Sprinkles Cupcakes

Update Reviews, 2019

Yes, I know I've never cared for Sprinkles cupcakes before, and have reviewed several times.

Abandoned Box of Cupcakes ...

But, when you find an abandoned box of cupcakes in the microkitchen at work ...

So many to try!

Yes, the cupcakes were a bit ... let's just say, handled?  People clearly had decided to cut them all up to try many kinds.  Which, I was fully behind, and decided to try all 5 kinds that remained, not knowing what any were as I tried them, but they were fairly easy to identify once I tasted them.

Front row:

Chocolate Marshmallow (bottom)
"Gather 'round the campfire for a spooky tale,
Of a dark chocolate cupcake lost on a haunted trail!
He noticed a shadow creeping and let out a scream,
There appeared a ghost of fluffy white marshmallow cream!
He ran so fast, his frosting could not take the heat
And melted into a ganache, so rich and bittersweet!"

There was only a tiny chunk of this left, and I can safely say that I didn't really get to appreciate it fully.  The cake was a dark chocolate, fairly moist, and I only got a tiny dollop of marshmallow cream and chocolate ganache, clearly the most important elements of the cupcake.  I can't fairly evaluate this one.

Black and White (middle)
"Yin and yang explains that light cannot exist without darkness, hot without cold, and chocolate without vanilla. Sprinkles Black and White cupcakes create a harmonious balance between Belgian dark chocolate cake and creamy vanilla frosting. As the proverb goes, two parts united together give rise to something better!"

This was fine, but not particularly novel.  The cake was a bit dry, not the most intense chocolate cake.  The vanilla frosting was sweet and fairly tasty, but, very one note, just, sweet.  A standard, decent enough, basic cupcake, but I didn't care for a second bite.

Peanut Butter Chocolate (top)
"As a child, you discovered how to dunk chocolate into the peanut butter jar and became convinced you invented a new food. Sprinkles pays tribute to your ingenuity with our Peanut Butter Chocolate cupcakes. This chocolate chip-studded cake is made with creamy, all-natural peanut butter and topped with fudgy milk chocolate cream cheese frosting. With just the right combination of salty and sweet, you should brace yourself for the onslaught of fan mail!"

Um.  I didn't know what this was when I tried it, but I was immediately in love.  This was amazing.

The best part was the intense peanut butter flavor in the cake.  I loved the tiny chocolate chips throughout the base, for texture, and for, well, chocolate.  And for the magic of chocolate and peanut butter together, of course.  It was like chocolate chip cookie dough, cake, and delicious spoonful of peanut butter all wound into one.  Loved it.

Oh yeah, and then there was frosting too.  Thick, creamy, chocolate cream cheese frosting, which was very rich, and went well with the peanut butter flavors.

Definitely a winner, and I turned right back around to claim the rest of this one.  The best Sprinkles cupcake I've ever had.

Salty Caramel.

"Sprinkles Salty Caramel cupcakes are an irresistible salty-sweet flavor combination using fleur de sel crystals hand harvested from the pristine seas off Brittany, France. These fleur de sel granules are a delightful complement to the sweet, buttery caramel which flavors both the cake and frosting. Taste the rich, delicious complexity of Sprinkles take on this classic French duo."

I didn't read my notes before diving into these, but, wow, my notes this time completely match the other two times I tried this cupcake.  I do NOT like it.

It was just way too sweet for me - the frosting was just sweet, sweet, sweet, and, given Sprinkles’ generous application of frosting, was too much.  The cake was fairly dry, and just sweet too.  Did not care for this at all.

Carrot.

"Children may run upon hearing a vegetable has made its way into their cupcake, but do you know the secret? Carrots' hidden sugar content make them a baker's ally! Our recipe blends fragrant spices with freshly grated carrots and toasted walnuts. Coated with a generous heap of cinnamon cream cheese frosting, you might even convince the kids to eat their vegetables!"
And finally, a classic, carrot cake.

