Kitchenette Hostess Style Cupcake

On another beautiful Sunday, my best cupcake-tasting posse and I embarked on another Cupcake Crawl, this time farther downtown. This time it was unfortunately hovering around 100 degrees and I promptly wanted to melt, so the lounging-in-the-park-with-

cupcakes experience was more sweaty and melty and sticky and thirsty than last time around. However, a good time was had by all, until we all wanted to die from a combination of heat and cupcake-overdosing, that is. Importantly, I should mention that before I transcribed my cupcake rankings onto the computer, I took notes by hand on SPECIAL CUPCAKE RANKING PADS that my best cupcake-tasting friends (Caryn, Lawrence and Justin, along with fellow friend and sometime-cupcake taster Mike) specially DESIGNED for me and gave me for my birthday, complete with a special Caryn-designed logo. I am going to scan some of the cupcake-tasting pad sheets and upload them in a future post! And now, the results of Cupcake Crawl #2!

Hostess-Style Cupcake from Kitchenette

Taste: Ick. The cake is bland, the cream filling is utterly tasteless with not a trace of sweetness, and the rich bittersweet chocolate topping is the only dominant flavor. This cupcake has no sweetness whatsoever. Overall Taste Rating: 0.5 out of 5 Sprinkles

Texture: The cake has a medium texture, the cream filling inside is ultra-dense and not at all fluffy, and the layer of chocolate on top is fudgy and thick. Overall Texture Rating: 2.75 out of 5 Sprinkles

Aesthetic: It looked so homemade and mouthwatering!! All the cupcakes lined up in the case at Kitchenette called out to me and looked so tempting and delectable! Oh, how deceptive looks can be! I found this cupcake so attractive from the outside!! Overall Aesthetic Rating: 4 out of 5 Sprinkles

Satisfaction: What a boring, inferior Hostess-style cupcake. Blah. Overall Satisfaction Rating: 1 out of 5 Sprinkles

Overall Cupcake Ranking: 8.25 Sprinkles (out of 20 possible)

Kitchenette Vanilla Hostess Style Cupcake

On another beautiful Sunday, my best cupcake-tasting posse and I embarked on another Cupcake Crawl, this time farther downtown. This time it was unfortunately hovering around 100 degrees and I promptly wanted to melt, so the lounging-in-the-park-with-

cupcakes experience was more sweaty and melty and sticky and thirsty than last time around. However, a good time was had by all, until we all wanted to die from a combination of heat and cupcake-overdosing, that is. Importantly, I should mention that before I transcribed my cupcake rankings onto the computer, I took notes by hand on SPECIAL CUPCAKE RANKING PADS that my best cupcake-tasting friends (Caryn, Lawrence and Justin, along with fellow friend and sometime-cupcake taster Mike) specially DESIGNED for me and gave me for my birthday, complete with a special Caryn-designed logo. I am going to scan some of the cupcake-tasting pad sheets and upload them in a future post! And now, the results of Cupcake Crawl #2!

Vanilla Hostess-Style Cupcake from Kitchenette

Taste: The vanilla frosting is lightly sweet and is winning me over. The cake tastes like a pound cake, rich and buttery but enjoyable. The cream filling in the center is tasteless and adds nothing-- I want more of the very sweet icing on the pound cake, though! Overall Taste Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Sprinkles

Texture: The cake is very dense but moist-- like a pound cake. The cream filling inside is very dense and I think is adding moisture to the cake itself. The frosting on top is thin and sugary. Overall Texture Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Sprinkles

Aesthetic: The aesthetic is largely why this cupcake appealed to me-- it looked truly homemade, not mass-produced, it was large with a fun pink colored swirl across the top, and the cake had a nice white color with a fluffy look to it. It looked better than it tasted, to be honest! Overall Aesthetic Rating: 4 out of 5 Sprinkles

Satisfaction: The best of the cupcakes from Kitchenette that I tasted, for sure, and I liked the originality of a Hostess-Style vanilla cupcake. But, could definitely be improved upon-- that cream filling should be light and creamy and sweet, not dense and tasteless!!! Overall Satisfaction Rating: 3.25 out of 5 Sprinkles

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

Crumbs Hostess-Style Cupcake

Crumbs Hostess-Style Cupcake, $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: After two unimpressive Hostess-style cupcake tastings, this one is a big improvement. The chocolate icing on top has a nice mocha-y flavor, there's definitely some sort of coffee taste involved with the chocolate on top. The chocolate cake is subtle but chocolate-y (though I wouldn't mind if it were a little sweeter), and the cream filling is super sweet and ultra-sugary. A bite of cupcake with chocolate frosting, cake AND cream filling is definitely a good tasting cupcake, though not out-of-this-world. Overall Taste Rating: 3.5 out of 5 sprinkles

Texture: Cake is moist and cream filling is smooth and fluffy. The chocolate frosting on top is thick and fudgy. The textures definitely work together. Overall Texture Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Sprinkles

Aesthetic: This is a nice looking cupcake! Large, proportionate, rich chocolate colored cake, glossy brown frosting, white classic squiggle on top. The squiggle is neatly squiggled, albeit not perfectly centered. The inside of the cupcake looked nice too! A little messy inside, but the inside of a cupcake doesn't have to look good, and bursting with cream filling is a good aesthetic in my opinion. Overall Aesthetic Rating: 4 out of 5 Sprinkles

