I used to have an aversion to "designer" anything until I realized that certain designers actually do have their act together and produce well-thought out, and well-constructed goods. How that applies to cupcakes is dubious at best because a cupcake is a cupcake is a cupcake, right?
Judging from the consistently long queues at their recently opened shop in the Stanford Shopping Center, apparently lots of people think that Sprinkles is the next best thing to sliced...er, cupcakes. And at $3.25 a pop, lots of people apparently think that they're worth it. Far from being a penny-pinching Scrooge when it comes to food, I stopped to buy a dozen and a half as a treat for the team that I manage in my real job and the reviews were mixed. And given that, how do they really stack up?
Sprinkles heavily emphasizes their sustainable ingredients, and nigh-upon-organic stance which is commendable. Ultimately, I think that often results in a tastier anything, including their cupcakes. They are all about freshness as well; frankly if they weren't then they'd just be a Hostess subsidiary. They remind you that the cupcakes are best eaten on the day you buy them. Sure. They even go the lengths to request that their front door be continually closed in order to preserve the temperature and humidity inside the shop to keep the 'cakes fresh. Ok.
Gaining a dozen is like ordering custom drapery. Overall, it's not painful but if you're in a hurry, you're not going to get that sweet, calming sugar rush like pronto. One of their elves (my term, not theirs) takes your order of the 12 or so varieties that they bake every day (they actually have 20+ varieties on their "menu" and several other specials that don't appear anywhere except on their daily special board) then relays it to a different set of elves to carefully, meticulously, cautiously fill a boxful. I swear I saw them using a pair of those nuclear fuel-rod tongs to transfer some of the more exotic one to boxes... Elapsed time between ordering at the first elf and getting my 18 cupcakes was about 12 minutes - nearly 40 seconds per cupcake. Fortunately, checkout is not done serially to that. 18 cupcakes cost me about $55.00.
The folks eating these cupcakes this day were prone to sharing (using knives to keep things semi-antiseptic) so I had a chance to taste several of the varieties. One could break them down into three basic types: not frosted, lightly frosted and moderately caked (that is, way too much frosting).
The absolutely gut-churning type was the over-frosted. Sweet without relent, the frosting was the flavor and the cake merely a crumbly vehicle to carry it, which is unfortunate because the cake is perhaps the most consistent and best part of all three. Nearly everyone who had one (or part of one) ended up scraping off at least half of the frosting. One person chose not to and I haven't seen him since. About two-thirds of their selections are in this category, so you're probably better off spending $5-$6 for a half dozen at your local chain supermarket because the price reduction alone will make that soaring sugar rush much less financially painful.
The lightly frosted cakes were good overall - a nice balance between cake and sweet. This type included some interesting takes on convenience store fare (speaking of Hostess) with a moist dark chocolate, cream-filled rendition. All that was missing was the squiggle of white icing on top. It is perhaps unfair to make the comparison, but these completely blew away any notion of scraping the cardboard card of excess chocolate cake-i-ness.
The best (and simplest) were the relatively UN-frosted cakes. This day's selection was the cinnamon sugar cupcake. The cake was allowed to shine through a light sheen of cinnamon-sugar dredge sprinkled on top. The cake, by the way, is consistently moist and fluffy and truly tastes fresh baked. Everything that Sprinkles purports to be resides in their cakes like this one. I could very easily eat a few of these in one sitting without feeling like I ate a half-pound of sugar.
The verdict? If you REALLY like sweet-sweeter-sweetest cupcakes, these are the ticket for you. But the balance of nearly all of the frosted ones is really unacceptably off putting. You'll start off really digging the experience but end up with an empty baker's cup full of regret. If you simply MUST pay $3.25 per, then go for the lighter, nearly-frosting-less ones. You can always buy a frosting "shot" to make yourself feel like you were back in the 2nd grade on bake sale day.