The cake part was ... fine.  The cake was fairly moist, and the carrots were quite obvious, good sized gratings.  I liked the crunch from the walnuts, and they were well distributed.  But the cake was a little too spiced for me.  Still, fine, but not great.

The frosting is where this one lost me.  I didn't like the cinnamon and other spices in it, just too much spicing for my taste, and I didn't taste cream cheese at all.

Not a fan.

Update Review, December 2018

Sprinkle: Birthday cake topped with vanilla buttercream and colorful non pareil sprinkles.

"This cheery birthday cake is loaded with rainbow sprinkles and topped with vanilla buttercream frosting. Adorned with crunchy rainbow non-pareils, your only birthday wish will be for many more!"

It has been years since I've reviewed Sprinkles cupcakes, because, well, I never really liked them before.

But I recently attended an event where the only sweet item was mini Sprinkles cupcakes, and they had a flavor I never tried before, so, I gave them a try.  I went for the most exciting flavor: sprinkle!

I pulled off the garnish on top, and, uh, I really loved it.  Yes, just printed on fondant, but it was sweet, crispy, and, well, totally what I wanted it seems.

This was a good sign?

The frosting was quite sweet, and I think I liked it.  It wasn't bad, but it also wasn't particularly good.  I mean, it was sweet, and there was lots of it, so, that was good?  I think I was indifferent to the frosting.  I did love the crunchy non-pareils on top.

Sprinkle: Inside.

The cake was "birthday cake", so, funfetti style, little pops of rainbow color throughout but no flavor from the colors, no texture difference either.  The cake had a decent crumb to it, but I didn't care for the flavor, it tasted slightly stale to me.

So, overall ... yeah, still not into these cupcakes.  Nothing *wrong* with it, but really not a particularly good cupcake.

Original Review, February 2015

I love desserts, you know this.  But cupcakes are rarely near the top of my list.  Even during the height of the cupcake craze, they never did it for me.  Believe me, I tried, but all the top places on Yelp in the area failed me, like Sibby's Cupcakery, Cup and Cake's Bakery, Cako, or Delessio.

Sprinkles was one of the originators of that craze, credited with being one of the first cupcake bakeries in the US, and certainly the first on the West Coast.  It took a while for them to reach the Bay Area, and even though the general cupcake fad had passed, I remember people being very excited for the Palo Alto location opening.   They even make cupcake ATMs.  I figured if any cupcakes were going to be good, these would be it.

Spoiler: I didn't like them.  The cake was always too dry, and the cupcakes were all homogenous throughout, lacking the moist interior and crispy exterior I prefer.  The frostings were all too sweet, and there was too much applied.

I won't be trying more.

Salty Caramel.

"These fleur de sel granules are a delightful complement to the sweet, buttery caramel which flavors both the cake and frosting."

I didn't care for the cake at all.  It was fairly dry, and I really didn't taste caramel.

The frosting was super sweet, I guess caramely, and it seemed a bit cream cheesy.  The salt crystals on top were really good however, and complemented the sweet well.

[ Subsequent review: I again found the cake really dry and uninteresting.  The frosting however was nicely sweet, and I certainly detected cream cheese in it.  The edible decoration was also tasty. ]

Red Velvet.

"Southern style light chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting."

This is their signature flavor, made with Callebaut chocolate.  Also available in gluten-free or sugar free, although, if you want a gluten-free cupcake, I recommend the vanilla ones from Kara's Cupcakes.

I'm never a big fan of red velvet.  This was no exception.  It had a decent chocolate flavor to it, but way too much sweet cream cheese icing.  Meh.  My least favorite of the flavors I tried.

Strawberry.

"This juicy cupcake is made with ripe, succulent strawberries pureed into both its cake and frosting."

This sounded promising.

But ... the cake was still a dry, consistent style that I don't really like, and it didn't have any flavor.   Where were the strawberries pureed in it?

