Saturday, October 14, 2006
Battle of the Cupcake All-Stars
I know this is a really stupid use of time and money for someone who is allergic to wheat, but my daughter's birthday is coming up, and we wanted to have cupcakes rather than deal with cutting and serving a cake. I'm not really familiar with any of the bakeries in town, so I thought we should drive around and do a little taste test.
The only bakery I could think of off the top of my head was Martinos, which is near the corner of Magnolia and Victory, next door to the Valero, here in Burbank. I've never been in there before but my daughter had visited once with her Girl Scout troop when Martinos was over on Olive.
We bought two cupcakes for eighty cents each. One was vanilla with chocolate frosting and one was vanilla with lemon icing and cute little sprinkles. They had a lot of different pastries to chose from, and coffee and drinks and gelato and places to sit and scarf.
Next, we went to Yummy Cupcakes on Magnolia. I had never been in there either but I've noticed them before since they are next door to the Yoga place that I keep thinking about going to.
Yummy Cupcakes looked like a factory assembly line inside. Lots of employees dashing around, mixers going, concrete everything, and a display line of cupcakes behind glass. They had pumpkin seed cupcakes and black forrest cupcakes and all kinds of fancy flavors, and you could buy a spoon of frosting for fifty cents and they were selling tubes of sprinkles but I didn't see how much they were. I was a little surprised because I was expecting a little more effort in the decoration department, not cheesey piped clam shells or anything, but maybe some fondant shapes or something.
Since Yummy Cupcakes was so bare-bones and sold nothing but fairly plain-looking cupcakes, I figured, well, they're not doing anything else so they must really be focusing on making awesome-tasting cupcakes. I bought a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting and a vanilla cupcake with plain green frosting for $2.50 each. I thought that was a little steep for a cupcake, but I don't mind paying for something that tastes good, so I gave them five bucks and left.
Next we went to Cindy's dad's house and the four of us cut the cupcakes into fourths and all tasted each flavor together, discussing the merits of each as we went along.
I rarely eat sugar, so sweets usually just knock me off my ass when I taste them. Sadly, the Yummy Cupcakes would have disappointed me even if they were free. The cream cheese frosting was good, otherwise the cake was bland and dry. The regular frosting was just regular frosting, there was nothing wonderful and magical about it that made it worth a dollar, much less two dollars and fifty cents for one freakin' cupcake.
The Martinos bakery cupcakes were CUPCAKES. The cake was especially good, very moist with a nice texture, not crumby at all. Not that a little crumb would have been bad, but they were so happy being cupcakes that all of the cupcake molecules wanted to stay together.
Almost anyone can make a chocolate cupcake taste good, but if you can make a really good vanilla cupcake, then, well, you are a GOD. I'm not just talking out the side of my ass, I'm a supertaster and vanilla flavoring is something that I'm especially sensitive to.
If you're not familiar with supertasters, our tongues are about as sensitive as a dog's nose. I taste the way a dog smells. No, that doesn't sound right. I mean, I can taste things that are outside the range of the normal human taste bud. I'm not making this up, you can look it up in an encyclopedia or, I don't know, the Internet or something. I cannot stand Hagen Dazs ice cream because it has a horrible chemical taste, brussels sprouts make me weep with pain when they touch my tongue, and coffee is unbearably bitter unless you dump so much sweetener in it that it's not coffee anymore.
So, if you like a good moist cupcake, go to Martinos. I think Yummy Cupcakes is cruel, serving mummified cupcakes without even a decent drink to wash it down.
This isn't over yet, however, I'm going to have to try other cupcakes around LA now, I want to see if overpriced crapcakes are the norm, if for no other reason, I want to see how long Yummy Cupcakes could possibly stay in business.
The only bakery I could think of off the top of my head was Martinos, which is near the corner of Magnolia and Victory, next door to the Valero, here in Burbank. I've never been in there before but my daughter had visited once with her Girl Scout troop when Martinos was over on Olive.
We bought two cupcakes for eighty cents each. One was vanilla with chocolate frosting and one was vanilla with lemon icing and cute little sprinkles. They had a lot of different pastries to chose from, and coffee and drinks and gelato and places to sit and scarf.
Next, we went to Yummy Cupcakes on Magnolia. I had never been in there either but I've noticed them before since they are next door to the Yoga place that I keep thinking about going to.
Yummy Cupcakes looked like a factory assembly line inside. Lots of employees dashing around, mixers going, concrete everything, and a display line of cupcakes behind glass. They had pumpkin seed cupcakes and black forrest cupcakes and all kinds of fancy flavors, and you could buy a spoon of frosting for fifty cents and they were selling tubes of sprinkles but I didn't see how much they were. I was a little surprised because I was expecting a little more effort in the decoration department, not cheesey piped clam shells or anything, but maybe some fondant shapes or something.
Since Yummy Cupcakes was so bare-bones and sold nothing but fairly plain-looking cupcakes, I figured, well, they're not doing anything else so they must really be focusing on making awesome-tasting cupcakes. I bought a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting and a vanilla cupcake with plain green frosting for $2.50 each. I thought that was a little steep for a cupcake, but I don't mind paying for something that tastes good, so I gave them five bucks and left.
Next we went to Cindy's dad's house and the four of us cut the cupcakes into fourths and all tasted each flavor together, discussing the merits of each as we went along.
I rarely eat sugar, so sweets usually just knock me off my ass when I taste them. Sadly, the Yummy Cupcakes would have disappointed me even if they were free. The cream cheese frosting was good, otherwise the cake was bland and dry. The regular frosting was just regular frosting, there was nothing wonderful and magical about it that made it worth a dollar, much less two dollars and fifty cents for one freakin' cupcake.
The Martinos bakery cupcakes were CUPCAKES. The cake was especially good, very moist with a nice texture, not crumby at all. Not that a little crumb would have been bad, but they were so happy being cupcakes that all of the cupcake molecules wanted to stay together.
Almost anyone can make a chocolate cupcake taste good, but if you can make a really good vanilla cupcake, then, well, you are a GOD. I'm not just talking out the side of my ass, I'm a supertaster and vanilla flavoring is something that I'm especially sensitive to.
If you're not familiar with supertasters, our tongues are about as sensitive as a dog's nose. I taste the way a dog smells. No, that doesn't sound right. I mean, I can taste things that are outside the range of the normal human taste bud. I'm not making this up, you can look it up in an encyclopedia or, I don't know, the Internet or something. I cannot stand Hagen Dazs ice cream because it has a horrible chemical taste, brussels sprouts make me weep with pain when they touch my tongue, and coffee is unbearably bitter unless you dump so much sweetener in it that it's not coffee anymore.
So, if you like a good moist cupcake, go to Martinos. I think Yummy Cupcakes is cruel, serving mummified cupcakes without even a decent drink to wash it down.
This isn't over yet, however, I'm going to have to try other cupcakes around LA now, I want to see if overpriced crapcakes are the norm, if for no other reason, I want to see how long Yummy Cupcakes could possibly stay in business.
