Crumbs Red Velvet Cupcake

Crumbs Red Velvet Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting, $3.75, http://www.crumbs.com/

For a wonderfully fun Friday lunch treat, I met with a group of friends for a quick midtown lunch during which we picked up an array of cupcakes from Crumbs! We each got a different cupcake and then shared and sampled, allowing the opportunity to review a wide array, and take into account the much-valued tasting opinions of my fellow cupcake-eaters!

Taste: YUM!! This is a delicious mouthful of cupcake!! As my friend Lawrence noted, "the icing is perfect because it's not too cream chees-y and not too sweet to overwhelm," and I concur wholeheartedly, it's a cream cheese frosting done to excellence, because it's distinctly a cream cheese frosting, and perfectly sweetened, but not so sweet its cloying. The red velvet cake is also delicious-- it's not overly sweet and doesn't overpower, but it's softly yet distinctly chocolatey, and paired with the cream cheese frosting is just wonderful. The sprinkle of cake crumbs atop the icing is also a nice touch! Caryn from Carebear's Kitchen thought "the red velvet was SCRUMPTIOUS!" She said she tends to like the icing very cream cheesy, which I do as well, but we both agreed this frosting was "very yummy" even though not ultra-cream cheesy. The three of us agree the taste is very excellent and close to a "5 sprinkles," but not quite perfection-- Caryn thought it was a 4.5 Sprinkle taste, but Lawrence thought it was so perfect it was much closer to a 5, and I'm a little bit torn in between 4.5 and 5 myself. To settle it, I'll give an Overall Taste Rating out 4.75 out of 5 Sprinkles

Texture: The cream cheese icing is nice and creamy. I thought the cake texture was excellent, but my friend Lawrence felt it was "slightly dry" at the edges, and we all know a red velvet cake must, above all, be velvety. Overall Texture Rating: 4 out of 5 Sprinkles

Aesthetic: Nice large size, icing heaped high, deep red velvet cake, a cute smatter of red cake crumbs coating the top of the cupcake, although the icing application was not perfect nor were the sprinkled crumbs arranged symmetrically. Definitely a mouthwatering cupcake, but not a gorgeous work of cupcake art. Overall Aesthetic Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Sprinkles

Satisfaction: Very satisfying! I would absolutely get this again, and I think it's one of the best red velvet cupcakes I've tried-- I liked the frosting on the Two Little Red Hens Red Velvet better, but the Crumbs Red Velvet cake blows Two Little Red Hens out of the water! I was definitely satisfied! Overall Satisfaction Rating: 4.5 out of 5 sprinkles.

Overall Cupcake Ranking: 16.75 Sprinkles (out of 20 possible)