The frosting was really lovely however, with a strong strawberry flavor, although still a bit too sweet.  The strawberry flavor in the icing was very ... fruit forward!

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A Yogurt Cow, Sydney

Another day, another new yogurt drink shop popping up in Sydney.  And of course I wanted to try as many as possible, as I'm very into the fad.

Setting

A Yogurt Cow is pretty new, right in Haymarket on the main drag.

Ordering Counter.

When you enter A Yogurt Cow, it looks like every other tea/yogurt/boba drink shop: ordering counter, displays with photos of signature drinks, promos for special new items.

Decorated Side.

One side of the shop looks reasonably nice, with backlit shelving.

Uh, Seating?

The other side is entirely vacant.  I imagine this is where some seating or a counter will go?  There is absolutely no where to enjoy your treat or even really linger for a moment to take your Instagram photo.

Uh ... work in progress?

And then the final section, milk crates and a dolly.

They have been open a few months ...

Drinks

Menu.

The menu is broken down into 3 sections, all featuring yogurt, as this is a yogurt-only shop, not a general bubble tea venue that has expanded into yogurt drinks.  Multi-grain, Fruit Smoothies, and Yogurt Frappes are your choices.  The first two are blended drinks, and I think both use the same yogurt base, one series just mixes in grains (purple rice, oats) with things like jujube, and the other is fruit based (pineapple, strawberry, passion fruit, etc) and have whipped cream on top.

I asked what the Yogurt Frappes were, and was told they are bowls of frozen yogurt with nuts and fruit toppings (this ... is not a frappe?).  I'm not sure if they use soft or hard serve yogurt, I didn't see a soft serve machine.

No additional list of toppings, or customization to any, but I imagine you could ask?

Mango Yogurt Smoothie.

I was there because I was craving two things: yogurt and mango.  Thus, mango yogurt smoothie it was.  No customization offered (I did ask for less sweet though) and no mix-ins (they don't have boba or anything actually).  It came by default with whipped cream (no cheese foam here).  It was described as "yogurt whipped cream".

It ... was just a smoothie.  A healthy style drink, appropriate for after the gym or something, although I guess it had the whip on top.  Very very blended, smooth, thinner style than others. 

Sweet even though I got less sweet. Very, very little mango flavor.  No mango chunks.  Just ... a smoothie.

The whipped cream on top was yogurt whipped cream, which, when I tried it with the smoothie just tasted like regular whipped cream, but later I had more and it did have some yogurt flavor to it.  It was fine.

Overall, this was clearly not the item for me.  I didn't want a very blended yogurt smoothie - I wanted drinking yogurt, thicker, richer, more interesting, and I wanted to taste mango.

I ended up throwing most of it out and heading elsewhere.

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Lotus, Barangaroo

Sydney has a lot of excellent food, as you know from all my posts on the dining scene, chronicled here.  Strengths are in the Thai and Asian food in particular, with close proximity, the ability to source ingredients, and a lot of local talent, that just blows away their counterparts in the US where I live.  So when I'm in Sydney, rather than explore high end fine dining (which Sydney has too of course), I generally opt for more casual places that highlight the strengths of the city.

On this visit though, I went mid-range, but, in a non-traditional way.

Let me explain.

Lotus Barangaroo is a member of the Lotus Dining Group, which has a number of well known establishments in town (many under the Lotus brand, but also Madame Changhai, Bund, and Bings).  It is the newest, and one of the anchor tenants along the harbor in the new Barangaroo renewal project.

Seating.

The space is beautiful, with considerably (covered) outdoor dining, along with inside spaces.  It has an elegant yet casual vibe to it, which matches the free flowing, well light, bright space.

Open for lunch and dinner, my visit was evening during the week.

However, I did not choose to dine in, rather, I opted to just get takeout.  I was on business travel, had a lot to do that night for work, and was solo, but really just wanted something delicious.  I knew I could get quality takeout, stopping there on my way from the office to the hotel, and either stop to dine along the harbourfront, or just walk the few blocks to my hotel.  I knew it would stuffer slightly, particularly in the aesthetics and plating, but I was optimistic that I could eat quickly after getting it.

