New York Times!), I’ve decided to take a little break to salute alternative Halloween treats. Notably, the holiday-themed cookies and cakes at Bouchon Bakery. The TKOs—Thomas Keller Oreos—are now bat-shaped, with orange crème frosting (the black cocoa in the cookies makes them exactly dark enough to be bats). Sebastien Rouxel, exec pastry chef for TK restaurants has also decorated a big, fat pumpkin cupcake with enough airbrushed orange fondant to look just like a mini pumpkin. And then there’s the Fughedaboutit (I know, not a typical T. Keller name), a Rice Krispie treat with layers of sensational caramel, milk chocolate and fleur de sel. The pumpkin logo on the foil wrapper makes is just enough of a nod to the holiday to make it my new favorite thing for Halloween.

On a recent trip to Boston, I stayed at the adorable Beacon Hill Hotel, tucked away down Charles Street. Its 12 rooms are right above its street-level restaurant, the Bistro, which is run by Barbara Lynch alum Jason Bond. In addition to the excellent complimentary breakfast, which included vanilla pancakes and a thick French toast topped with spiced crème fraîche, chef Bond makes some of the best ice cream in town. My friend Katherine and I tasted our way through flavors like Ligurian Olive Oil and Banana Rum, but the flavor that had us coming back at midnight for a second scoop was the Chocolate Almond–Smoked Sea Salt, with a pudding-like texture and crunchy bits of cocoa nibs and toasted slivered almonds. Bond shared his secret: Valrhona Guanaha chocolate and Norwegian smoked sea salt. Thank goodness ice cream wasn't on the breakfast menu.

In the prime upper-right-hand quadrant of New York magazine's always awesome Approval Matrix this week: A super-adorable do-it-yourself lunch bag from Design*Sponge. Full details of the project, including a template and easy-to-follow instructions, can be found here. Here, F&W provides 10 great ideas on how to fill it, including Indian pulled-chicken sandwiches, meat loaf club sandwiches and nutty apple pie bars (pictured).

In our October issue, we preview new baking books out this fall that celebrate easy American desserts. Here, we offer 10 new ideas for the all-American apple pie, like a double-crust version, flaky apple crostatas (pictured), and crispy apple dumplings made with frozen puff-pastry sheets. More Excellent Desserts: 10 superb American desserts, like minty baked Alaska and red velvet cake with caramel-coated pecans

If you've ever wondered what wine would be best with red velvet or chocolate cupcakes, James Roth of the wine shop Red, White & Bleu in Falls Church, Virginia, is your man. His motto is, "If you can eat it, you can pair it." So the Falls Church News-Press put him up to the challenge of pairing eight different flavored cupcakes with wines. The results were fascinating-for example, a dark-chocolate ganache with an Argentinean Malbec. Try some cupcake pairings yourself with some of my favorite F&W recipes:

Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes
Lemon Meringue Cupcakes
Devil's Food Cupcakes with Espresso Meringue
Angel Food Cupcakes with Raspberry Swirl
Double Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Filling

Andrew Sessa, senior editor at F&W's sister magazine Departures, is adamant that the mini Bundt cake is going to steal the cupcake's role as the darling of the dessert world. "People like cupcakes because they're cute, and individual sized, and, maybe most importantly, vaguely nostalgic," says Sessa. "They're a throwback to mom's kitchen, and mid-century Donna Reed Americana. Mini bundts hit all the same notes, and I think, are even cuter and certainly have an even stronger sense of that nostalgia."T he recreational baker adores the adorable round cakes so much that he has started his own company— Bundt, a Bakery  — which debuted last weekend at Brooklyn’s new Greenpoint Food Market. Sessa will be selling a rotating selection of seasonally inspired mini Bundt cakes, like Guinness Ginger Spice and Oatmeal Cranberry Crunch, for $4 each. The best-seller over the weekend was the zingy Caipirinha Sling. I couldn’t get enough of the supermoist Carrot Cake Bundt, which can be ordered with an extra shot of white chocolate–cream cheese buttercream frosting for $1 more.