Billy brings chocolate to my life

The other day, after an office-wide meeting at work, I snagged a cupcake from Billy's Bakery for consumption later that evening. As I've mentioned before, Billy's is owned by one of the managers at my firm, so Billy's baked goods are ever-present at office gatherings. Which is a good thing-- trust me here-- because, even though I may not be entirely unbiased, I contest that Billy's makes a damn good cupcake.

This particular specimen was a chocolate cupcake with green-colored vanilla buttercream. The cupcake itself was medium-sized--definitely not a mini-cupcake, but also not softball-sized like Crumbs cupcakes. There were purple and black sprinkles dotting the swirled frosting.

Sprinkles riding the tumultuous sea of frosting

As is my habit, I cut the cupcake in half to reveal the interior and took a bite of the cake. This was a very, very mild chocolate cake. The chocolate flavor was incredibly light, almost fleeting, and the crumb was a touch dry and fantastically fluffy. If you prefer fudgy chocolate cake, this is not the cake for you. In the overall scheme of dessert textures, it's closer to the "cotton candy" end of the spectrum than to a dense brownie.

Good structural integrity to this cake

The frosting was the best part-- a smooth, creamy, very sweet classic buttercream. It's definitely the kind of frosting I like (i.e., not the intensely buttery kind, like that of the Cupcake Cafe), and it has that appealing thin sugary crust that indicates a healthy sugar content. Billy's cupcakes tend to vary somewhat in the amount of frosting they have, but I selected this particular prey due to its ample frosting smear. So there was certainly enough to go around as I made my way through the cake.

Nice thick layer of frosting

I finished this cupcake in a few lovely minutes. It was a delightful little treat-- the right size to satisfy you without making you feel as though you just ingested an actual softball (ahem, Crumbs). I tend to think Billy's vanilla cupcakes are better compared to other vanilla cupcakes than its chocolate ones are in the macro world of chocolate cupcakes-- but I think that's because it's really hard to compete with Amy's Bread black-and-white cupcakes. Nonetheless, if light and fluffy chocolate cake is your thing, you absolutely can't go wrong with a Billy's chocolate cupcake. And if you make your way down to their shop in Chelsea, don't forget to grab a slice of banana cake for dessert the next day. You absolutely won't be sorry.

Billy's Bakery
184 9th Avenue
212-647-9956