The Great Cupcake Debate (aka The Frosting Files)

For this blog's inaugural blind tasting, we attempted to tackle the question: Do the trendy cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery and Billy's Bakery really taste better than store bought box mix you can make at home?

There is probably a more articulate way to pose the question but we did set a few goals for this semi-scientific experiment. Would you be able to identify where the cupcakes came from? Does one cupcake stand out from the competition? How does each cake compare?

Joining me in this discussion were RRR, Goldie, and The Smunch. Four cupcakes were used in this tasting, all vanilla cake with vanilla frosting. The cupcakes came from Magnolia Bakery in the West Village, Billy's Bakery in Chelsea, Food Emporium in Union Square and a Betty Crocker boxed cake mix.

The tasting was a bit skewed by cupcake #1. While it looked nice, it was painfully obvious this was an inferior product. The cake was angel food not vanilla and to say it was bland is being kind. The frosting was waxy, flavorless and downright gross; I felt like I was eating Play-Doh. And as Goldie eloquently articulated: "Number 1 tastes like Number 2".

Cupcake #2 fared a bit better. The cake was a dense superior vanilla cake and the buttercreme frosting was sweet with a good overall consistency. RRR questioned whether this cupcake was freshly baked (cupcakes were purchased in the evening an hour prior to tasting) or had been sitting around for a day.

Cupcake #3 was met with unanimous kudos from the group. The cake had a more intense, real batter taste (RRR) and the creamy frosting had a different texture from cupcake #2. The frosting was lighter, a bit "wet" (The Smunch) and reminiscent of marshmallow (Ms. Foodie) versus sugary buttercreme.

Finally, cupcake #4 was well-received by the group but did spur a bit of debate. RRR found the cake to be a bit stale, Goldie thought it was denser than the prior ones, The Smunch agreed the density of the cake made it outstanding and Ms. Foodie agreed with The Smunch that this cake seemed to stand out from the competition. The frosting was sugary-sweet; a plus for me but not as much as a plus for RRR.

The Smunch was the only participant to correctly identify all four cupcake entries:
#1 Food Emporium
#2 Billy's Bakery
#3 Betty Crocker
#4 Magnolia Bakery

RRR's summary was that the more expensive cupcakes from Billy's and Magnolia were good but "no big deal" and nothing you can't make from a box. She was pleased how well the box mix did in our little test, perhaps because she helped bake them! The Smunch liked the Magnolia Cupcake the best with the box mix not that far behind. I was surprised how well the box mix fared against the well-marketed bakery cupcakes but if I had to choose a winner I would pick Magnolia with Billy's being a very very close copy of the original (the owner worked at Magnolia).

I believe that the childhood memories spurred by these sugary creamy treats are why they are in fashion with the city crowd and in actuality other baked goods by these quality bakeries are better than their signature cupcakes. Next time you are in Billy's try the banana cake with cream cheese icing and Magnolia's banana pudding! and just grab a bite of your friend's cupcake! Done & done!

Goldie perhaps summed it up best when he said "I think we all learned there is no such thing as a bad cupcake; that is with the exception of #1".