Laura
10-11-2011, 02:43 AM
I'd heard about Sprinkles Cupcakes, but last week was my first time to visit, part of the reason being that going to the Upper East Side is a hardship for me both logistically and monetarily. Sprinkles claims to have been the first commercial cupcakery, and has since expanded into a chain with shops in several major US cities. Sprinkles' New York location is at 780 Lexington Ave. (http://www.sprinkles.com/cupcake-bakery-locations/new-york/), right across from Bloomingdales (which now has a satellite Magnolia Bakery within their store, about which I must someday write more. The artificially constructed Magnolia Bakery within Bloomingdales is probably larger than the original West Village location.)
Anyway, Sprinkles is easily recognizable from the street due to the colorful concentric circles which adorn the narrow building which they call home. Miniature hardened fondant renditions of some of these top some of the cupcakes therein. Truth be told, the shop is quite small for an enterprise so lucrative, an operation so professional, and a neighborhood so chi-chi.
A sort of rustic and small scale atmosphere is cultivated within the shop as well, the interior being primarily light wood paneling and the counter personnel being elfin Asian girls.
They've got all the standard cupcakes, plus two variants on the chocolate cupcake: deep dark chocolate (with Valrhona chocolate frosting) and chocolate marshmallow (which, alas, turned out to have a bollus of marshmallow creme in the middle as its sole claim to the title). I chose to sample the afore-mentioned two varieties of chocolate cupcake as well as the (seasonal) caramel apple flavor (http://www.sprinkles.com/gourmet-cupcake-flavors/calendar-october/caramel-apple-cupcake/), which bore an orange fondant ghost (nice touch!) atop a cream cheese based frosting which covered a competent spice cake within which were small sliced apples. I liked the caramel apple cupcake well enough and give it props for not bowing to the "hot" salted caramel trend, but hearking back to traditional ingredients and flavoring sensibilities. Rating A-.
The chai tea cupcake, however, appealed to my more sophisticated side, with chai spices suspended throughout the batter, and harmonizing surprisingly well when incorporated into the vanilla frosting.
My rating: A+. My highest compliment: I only hope I can reverse-engineer it.
Anyway, Sprinkles is easily recognizable from the street due to the colorful concentric circles which adorn the narrow building which they call home. Miniature hardened fondant renditions of some of these top some of the cupcakes therein. Truth be told, the shop is quite small for an enterprise so lucrative, an operation so professional, and a neighborhood so chi-chi.
A sort of rustic and small scale atmosphere is cultivated within the shop as well, the interior being primarily light wood paneling and the counter personnel being elfin Asian girls.
They've got all the standard cupcakes, plus two variants on the chocolate cupcake: deep dark chocolate (with Valrhona chocolate frosting) and chocolate marshmallow (which, alas, turned out to have a bollus of marshmallow creme in the middle as its sole claim to the title). I chose to sample the afore-mentioned two varieties of chocolate cupcake as well as the (seasonal) caramel apple flavor (http://www.sprinkles.com/gourmet-cupcake-flavors/calendar-october/caramel-apple-cupcake/), which bore an orange fondant ghost (nice touch!) atop a cream cheese based frosting which covered a competent spice cake within which were small sliced apples. I liked the caramel apple cupcake well enough and give it props for not bowing to the "hot" salted caramel trend, but hearking back to traditional ingredients and flavoring sensibilities. Rating A-.
The chai tea cupcake, however, appealed to my more sophisticated side, with chai spices suspended throughout the batter, and harmonizing surprisingly well when incorporated into the vanilla frosting.
My rating: A+. My highest compliment: I only hope I can reverse-engineer it.