What’s in a $14 cupcake mix?

Sprinkles is a famous cupcake chain currently in LA, Dallas and Phoenix. I’ve never actually tried their cupcakes, but I’ve read enough about them to get the salivary glands going.

As a cupcake enthusiant, and after my amazing red velvet cake in Ithaca (see the 8/29/07 post), I had to try their red velvet cupcake mix. Williams-Sonoma sells it for $14 a tin (makes 12 cupcakes). At that price, you hope for culinary rapture. Did we achieve it? Sort of.

The tin includes the dry batter, the signature Sprinkles “dots” decoration (which I didn’t use), and instructions on making the cupcakes and icing. You need to add plenty of your own eggs and butter to the mix. I was working with a $9 hand mixer, which made it hard to blend the ingredients because the batter starts off so thick. The recipe actually calls for using the flat beater attachment on your mixer. I don’t even know what a flat beater is. No wonder I almost burned out my motor.

The verdict: well, the cake part of the cupcake turned out fluffy, moist and surprisingly un-sweet. Ah, that’s probably why the cream cheese icing recipe asks for nearly 4 cups of confectioners’ sugar. It made my fillings ache just thinking about it. So I used only about 1/4 of the sugar the recipe called for. It turned out pretty good, but probably could have used a bit more sugar–and this is coming from someone who complains about desserts being too sweet.

Would I buy it again? Maybe for a special occasion. It was a lot of work, a red mess, and turned my once-white mixer pink (permanently). But damn if it wasn’t tasty. Besides, Cakelove doesn’t do red velvet.

Stay tuned for a photo of Amit with his red tongue.

Whole Foods’ “Blandarella” Key Lime Cheesecake

As you know, we were underwhelmed with the Whole Foods desserts we tried last time. This time, I picked up an individually sized key lime cheesecake, hoping Whole Foods might redeem itself. You only see half of it here because I forgot to get a photo beforehand.

So, this cheesecake has no crust. That’s always disappointing, since a soggy graham-cracker crust can be really good. It’s like the ice cream cone–sometimes it’s the best part. Anyway, back to the cake, which was neither here nor there. Not too sweet, not too tangy. Above-average natural key lime flavor.  But where’s the oomph? Cheesecake is nothing to be ambivalent about, but after this, I was.

Incidentally, I also tried the version of the plain cheesecake with forest berries on top. It was even more blah than the key lime one. And it was also sans crust.