Satisfaction: Definitely the tastiest of the Hostess-Style Cupcakes I've sampled so far, although I think my own personal recipe is still better! :) This cupcake was enjoyable but not out-of-this-world-gasping-for-

breath-cupcake-joy-inducing. My friend Caryn, who is a big fan of the Crumbs Hostess-Style cupcake, told me that today's cupcake wasn't as good as others she's tried in the past, so perhaps these are hit-or-miss. This wasn't a miss, it was a hit, but not a full hit out of the park. Overall Satisfaction Rating: 3.5 out of 5 sprinkles

Overall Cupcake Ranking: 15.5 Sprinkles (out of 20 possible)

'wichcraft Hostess-Style Cupcake

'wichcraft (made in their own kitchens!) Hostess-style chocolate cupcake with cream filling, $2.75, http://www.wichcraftnyc.com/, http://wichcraftnyc.com/food/

Taste: The chocolate icing is not sweet at all, and slightly bitter, and I don't care for it. The chocolate cake, however, tastes like a perfect chocolate cake-- chocolatey but sweet, so mouthwatering, truly one of the best chocolate cakes I've tasted, and could be enjoyed alone. And in the case of this cupcake, is much BETTER enjoyed alone-- the white cream filling is GROSS! The white cream filling inside is TART, as opposed to sweet, and tastes strange, SOUR, like something might be seriously wrong with it, because how could a baker intend for it to taste so unpleasant? Why would a baker fill a Hostess-style cupcake with sour filling? Have the insides curdled? I am perplexed, and displeased. Overall Taste Rating: 2 out of 5 sprinkles (the amazing chocolate cake saved this from a 0 or 1 rating for the abominable cream filling).

Texture: The chocolate icing on top is thick and fudgy. The texture of the chocolate cake is PERFECT-- fluffy and moist, absolutely wonderful. The texture of the cream filling is slightly congealed and gelatinous. Overall Texture Rating: 3 out of 5 sprinkles (the chocolate cake on this is PERFECTION!)

Aesthetic: Not a bad-looking cupcake! The "W" on top (for 'wichcraft) is a cute alternative to the standard Hostess cupcake squiggle on top and stamps a nice 'wichcraft signature on top! The symmetry on this cupcake isn't perfect, but the cake and chocolate icing have a nice deep brown color and the icing on top has a beautiful sheen. Overall Aesthetic Rating: 4.5 out of 5 sprinkles

Satisfaction: The gross sour filling on this, coupled with the bitter frosting, made this a total cupcake killer. BUT, the chocolate cake element was WONDERFUL, and I picked away all the icing and cream filling with a fork and then ate the delicious cake all by itself! 'wichcraft has a fantastic chocolate cake recipe here, and if they could just improve their icing and cream filling, they would be equipped to create delicious cupcakes! However, as a complete cupcake, this left a lot to be desired. Overall Satisfaction Rating: 2 out of 5 sprinkles

Overall Cupcake Ranking: 11.5 Sprinkles (out of 20 possible)

Sage (sold by Dean & DeLuca) Hostess Style Chocolate Cupcake

Sage Hostess-Style Cupcake from Dean & DeLuca, $5.00,
http://www.sagegeneralstore.com/ and http://www.deandeluca.com

I have an amazing recipe that I use to make delicious Hostess-style filled cupcakes at home, so I don't usually buy them elsewhere because few cupcakes can live up to my home-baked ones, but as the Cupcake Connoisseur it is my duty to sample what else is out there! So, I tried this Hostess-style cupcake from Sage.

Taste: The chocolate icing is bitter, and not sweet at all, although probably made with real bittersweet chocolate and not cocoa powder, judging by the taste. The cake is also slightly bitter and has not the slightest hint of sweetness and barely any chocolatey taste. The vanilla cream inside the cupcake is bland and not tasty-- it's the same white cream as in the zig-zag on top of the cupcake, and its somewhat tasteless and gritty. A Hostess style cupcake isn't meant to be super sweet, and my personal chocolate icing recipe does use real bittersweet chocolate, but my vanilla cream filling is really sweet and so together they strike a nice balance. In contrast, the Sage cupcake has bittersweet icing, bitter cake, and tasteless cream filling, and so together there's no sweetness to the cupcake. Blech! Overall Taste Rating: 0 out of 5 sprinkles

Texture: The cake texture is dry, not at all moist like the Sage Vanilla Cupcake, but instead very dry and maybe even a bit stale. The chocolate icing has a good texture despite the bad taste, very smooth and silky on my tongue. There is barely ANY vanilla cream filling in the middle of the cupcake, and the filling (which is also the zigzag on top) is VERY gritty. Blech! Overall Texture Rating: 2 out of 5 sprinkles

Aesthetic: Aesthetics is the only place this cupcake is going to win any major points with me. It's bigger than the traditional commercial Hostess cupcakes, with dark chocolatey colored cake and rich, glossy dark chocolate colored frosting, and a cute white zig-zag across the top, albeit sloppily applied, but the cupcake has that appealing homemade look as opposed to the from-the-box mass-produced look. The exterior appearance of this cupcake is what compelled me to buy it in the first place! Overall Aesthetic Rating: 4 out of 5 sprinkles!

Satisfaction: In addition to the fact that this cupcake didn't taste very good and had a bad texture, there was barely ANY chocolate icing on the top, although I can accept the fact that a Hostess cupcake by design only has a thin layer of icing across the top. BUT, what is unforgiveable is that there was hardly ANY cream filling inside the cupcake! And topped off by the racket price of $5.00 for this abomination of a cupcake, my satisfaction was practically negative! Overall Satisfaction Rating: 0 out of 5 sprinkles

Overall Cupcake Ranking: 6 Sprinkles (out of 20 possible)