Parisi Bakery – Astoria

I walk past this bakery most days after the gym, but before I get called a variety of unsavory things by less than stellar men. The smell of bread escapes from the door and then my eyes roll for the next 10 blocks home. The struggle is real. And while Parisi is known for its amazing bread, they also have butter cookies, canolis, and rainbow cookies, like every great Italian bakery should. But Parisi is Greek, because I live in Astoria. And they also have cupcakes. They aren’t a featured product, but this is New York, so the small serving at the bottom of the case was crying out for me to take them home. So I did. And I tasted.

Parisi has several different kinds (Canolli Cupcake, Red Velvet, Cookies & Cream) but I went with the staples: Chocolate and Vanilla. They both have a great presentation, perfectly domed tops with smooth frosting application and good sprinkle placement around the edges. The chocolate cake was dry, with a very subtle chocolate flavor. Definitely not what we are looking for in a chocolate cupcake. On first bite, you taste the bland cake, since there is much more cake an frosting, which immediately had me reaching for my milk. The dry cake completely took away from the frosting, which was also not my favorite. It was too sweet and I couldn’t taste a vanilla frosting. It just tasted like sugar; it wasn’t creamy or buttery, just sweet. The overly sweet frosting, dry cake, and poor cake:frosting ratio, makes this a bland cupcake.

The vanilla cupcake was a totally different story. The cake was moist, buttery, and had a good golden color. And it tasted like vanilla. The chocolate frosting paired with it had a good milk chocolate flavor but there just wasn’t enough of it for the cake. The lack of frosting created a dry taste after a few bites, even when the cake was great. This cupcake was good and it could have been great, if there was more frosting, and it hadn’t come from a refrigerated case.

The pastry cases of Parisi are full and inviting, bursting with all the things I stuff my face with when I visit my boyfriend’s family in Long Island (hello, Rainbow Cookies). I will always be tempted by the bread and cookies, but not the cupcakes.

Parisi Brothers Bakery
3017 Broadway, Queens, NY 11106

Flavors
Chocolate with Vanilla Frosting $2.75
Vanilla with Chocolate Frosting $2.75

Chocolate cupcake score
Presentation 4/5
First Bite 3/5
Cake 2/5
Frosting 2/5
Cake:Frosting Ratio 1/5
Total 12/25

Vanilla cupcake score
Presentation – 4/5
First Bite 3/5
Cake 4/5
Frosting 3/5
Cake:Frosting Ratio 1/5
Total 15/25