Monday, June 8, 2009

Tasting the competition

MS, the illustrious office manager of Billy's, just returned from a weekend in LA. And in the cupcake world, LA doesn't mean Hollywood and movie stars-- it means Sprinkles. So she brought us all back Sprinkles cupcakes to try.

At the bakery I sampled the vanilla-vanilla (relatively tasteless frosting; weird gummy cake; surprisingly delicious white sprinkles) and the chocolate-vanilla (yummy chocolate cake; good frosting with tiny little chocolate squares sprinkled on top). But I took home her real gift for me: the red velvet.

The Sprinkles cupcakes are shaped like Crumbs cupcakes, with a flat-ish top and their signature Sprinkles dot on top (note to readers: do NOT eat this dot. MS warned me but I ate it anyway. It was truly disgusting). The chocolatey cake was an understated russet reddish-brown, which was appealing. And the frosting looked promisingly sugar-crusted.

Like a giant single bloodshot eye

A bite revealed a tasty mixture. The cake had a very large crumb, which made it not necessarily dry but very springy, if that makes sense. The frosting was delicious, sugary with a hint of cream cheese (Billy's cream cheese frosting is definitely cream-cheesier, which I think gives it a delightful tang). Together, the two elements were more than the sum of their parts and quite yummy.

Large crumb. Pretty red.

I finished this cupcake easily, although I must admit it gave me a bit of a weird-stomach-feeling afterwards (don't know why. Maybe the red dye?). Overall, I'd say that the Sprinkles red velvet was "Solid." But I still like Billy's better.

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