Sprinkles Cupcakes – Sweets – Upper East Side
I had my first taste of the famous/infamous Sprinkles cupcake last year in their homeland of California when my boyfriend’s sister brought an anniversary cupcake cake to his parents’ party. My cupcake was yellow cake with chocolate frosting and a pink block letter of questionable edibility that seemed to be made of sugar but refused to melt in my mouth.
Hardcore New Yorkers will stand loyally behind their Magnolia Bakery cupcakes, but I prefer the much more elaborate/gluttonous cupcakes from Crumbs Bake Shop and really only go to Magnolia for the banana pudding, so I was completely open to trying Sprinkles. And it was fine. Not life-changing. Not make-me-move-to-California-immediately-ing. But fine.
Well, my friend Kim got a coupon to try four free Sprinkles cupcakes at the first NYC location in the Upper East Side, because she is the princess of New York City, and she invited me to try them with her, knowing that I’d insist on buying a couple more. The employees are very nice, and the store is veeeeery cute, with the trademark Sprinkles dots decorating the outside, bright colors everywhere, and enough low tables with corresponding ottomans that we didn’t feel any pressure to move for the couple of hours we sat there.
The cupcakes were still fine.
peanut butter chip
salty caramel
black and white
cinnamon sugar
My only complaint about Crumbs is that I feel like they spend so much time working on the filling and toppings that they forget to care about the cake; it usually tastes a couple of days old. My complaint about Magnolia is that it’s too simple; I can and have made their cupcakes at home myself. Sprinkles hits a nice balance between quality cake and quality toppings. The cake was fresh and moist, and the frostings and accoutrements were all creative. In the end, though, I missed the way Crumbs fills the cake with a dollop of frosting, and I missed the sheer size of the Crumbs cupcake. Sprinkles is good for people who want to splurge without bursting their bellies, and that ain’t me.
There’s one reason I might choose Sprinkles over Crumbs in the future, though. The drinking chocolate:
It’s bittersweet Belgian chocolate with a vanilla bean marshmallow, so rich and dense you feel like you’re wearing a mouthguard of hot chocolate when you’re finished with it. The marshmallow was so thick that it lasted almost to the end of the cup, making each sip creamy and flavorful.
780 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10065 map)
14 Comments
kimz
Tom’s cousin just sent me a picture of the peanut butter chip cupcake on Tuesday. I was ready to jump through my computer to try and eat it. Some people will do anything for a cupcake.
Joel
Mmmmmm… “Mouthguard of hot chocolate”
donuts4dinner
One of my dining companions said “liquid pork” the other night when describing a dish. I thought of you.
Elliepie
I’ve never been to any of these places, but you hit on my complaint about the cupcake shop that opened not long ago in Florence, SC. Great toppings, interesting ideas about cupcakes, dry, dead cake. Tastes stale and old. This is a big problem for me.
Can we also talk about a TV show I’ve never seen? Cupcake wars? Like all cake shows, I assume it’s about sculpting with sugar and fondant, which tastes like crap, and not at all about good cake.
That was also my big complaint about Bridesmaids. That scene where Kristen Wiig made cupcakes, she was like flinging around butter and flour. But that is NOT how good bakers bake. Good bakers are exacting – as exacting with their flour (I use a digital scale) as they are with their stupid little fondant flowers.
Jessica R.
Actually, taste is one of the main criteria for judging at cupcake wars. The first round is 100% judged on taste and the second round is 50% on taste. Can you tell I watch too much Food Network?
Dishy
I’m waiting for a place that serves peanut butter & bacon cupcakes – low sodium of course! Until then I just can’t be satisfied.
Mere
If you ever make it down here, where there is a Gigi’s, you can try theirs. It’s regualar size cake, but a MOUNTAIN of icing. I love icing, but I have been known to cut about half of it off because it is SO MUCH. But the Pink Lemonade is delicious. And they are very particular about the presentation.
http://gigiscupcakesusa.com/
Mrs. Bachelor Girl
And I, on the other hand, would be perfectly happy if cupcake shops would just fill those fluted paper liners with frosting and call it a day.
Mere
Bacon cupcake?
http://gigiscupcakesusa.com/canadianmaple
Mrs. Bachelor Girl
I agree that Sprinkles’ are not the greatest cupcakes in the world (although they are pretty good, and let’s face it, a “bad” cupcake is kind of like “bad” pizza and “bad” sex), but I will always be grateful to them for starting the cupcake craze, which has led to little ol’ Shreveport, LA, having something like eight gourmet “cupcakeries” to serve my gluttonous needs.
Kim
I love that I’m such a horrendous (non)blogger now that you link to my much more prolific Twitter.
Also, there are s’mores cupcakes (by Blake Lively!!!11!) at Sprinkles right now, so I have to go back. And prob get another black and white one as well, since that was (unexpectedly, being so simple) my favorite of the ones we tried.
I agree with you re Crumbs v. Sprinkles and the superior cake quality. I feel like Sprinkles should (and does, I suppose) have an edge because of it, but when I got 4 GIANT RIDICULOUS MOUNTAINOUS (sp? word at all?) Crumbs cupcakes for my birthday I was waaaaaay more excited than I ever have been for Sprinkles.
My goal for this spring/summer is to make sure as much of my food as possible is acquired from trucks. Including truckcakes. In?
Jessica R.
I tried the Sprinkles in Dallas and was over the moon about their coconut one. The cake itself was divine, which is one of the reasons I think I loved it so much.
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