Baked by Melissa Cookie Dough

Baked by Melissa Cookie Dough, 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: A dollop of fresh cookie dough on top is pure cookie dough deliciousness. The vanilla cake it not very flavorful, but the chocolate buttercream is sweet and deliciously milk chocolatey. The cookie dough is so good, but mostly this cupcake left me wanting more cookie dough! Overall Taste Rating: 3.75 out of 5 Sprinkles

Texture: The buttercream is smooth and the cookie dough is soft and doughy. The cake is a bit rubbery on all sides, unfortunately. Baked by Melissa doesn't use paper cupcake wrappers and perhaps the way the cupcakes bake create a rubbery exterior, which is highly unfortunate. Since the cupcake is so tiny, the rubbery edges are basically the majority of the cake itself. Overall Texture Rating: 3 out of 5 Sprinkles

Aesthetic: Mini mini and so cute. Symmetrical and even application of a swirl of chocolate frosting atop a golden yellow cake, with a dollop of cookie dough centered in the middle. Sort of a three-tiered aesthetic here. Cute! Overall Aesthetic Rating: 4.25 out of 5 Sprinkles

Satisfaction: I was left craving more cookie dough!! Overall Satisfaction Rating: 3.25 out of 5 Sprinkles

Overall Cupcake Ranking: 14.25 Sprinkles (out of 20 possible)

Crumbs Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcake

Crumbs Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcake, $3.75, http://www.crumbs.com/

Taste: Icing that tastes like cookie dough-- how does Crumbs do it?! They somehow make the magic happen, because the frosting tastes like chocolate chip cookie dough, and as I'm sure you know, chocolate chip cookie dough is utterly delicious. Cookie dough frosting is GENIUS! The cake is delicious and flavorful Crumbs vanilla classic cake. Inside, the cupcake is filled with a chocolate cream filling-- this chocolate cream filling is not frosting, and isn't super sweet-- it tastes a bit like chocolate pudding, but slightly bitter-- I'm not really enjoying the chocolate filling at all. There's a delicious chocolate chip cookie on top though. The cookie dough frosting is delicious and incredible, but this chocolate filling in the middle is abundant and I don't care for it much at all. Overall Taste Rating: 3.5 out of 5 sprinkles.

Texture: The cake is so moist, the cookie dough frosting is so smooth and creamy, even the unpleasant chocolate filling is smooth and creamy, and the chocolate chip cookie on top is soft and goes great with the rest of the cupcake. Overall Texture Rating: 5 out of 5 sprinkles.

Aesthetic: This cupcake is large in size and pleasantly adorned on top with a chocolate chip cookie, with white frosting heaped on top an inch high, with some of the chocolate filling peeking out from below-- not sure if that was intentional or sloppy! The cupcake has an appealingly edible aesthetic, but is not gorgeous in its presentation. Overall Aesthetic Rating: 3 out of 5 sprinkles

Satisfaction: The cookie dough frosting was HEAVENLY. But the cupcake would have been WAY better without the chocolate filling inside! I am positive I've had this variety of cupcake from Crumbs before where the inside of the cupcake is filled with more cookie dough frosting instead of this chocolate cream filling-- they should DEFINITELY go back to the old recipe!! I was so busy avoiding the chocolate filling and eating around it while eating this cupcake that it definitely impeded my satisfaction! Overall satisfaction rating: 3.5 out of 5 sprinkles.

Overall Cupcake Ranking: 15 Sprinkles (out of 20 possible)