Bryant Park cupcake from Crumbs Bake Shop (Leah Wong)

On my last day in New York I went to Crumbs Bake Shop across from Bryant Park, as I was in a rush to eat it, get back to my hostel and head to the airport I didn’t make a lot of notes on this cupcake.  The cupcake I had was the Bryant Cake cupcake, I know, I’m lame, but I thought there was no better place to eat a Bryant Park cupcake than in Bryant Park.  This cupcake has chocolate cake with chocolate mousse inside, topped with cream cheese icing, chocolate cake crumbs and white chocolate curls – an absolutely divine cupcake.

Bryant Park cupcake filling (Leah Wong)

Flavour: Bryant Park
Cake: 4/5
Icing: 5/5
Presentation: 4/5
Location: 5/5
Flavour Selection: 5/5
Total: 23/25

This was a very good cupcake, though I did find it to be too big.  The cost of a cupcake is $4.50 here, and definitely worth it.  I love cupcakes, but part of the appeal is the individual size of them.  I felt that this would be a cupcake much better shared, which I find difficult to do with a cupcake, especially this one, as it was slightly flaky and hard to hold together – something I typically find with filled cupcakes.  On a nice day, I would definitely recommend sitting in Bryant Park with a Crumbs cupcake as it was a very nice area.  I did a little damage at the Original Penguin store.  All in all I would recommend checking out Crumbs, just make sure you go with an empty stomach as their supersized cupcakes are difficult to finish alone.

Cupcake and Coffee from The Magnolia Bakery

I recently took a little trip to New York City, so of course I had to try a cupcake from the world famous, Magnolia Bakery.  With three locations in Manhattan, I went to the location in the West Village, right across from the Marc by Marc Jacobs store. This is the bakery’s original location, since it opened in 1996.  This bakery has been credited with the “cupcake craze” that emerged in the late 90s.  It is also a stop on the “Sex and the City” tour, as in one episode Carrie and Miranda sample their cupcakes.  I was almost hesitant to try the cupcakes as I’d heard mixed opinions about the bakery’s most popular item.  As they also offered up many tasty looking mini-cheesecakes, I was tempted not to try a cupcake.  However, my inner cupcake connoisseur knew I had to be able to compare all other cupcakes to the one that started the craze.

Vanilla Cupcake from Magnolia Bakery (Leah Wong)

Flavour: Vanilla with Vanilla Buttercream
Cake: 4/5
Icing: 4/5
Presentation: 5/5
Flavour Selection: 4/5
Location: 5/5
Total: 22/25

Initially I found the icing on the cupcake a little too sweet, and considering I have a major sweet tooth, that’s saying something.  The more I ate, the better it got.  For once, I was happy not to have the cupcake towered high with icing, as it was super sweet.  There were quite a few flavours to choose from, but they were all pretty standard.  The cake was good, but not anything special.  Overall, the cupcake was worth it, though I can’t see standing in hours for a good, but standard cupcake.  As I went first thing in the morning on a Thursday, there was no line up, but I’d been warned by friends that I should be prepared to stand in line.  I adore the location of the West Village location, it was right across from Marc by Marc Jacobs, down the street from James Perse, and a few blocks from a major sale at Olive & Bette’s.  While it wasn’t the best cupcake I’ve ever had, it’s easy to tell how they are the basis of a craze, which other bakers have built upon and improved.