A baked-good nod to Passover

With Passover winding down, I felt it appropriate to celebrate by indulging in a special Passover cupcake from Crumbs. So to Crumbs I trekked, and after dinner, I unwrapped my quarry.

I had chosen a Raspberry Red Sea cupcake, since I'd read great reviews of it online. It's a regular Crumbs-sized cupcake (read: size and heft of a softball), with a nut cake base, raspberry vanilla cream cheese frosting, raspberry preserves filling, and a decoration of sliced almonds and "raspberry drizzle" (a.k.a. red gel).

The behemoth

Cross-section-- frosting smearage is hiding the preserves filling

The verdict? Actually quite good. The main attribute of the cake, like many flourless concoctions, was "crumbly." The thing pretty much fell apart in my hands. But if you're not expecting traditional Crumbs cake (spongy, bouncy, resilient), it's inoffensive, with a mildly sweet nutty flavor. There's too much of it, of course-- I lopped off the bottom half of the cake to no ill effect. The combination of the frosting and filling, however, was where the cupcake shined. The frosting was sweet without being cloying, and the raspberry preserves led needed moisture to the cake. I personally felt there were too many almonds on top, and the "raspberry drizzle" didn't really add much beyond visual interest. But once I developed a technique to create perfect bites of a bit of cake, a bit of filling, and a dollop of frosting (denuded of the almonds), I was quite happy with the creation.

My guess is these holiday creations are going to retire soon, so if you're hankerin' for a bit of fruit-flavored flourless fun, head over to your local Crumbs ASAP.

Crumbs
Locations throughout Manhattan