Cupcakes: Crumbs vs. Sprinkles vs. Magnolia Bakery

Cupcakes: All the fad these days, I tend to eat them a lot. Before I moved to Dallas, Magnolia Bakery had always been my favorite. I heard of it from my aunt that lived in NYC, and also saw it on Sex and the City, so I had to try it. Their cupcakes were the best I'd ever had.. chocolate or vanilla, moist delicious centers, and buttercream frosting that was out of this world. The thing about them that really drew me in was the pastel colored frosting and dot sprinkles. Then I tasted the rich, creamy, delicious frosting, and was in love. This was the best spot in New York.. and for only $1.75 a cupcake, I could handle that. Plus, it gave me a reason to go into Greenwich Village and celebrity hunt :) I went to the bakery 1 or 2 times every time I was in NYC, and ate at least 2 cupcakes each time. My sister even got me the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook for my birthday!

Then I moved to Dallas... I was reading a magazine article about how Sprinkles cupcakes were one of Oprah's favorite things, and it said there was a location in Dallas. I immediately went and found where it was, and went to try it. That Oprah girl don't lie :-P There was a line out the door, and the place looked very plain. I wasn't impressed so far.. I liked the quaintness of Greenwich Village and the little blue awning at Magnolia. This place was in a strip mall and looked like it only had 5 flavors of cupcakes. So, I waited in the line until it was my turn to look at the flavor options. Lemon Coconut...Smores..White/Black...Strawberry.. hmm, these flavors sounded better than the plain vanilla and chocolate at Magnolia. I guess I'd give it a try. Well, lemon and coconut are two of my favorite flavors, so that's the cupcake I went with. After giving the lady my name and waiting for a minute, she announced that'd it'd be $3.25...$3.52 if I wanted to eat in the store. WHAT?! For a cupcake!? Well, this didn't please me. Magnolia cupcakes were only $1.75 and for that price, they tasted better, too!! The Sprinkles Cupcake ended up being very delicious, and I've gone back 100 times since then. I even spent almost $50 for a dozen for Thanksgiving. They're good cupcakes, and the flavor combinations are superb.

This brings me to the present..I am in NYC again and haven't visited Magnolia. Upon mentioning that I wanted to order cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery, I'm ambushed by people in the room telling me that I need to try Crumbs Bakery, because it's SO much better than Magnolia. So, we order Crumbs. After checking the website, this place doesn't just have cupcakes. They have brownies and cookies and ice cream and cakes and all kinds of stuff! Their cupcake selection is the same everyday (unlike Sprinkles who has a rotating schedule of flavors) and they have the most flavors of all the bakeries....50 different flavors!! They have cupcakes with M&Ms on them, Oreos, Butterfingers, Nestle Crunch, Elvis flavored, etc. Hmm.. this is starting to look like a candy store. I just like cake and frosting on my cupcakes! But, I do LOVE peanut butter cups, so I got the peanut butter cup cupcake. Long story short, the cupcake was amazingly rich, but delicious. I ate the entire thing in less than 2 minutes.

I thought I'd be able to compare these three bakeries and decide on the best cupcake, but it's an impossible task. I never tasted the same type of cupcake from each place, so I can't compare apples to apples. I need to get a vanilla cupcake from each place and taste them side by side to make an accurate decision.

However- I can tell you the best part of all the places.

Sprinkles- Their cream cheese frosting is TO DIE FOR. Enough said
Magnolia- The cupcake as a whole tastes amazing. Simple and delicious
Crumbs- Great selection and variety. Definitely your most creative, but having a big menu usually means you can't make them all well.


So, moral of the story.... I ate about 50 cupcakes while trying to decide which was the best, gained 10 lbs, and never made a decision.