The Soda Shop Strawberry Frosted Vanilla Cake

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!

Strawberry Frosting on Vanilla Cake from the Soda Shop

Taste: Ahhhh! My mouth, ahhh, stop! The frosting tastes like butter and artificial strawberry flavoring and makes me want to gag. The cake is even worse, and has a sour, unpleasant taste that is hard to put my finger on, but it reminds me of Tonnie's Minis. Ack! Overall Taste Rating: 1.25 out of 5 Sprinkles

Texture: EW EW EW, the cake is SO moist that it's wet, clammy, SLIMY, not cake-like, like some sort of cold, bastardized bread pudding mush, this is just WRONG, its like someone poured water or milk all over the cake and made it into a sopping, slimy heap. The frosting is ultra-dense. Overall Texture Rating: 0.25 out of 5 Sprinkles

Aesthetic: The beautiful pale pink frosting swirled in the shape of a rose is what attracted me tot hos cupcake-- look how gorgeous the aerial view of the frosting swirl is! Doesn't it just look like it would taste SO GOOD?!??! It didn't, looks were deceiving, but the aesthetics were exellent. Overall Aesthetic Rating: 4.75 out of 5 Sprinkles

Satisfaction: I am completely grossed out, but it sure was pretty to look at.* Overall Satisfaction Rating: 1.5 out of 5 Sprinkles

Overall Cupcake Ranking: 7.75 Sprinkles (out of 20 possible)

*I would like to note that the cupcakes were retrieved from us from a back room, rather than a display case, and felt cold. While on a hot day a cold treat was appealing, a cold cupcake is not customary nor advisable. I suspect that some of the unfortunate texture issues related to the Soda Shop cupcakes resulted from erroneous refrigeration on the part of the store. I am not sure whether such refrigeration is customary or was a result of the extremely hot August day, but as any cupcake expert is aware, buttercream should NEVER be refrigerated! The refrigeration may have also added to the slimy, clammy texture of the cake. I'm not positive the refrigeration occurred or resulted in the bad texture, but I have my suspicions.

Miniature Strawberry Frosting on Vanilla Cake by Eleni's, sold by the American Girl Place

American Girl Place has a little bakery, where you can purchase all sorts of adorable treats-- all of which are sold with a "regular size" item and a "doll size" item-- so every purchase comes with a treat for you AND a matching small-scale treat for your doll. Completely adorable. Some of the other treats looked absolutely delicious (e.g., a stick with three full-sized marshmallows, coated in chocolate and candies, and a corresponding stick of three mini marshmallows coated in chocolate and candies, for your doll), but as a cupcake-ranker, I had to try the cupcakes! I was told they are baked by Eleni's in Chelsea Market.

Miniature Strawberry Frosting on Vanilla Cake by Eleni's, sold by the American Girl Place

Taste: The pink frosting is distinctly strawberry flavored! That was a fun surprise! The frosting tastes like strawberry ice cream!! The white cake is delicious, sweet and delectable. Scrumptious!! Overall Taste Rating: 4.25 out of 5 Sprinkles

Texture: The frosting is smooth and very light, and the cake is fluffy and tender. What a delectable little fluffy treat! Overall Texture Rating: 4 out of 5 Sprinkles

Aesthetic: I like the miniature size and the pink color with festive sprinkles, but as my readers know, I hate that "bare naked cupcake top" showing around the edges, and the icing is rather smushed. Overall Aesthetic Rating: 3 out of 5 Sprinkles

Satisfaction: A little doll-sized cupcake? Amazingly cute. Amazingly tasty. So satisfying! Overal Satisfaction Rating: 5 out of 5 Sprinkles

Overall Cupcake Ranking: 16.25 Sprinkles (out of 20 possible)

Crumbs Watermelon Cupcake

Crumbs "Watermelon" Cupcake, www.crumbs.com

Taste: The green frosting on top of this cupcake DOES, indeed, taste like watermelon flavoring. Unfortunately, watermelon frosting is totally weird and not that enjoyable. It tastes like candy-- think of a watermelon Jelly Belly-- but very artificial and, in my opinion, unpleasant. (Although note that I take issue with artificial flavorings more than many others do-- I find artificial flavorings unpleasant and, personally, they leave me with an aftertaste. ) I had the same complaint on artificial flavoring regrarding the Crumbs Banana Frosting. Anyway, the cupcake did have redeeming qualities-- the pink frosting INSIDE the cupcake was, gloriously, STRAWBERRY flavored, and absolutey delicious, a scrumptious, perfectly sweetened buttercream. The cake was delicious Crumbs sponge cake, sweet and delightful. I found myself ignoring the green watermelon frosting and just eating the inside of strawberry frosting and cake-- which was delicious. But, the "watermelon" cupcake failed on its watermelon-distinctive flavorings. I wonder if the bakers knew the watermelon frosting was questionable, which is why they put strawberry frosting inside instead, rather than a watermelon-flavored pink frosting. Overall Taste Rating: 2.75 out of 5 Sprinkles

Texture: Can't complain on account of texture! The frosting on top was very smooth, and the filling inside was so fluffy and creamy it melted in my mouth. The cake was tender and moist. The sprinkles adorning the cupcake added a nice little sugary crunch. Overall Texture Rating: 5 out of 5 Sprinkles

Aesthetic: Not bad-- green isn't the most appealing of colors for frosting, but the kitsch of the watermelon theme-- green frosted outside with a pink frosting inside-- was totally adorable. Also, I do appreciate Crumbs not going overboard to make the colors a true "Watermelon"-- fluorescent green and pink frosting would have really grossed me out from color dye overkill. The rim of red sprinkles is festive, but in my opinion, they should have used PINK sprinkles, not red!! Overall Aesthetic Rating: 3 out of 5 Sprinkles

Satisfaction: Well, my first watermelon cupcake. I guess I now understand why watermelon is not a popular flavor in cupcakes, or in baked goods at all, for that matter. It wasn't really working here. However, asides from the watermelon frosting, this cupcake was delicious. Conveniently, Crumbs is so generous with the icing heaping inside the cupcake, that the frosting-to-cake ratio was plentiful even when only eating the strawberry filling and cake together. So, I was let a satisfied customer, even though the "watermelon" angle wasn't a big hit with me. Overall Satisfaction Rating: 4 out of 5 Sprinkles

Overall Cupcake Ranking: 14.75 Sprinkles (out of 20 possible)