Junior's Vanilla Buttercream and Vanilla Royal Icing on Vanilla Cake

Junior's Vanilla Cake with Vanilla Buttercream and Vanilla Royal Icing, Junior's Bakery, Grand Central, $3.50, http://www.juniorscheesecake.com/

Junior's Bakery sells gorgeous cupcakes that come in a vast rainbow of colors, but the multi-colors (yellow, green, pink, blue, purple, etc!) are all vanilla flavored (they also sell a chocolate frosted and a red velvet). I chose a yellow colored vanilla, and the application of frosting and sprinkles is generous and gorgeously and artistically done! I also have to tell you something AWESOME about Junior's cupcakes-- The top of the cake is first frosted in a white vanilla fondant or royal icing, and then rainbow sprinkles are pressed around the edges to make a border, and then a generous heaping of buttercream is swirled high on top of the rainbow sprinkle border atop the vanilla royal icing. So its a double dose of two types of icing, generously piled and thoroughly coated. That is going the extra mile!

Taste: We have a few elements at play here! The cake is a white cake, not overly flavorful, but very pleasant, light and very slightly sweet, similar to a sponge cake (maybe it is a sponge cake, for all I know). The buttercream frosting is also lightly sweet-- sweet enough that it's a delicious frosting, but not so sweet that it's too much to handle. There is a slight aftertaste to the frosting, which I attribute to the color dye that made it yellow. I'm really sensitive to aftertastes from artificial chemicals and color dyes, so for me, the aftertaste is definitely a problem. The royal icing coating the entire cupcake below the buttercream is delicious-- pure, white, sweet. The sweetness of the royal icing adds something important, because the cake and buttercream are both light and not ultra-sweet, so the extra sweetness of the royal icing adds a nice sugar kick without being over-the-top. The tastes here are so good, but I have to deduct a point for the slight aftertaste from the color dye in the buttercream-- my advice would be to choose the naturally white colored cupcake if you go to Junior's, and hopefully avoid any color dye aftertaste issues! Overall Taste Rating: 4 out of 5 sprinkles!!

Texture: The white cake is fluffy and moist-- the perfect cake texture in my opinion, because it's moist and yet the fluffiness gives the cake a lightness because it's moist without being dense. The texture of the buttercream is incredibly light as well-- the icing must be whipped, and it amazes me how a buttercream can be so light and fluffy so it doesn't feel dense at all. The frosting just melts in my mouth! The royal icing below the buttercream that coats the top of the cake is firm and hard, as royal icing is intended to cement the sprinkles, but softens in my mouth and coats my tongue with sugary goodness. It is perfectly smooth! Overall Texture Rating: 5 out of 5 sprinkles!! (I wish I could give it SIX sprinkles, all the textures were perfect!)

Aesthetic: This is just a spectacular looking cupcake, undeniably, and the array of cupcakes sold together from Junior's was really a fantastic sight in the beautiful rainbow of color options. The system of applying royal icing to the cupcake, applying a border of sprinkles, and then letting the royal icing dry and harden to hold the sprinkles in place is ingenius and gorgeous-- no sprinkles at risk of falling off these cupcakes! And the generous heaping of perfectly swirled, beautifully colored pastel buttercream in the center of the sprinkle border is so pleasing to the eyes. These cupcakes are large, the cake is perfectly golden, the proportions are perfect and there's not a thing messy, lopsided or awry with the appearance of this cupcake. Gorgeous! 5 out of 5 sprinkles!!!

Satisfaction: This was a great cupcake. Truly, my only problem with it was the slight aftertaste I experienced from the color dye, and I'm aware that I'm more sensitive to aftertastes of that kind than many other people are. Overall, the tastes and textures were perfect, the cupcake was beautiful, the price was reasonable for such a big cupcake, and the multiple types of icing and royal icing system for cementing the sprinkles really pleased me. The staff at Junior's on the top floor of Grand Central who sold me the cupcake were also so nice and friendly, and when I purchased the cupcake told me that they thought they had the best cupcakes in the city and I would love it. And they were right about me loving it! This cupcake was also lighter in every aspect than most other cupcakes I've reviewed, which are richer and denser, and so the light whipped icing and light fluffy sponge cake didn't leave me feeling heavy and overly full after eating the cupcake. I felt just right! Overall Satisfaction Rating: 5 out of 5 sprinkles!!

Cupcake Ranking: 19 Sprinkles (out of 20 possible)

What a beautiful cupcake!! So gorgeous and satisfying it just deserves a few more pictures!!