Sugar Sweet Sunshine Spicy Pumpkin with Cream Cheese Frosting

Spicy Pumpkin, Sugar Sweet Sunshine, http://www.sugarsweetsunshine.com/, $1.50 each

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: The cream cheese frosting is super sweet, but with a distinct cream cheese base. The cake is absolutely delicious, a scrumptious pumpkin cinnamon spice cake, but distinctly sweet, with great spices and a distinct real pumpkin flavor. A complex taste, but the ultra sweet frosting and pumpkin spice cake together struck an incredible balance. My mouth was in cupcake heaven! Overall Taste Rating: 5 out of 5 Sprinkles

Texture: The frosting is a little grainy from sugar, but its pleasant. The cake is ultra moist, but fluffy-- a perfect cake texture. Overall Texture Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Sprinkles

Aesthetic: Sadly not the most gorgeous cupcake-- the icing application is a little lopsided and imprecise. But, the icing has a bright white color and the pumpkin spice inside had a pretty pumpkin-orange hue. Overall Aesthetic Rating: 3.25 out of 5 Sprinkles

Satisfaction: EXTREMELY satisfying-- a unique, delicious, wonderful cupcake, I would get the spicy pumpkin cupcake over and over again!! Overall Satisfaction Rating: 5 out of 5 Sprinkles

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

Buttercup Sour Cream Spice Cupcake

Buttercup Bake Shop Sour Cream Spice Cupcake, buttercupbakeshop.com

Taste: The cream cheese frosting is tasty-- nice and cream chees-y and sweet at the same time. I guess the sour cream must be baked into the cake, but I can't taste it anywhere, and it's definitely not in the frosting. The cake flavors are very mild-- the spices are light, and the walnuts and raisins baked throughout add some flavor, but this isn't a particularly rich or flavorful or sweet cake. The frosting is good, but the cake leaves a lot to be desired. Overall Taste Rating: 3 out of 5 Sprinkles

Texture: STALE is the texture on this cake! SO stale that this bakery should be ashamed to have even sold it to me. The texture of the cake is stale with chunks in it, as there are walnuts and raisins dispersed throughout. The cream cheese frosting is smooth and creamy though. Overall Texture Rating: 0.5 out of 5 Sprinkles

Aesthetic: This cupcake is fairly attractive-- the icing has a nice swirl, with a dusting of crumbs and walnuts on top, and the proportions are good. It's not the neatest presentation, nor does it have any special decorations to make the cupcakes extra-attractive. Overall Aesthetic Rating: 3 out of 5 Sprinkles

Satisfaction: This cupcake was so stale that it was hard to enjoy. Overall Satisfaction Rating: 2 out of 5 Sprinkles

Overall Cupcake Ranking: 8.5 Sprinkles (out of 20 possible)