Sage (sold by Dean & DeLuca) Vanilla Frosting on Vanilla Cake

Sage Cupcake from Dean & DeLuca in Rockefeller Center, Vanilla Frosting on Vanilla Cake

http://www.sagegeneralstore.com/ and http://www.deandeluca.com, a whopping $5 from Dean & DeLuca

Taste: The vanilla frosting is tangy and almost tastes lemony, but it's different and I like it. The cake has a nice, buttery flavor to it. Together, they blend nicely-- I'm trying to pinpoint the exact tastes at play, but my mouth is mostly just saying "YUM!" Overall Taste Rating: 4 out of 5 sprinkles!

Texture: The frosting is very light, perhaps whipped, and very smooth. The cake receives exceptional credit for being super moist and soft. Overall Texture Rating: 5 out of 5 sprinkles!!!!

Aesthetic: This is a fairly big cupcake-- smaller than a Crumbs, but bigger than a Magnolia or a Buttercup. And I know it looks a little messed up in the photo, but I have to confess that the smeared off icing was 100% entirely my fault because it got mussed in transit, but when I purchased it the icing was applied very smoothly and the aesthetic was good, although the icing was applied thinly and not heaped as high as Crumbs, Magnolia and Buttercup heap their icing. Something about the sheen of the icing on this cupcake appealed to me-- the icing of many cupcakes I've sampled isn't so nice and glossy. The cake was also more yellow and true to a deep yellow cake than the pale golden cakes I've sampled before. I was very pleased with its appearance, and very upset that I tipped it over in its container after I left the store and smeared the icing. Overall Aesthetic Rating: 5 out of 5 sprinkles!!

Satisfaction: There was one big problem with this cupcake-- the cost! When I saw this cupcake was $5, I wouldn't have purchased it if not for my devotion to cupcake sampling for CupcakeRankings.com. But for $5, this cupcake had better be extra special. And though it was very good, I'm just not sure it was worth $5. It might have been good enough to be worth $3.50, but for $5, I wouldn't buy one again. I assume Dean & DeLuca is responsible for the markup and not Sage, but come on, it wasn't filled with gold. Overall Satisfaction Rating: 3 out of 5 sprinkles.

Overall Cupcake Ranking: 17 Sprinkles! (Out of 20 possible)