Sprinkles

I’m not really sure where my obsession for cupcakes came from but I was definitely into them before I moved to New York. And Sprinkles was the first trendy cupcake I had during my Pre-NY life. Hailing from Los Angeles, they became the first choice of celebs and trendy people so naturally I bought into the hype. I took a trip to their original store with my best college friends and after talk of liposuction and personal trainers we each walked away with 4 cupcakes. Did we each need 4 cupcakes? Probably not, but this was college, and we were athletes, so calories don’t count. Having always had a pretty picky palate when it comes to baked goods, I can honestly say I wasn’t impressed. The cupcakes were dry, there wasn’t enough frosting, and I would have rather spent my money on chocolate. Or vodka. Because college.

Sprinkles has been here in New York for awhile now, and I think my initial reaction is what has kept me from going. Except that one time I had a cupcake for breakfast. Because when you have rowing practice at 5am and you forgot a granola bar a cupcake just seems like the next logical supplement. Obviously. I had 2 from here because the first one was awful. I’m all for giving second chances, and I’m glad I did because the second one I had was incredible. First I went with a Chocolate Marshmallow and I definitely expected more chocolate and a whole lot of marshmallow. It looked pretty enough, pretty uniform decoration, covered in ganache. Upon first bite I seriously did a double take because I was not prepared for this. There was not much chocolate flavor, it was dry, and there definitely wasn’t enough frosting. And I’m including the marshmallow filling too. There was barely any in there which left my cupcake feelings deflated. The ganache covering the top actually had great flavor; rich and chocolaty, but there was so little of it that it did nothing to save itself from the dry cake. There was definitely too little ganache and marshmallow filling, and there wasn’t really any balance of flavors. I was definitely not impressed. But I decided to try again. There can’t be such a huge following for such a lackluster cake.

Whoa, guys. Whoa. I think I get it. I think I may have had the best red velvet cupcake of my life. Seriously amazing. Great balance, good flavor combinations, the cake really shines with frosting as an aftermath. But everything works! Oh man! I am so happy. The cake itself had great flavor, a moist crumb, no dryness at all, and a really nice coloring for red velvet. No one wend dye crazy when making this cupcake. The frosting was creamy and had a perfect tanginess. This cupcake had the best cake:frosting ratio of any cupcake I’ve tried so far; nice balance that you can really taste all the elements of the cake. Thank you, Sprinkles for securing my faith in the Red Velvet cupcake world.

Sprinkles
780 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY

Flavors
Chocolate Marshmallow
Red Velvet

Price
$3.75

Chocolate Marshmallow
Presentation: 4/5
First Bite: 2/5
Cake: 2/5
Frosting: 2.5/5
Cake: Frosting Ratio:1.5/5
Overall: 12/25

Red Velvet
Presentation: 4/5
First Bite: 4/5
Cake: 4.5/5
Frosting: 5/5
Cake: Frosting Ratio:5/5
Overall: 22.5/25