Cupcake Extravaganza Part 3

More cupcakes. Pretty sure I'm halfway to diabetes by now. Away we go:

 Day 11 (Jan 17, 2012): The Vegan Lemon Coconut cupcake from Lifethyme Natural Market

Featuring custom-made dessert plates inspired by this Eddie Izzard bit. I really enjoyed the burst of lemony flavor in this cupcake. The cake was a little boring and I could have done without the chewy coconut on top, but after so many chocolate and cream cheese cupcakes, lemon was quite refreshing.

 Day 12 (January 18, 2012): The Vegan Boston Cream Pie cupcake from Lifethyme Natural Market

Meh. I was expecting more. This ended up just being a tiny bit of cream in the middle of some dry, bland cake.

Day 13 (January 19, 2012): The Vegan Pumpkin cupcake from Lifethyme Natural Market

Cream cheese icing was light and flavorful, but the cake part was a little too dense.




Day 14 (January 20, 2012): The Peach Cobbler cupcake from Molly's Cupcakes

Everything you would want a cupcake called Peach Cobbler to be. Icing was whipped-cream-like (in fact, it might have been straight-up whipped cream), and the cake was moist and peachy. LOVE. Also would like to note that Molly's has the cutest interior of all the cupcake joints I've visited. Their bar seats look like swings; there's a wall of board games and an overall sense of whimsy.

Day 15 (January 21, 2012): The Cake Batter cupcake from Molly's Cupcakes

Another winner from Molly's. I had to get past the superfluous blue frosting to get to the amazingness inside. You guessed it: CAKE BATTER. Smother anything with cake batter and I'd probably eat it.

Day 16 (January 22, 2012): The Casablanca cupcake from Sweet Revenge

I had such high expectations for this one. Here's how it was described on the menu: a pistachio cardamom cake with rosewater buttercream. I was pretty excited. Then I took a bite. The cake itself had no pistachio or cardamom flavor whatsoever, although there were bits of actual pistachios mixed in, and it was too muffin-like in texture. The rosewater icing was nice and I could definitely pick up hints of rose, but it was WAY too sweet. Instant-stomach-ache sweet.

Cupcake Extravaganza Part 4 will be coming at the end of this week. If you're wondering if I'm getting sick of eating cupcakes, the answer is YES. Sorry, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. But I am having fun on my little cupcake crawl through New York City. I'm becoming quite the expert.

Cupcake Extravaganza Part 2

Ten cupcakes down, nineteen to go. (For those of you just joining, I was challenged with eating 29 cupcakes in 29 days). Here are the last seven cupcakes that made their way into my belly. Just warning you that this probably counts as cupcake porn.

Day 4 (Jan 10, 2012): The Elvis cupcake from Crumbs

Anyone who has ever been to Crumbs in NYC knows that their cupcakes are ridiculously huge, almost to the point of being offensive. But they do not lack in interesting flavors. I loved the peanut butter, marshmallow, banana combination in this cupcake. It was a little too dense and rich, but I enjoyed it.

Day 5 (Jan 11, 2012): The White Chocolate Blueberry cupcake from Crumbs

Another from Crumbs. Just as dense, just as rich, just as offensively huge. But I love blueberry, and this cupcake didn't disappoint. It was like a blueberry muffin that got all dressed up and put on extra frosting for a big night out.

Day 6 (Jan 12, 2012): The Pistachio cupcake from Pinisi Cafe & Bakery

My top cupcake out of the first six. Clearly. I was down to one bite before I realized that I needed to take a picture. Perfect icing-to-cake ratio, a good size, simple and well done.

Day 7 (Jan 13, 2012): The Carrot cupcake from Pinisi Cafe & Bakery

Another from Pinisi. Can't go wrong with carrot cake and cream cheese frosting. 

Day 8 (Jan 14, 2012): The Red Velvet cupcake from Pinisi Cafe & Bakery

Third cupcake from Pinisi. A nice touch with the red velvet crumbly topping. Otherwise pretty straightforward.

Day 9 (Jan 15, 2012): The Vegan Black Bottom cupcake from Cocoa V (Blossom)

I had no idea what "black bottom" meant, but now I know it means "awesome." It's like they injected a cupcake with cream cheese cookie dough. Pretty incredible. Absolutely decadent.

Day 10 (Jan 16, 2012): The Vegan Chocolate Cupcake from Cocoa V (Blossom)

Hands down my favorite cupcake so far on this sugary journey. I know I said that about the pistachio cupcake above, but this one gets an extra point for being vegan and another point for presentation. I don't know what they make this icing out of, but I would like to cover myself in it. If you're vegan, this cupcake should be in your mouth right now.

May the Cupcake Extravaganza Begin

Challenge #3 (eat 29 cupcakes in 29 days) involves extra time at the gym. But I don't care. Because I have an excuse to eat a bunch of cupcakes. Or is it a gaggle of cupcakes? A murder of cupcakes? That has a nice ring to it.

Here are my first three victims:

Day 1 (Jan 7, 2012): The Brownie cupcake from BabyCakes

 Day 2 (Jan 8, 2012): The Pumpkin Maple cupcake from BabyCakes

 Day 3 (Jan 9, 2012): The Red Velvet cupcake from La Delice Pastry Shop

So, BabyCakes. A well-known (sometimes worshiped) bakery among vegans. I myself have been known to let out a squeal or two at the thought of going down for a visit. It's a dairy-free, gluten-free, animal-parts-free, pirate-free bakery on the Lower East Side. And I hope the vegan police don't knock down my door when I say the following: Their cupcakes are kind of overrated. Okay, a lot overrated. I mean, they're decent, but I've had better. That being said, their cookies and biscuits and other baked goods are amazing. But let's focus on the cupcakes.

The icing on cupcakes #1 and #2 wasn't bad, but it leaves a weird film on the tongue. Like I'm eating putty. The cake part of the brownie cupcake tasted like a brownie. It was yummy. The pumpkin cake was good, but not great. Maybe it was just that they weren't too terribly fresh. Or maybe I just have extra-high expectations for my beloved BabyCakes.

My third cupcake was from a bakery just two blocks from my apartment, La Delice Pastry Shop, a no-frills, traditional establishment. Nothing fancy. But their red velvet cupcake was my favorite of the three so far. At first I scoffed at the amount of icing, but once I tasted it I was grateful for the generous portion. And surprise! There was jelly in the middle of the cake. Odd, but hey, I'll welcome a little unprecedented jelly. Made it more like a red velvet jelly doughnut cupcake. There are vegetables in jelly, right?

Moving forward on my cupcake journey, any recommendations around the NYC area are welcome. I still have 26 cupcakes to eat. Poor me.