Baked by Melissa Tye Dye with Cream Cheese Frosting

Baked by Melissa Tye Dye Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting, http://www.bakedbymelissa.com/, 12 mini cupcakes for $10

On a gorgeous summer Sunday afternoon, I went for a "cupcake crawl" in downtown Manhattan with my best cupcake tasing buddies, Caryn of Carebear's Kitchen, and Lawrence and Justin from My Two Nuts. Caryn recapped our day of adventure fantastically at her Caryn's 101 Things blog. We had an amazing afternoon of strolling, enjoying wonderful weather, hanging out in the park, and most importantly sharing many delicious cupcakes! This was one of the cupcakes that was a product of our first NYC cupcake crawl!

Taste: What does "tie dye" taste like? Not like food coloring, luckily-- the tie dye cake is lightly sweet, without any particular flavor. The frosting is a cream cheese frosting, ultra sweet, but really tasty. Overall Taste Rating: 4.75 out of 5 Sprinkles

Texture: The frosting is slightly granular from sugar crystals, but it's nice, it adds a tasty crunch. The cake is spongy and tender on the inside, but unfortunately there is a strange rubbery texture to the edges. Overall Texture Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Sprinkles

Aesthetic: So mini! So cute! So TIE DYED! Gorgeous colors swirled throughout. Bright pink, green and blue-- just like the tie dye shirts I once made in summer camp! (How does one bake a tie-dye cupcake? NO idea). The frosting is generously swirled in a beautiful twirl on top, with a dusting of rainbow colored sugar crystals on top to cement the rainbow theme. Overall Aesthetic Rating: 5 out of 5 Sprinkles

Satisfaction: I like tie dye cupcakes! There was no food coloring aftertaste, which I feared, and it was basically to me like cream cheese frosting on white or yellow cake, which is a rare combination but really delicious. Overall Satisfaction Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Sprinkles

Overall Cupcake Ranking: 17.75 Sprinkles (out of 20 possible)