The Cupcake Diaries

Over the course of the past week, I've eaten approximately five cupcakes. It seems that I'm finally coming close to meeting my recommended daily cupcake intake. Here's how they stacked up against each other:

Babycakes

I finally had cupcakes from Babycakes, the all-vegan bakery on the Lower East Side that I've been wanting to try for a long time. I made the sacrifice and tried two to get a taste of both the chocolate and vanilla gluten-free versions. The cake was slightly denser and drier than most cupcakes. I think this might make some people say that it tastes like health food, but I really do think that if you did a blind taste-test, you wouldn't be able to guess that it's vegan and sugar free. Some kind of agave is used instead of sugar, I thought that the icing (the key part of any cupcake for me) was really good. It had a nice sweetness without being cloying.

Magnolia

I was in the vicinity of Magnolia shortly after my Babycakes experience and decided that it was only fair to pick up a couple and do a true comparison. These really are the gold standard. There's a slight vanilla/ almond taste to the cake, and the frosting is super sugary. Normally I stick with the vanilla cupcakes here, but the vanilla cake/ chocolate frosting combo was surprisingly good.

Crumbs

I ended off the week with some belated-birthday cupcakes that I got for my mom from Crumbs. These really can't be considered true cupcakes. They're so huge, and come in so many crazy flavor combinations, that they're more like small individual layer cakes. We sampled from three: Rasberry Swirl, Red Velvet, and some kind of Strawberry Valentine's flavor.