My plan worked out very well logistically: I placed my order at the host stand, it took barely 10 minutes, during which time I took a quick stroll around the block, found an amazing spot to sit right along the water a few feet away.  My food was nicely packaged, I was able to eat and be on my way to hotel all within 30 minutes of arriving.  And it was clearly significantly better than traditional fast-dine options.

Menu.

"Lotus Barangaroo offers live fish and seafood in addition to the main menu. Our dumpling master Benny will create dumplings using produce that is native to the local land and sea."

Yup, this is why I was excited about Lotus.  Dumplings and seafood.  Yes!

The food menu is extensive, full of dumplings, other starters, seafood/poultry& pork/beef & lamb main dishes, rice and noodle dishes, vegetarian mains and sides, and of course, desserts.  The price point is on the higher side for the atmosphere, but that is due to the quality of the seafood used, and, the labor intensive process of much of the menu.

I narrowed my choices down to just two items: one kind of dumpling, and one seafood item.  The dumplings were an easy enough choice, although I had many options for dumplings (10 kinds, ranging from steamed to fried, veggie, seafood, poultry, etc), I was there in particular for one kind of dumpling I had read great things about: squid ink dumplings loaded with seafood.  Oh yes.

The other dish though was hard to choose.  I almost just opted for small plates; they had fun starters like an ice plant salad, a lovely looked smoked salmon salad, salt and pepper calamari (always a favorite), and, the other dish I thought I'd get, grilled octopus with sambal.  I adore octopus, and when I set out to Lotus, this is the dish I planned to get.  But ... I was looking through their Intagram on the way, and a few other dishes jumped out.  The seafood lineup is strong, with lobster, snow crab, and mud crab served in whatever style you prefer (work fried with XO, or chilli and black bean, or ginger in salat, or done salt & pepper style), but those all require 24 hour advance notice.  The pipis menu doesn't require advance notice, and I almost went for them, just because they are such a thing in Sydney.  But I decided to go for another more uniquely regional dish: Moreton Bay bugs!  They just looked so good on Instagram, and, I already did have pipis on this trip a few days prior.

Squid ink, blue swimmer crab and scallop dumplings. $24.

.

I couldn't wait to dig into my dumplings.  I read great things about these.  I was so excited for them. I adore crab, scallop, and squid ink.  I had been craving dumplings and spicy sauce all week.  People say these are some of the best dumplings they've ever had.

I ... well, didn't care for them.

The wrappers did have squid ink flavor to them, but were otherwise just ... bland.  I can't say they were too thick, nor too thin, nor dried out, nor anything in particular wrong with them, but ... I just wasn't into them, which really surprised me.

But the inside is what made me sad.  Crab and scallops, I should have loved this!  They were generously stuffed with seafood.  No fillers.  But ... the seafood was mushy.  Like it was overcooked? So mushy.  I tried all 4 dumplings, but each one was mushy inside.  There were also shells in my filling.

I was pretty sad that I didn't like these, and the sauce provided was just very spicy chili sauce.  I wanted some soy or vinegar to mix in (which I'd have at restaurant I think?).

At $24, this was a bit of a pricey disappointment.

Wok fried Moreton Bay bugs with black pepper butter and cavolo nero. $44.

And then my main dish, the one that totally randomly drew me in.  Of course, I've had Moreton Bay bugs before (even in the Qantas First class lounge!), so this wasn't novel to me, but it was the sauce, and the base, that in the photo I saw online just looked so very good.

Of course the plating suffered for takeout, and I expected that.  I can't say it *looked* tasty when handed over, just a blob of brown, with way too much cilantro on top.

It ... was ok.  A mixed success.  A hot wok fried dish, plenty of seafood, the portion of bugs was quite generous (which, as a $44 main dish, it should be).

The Moreton Bay bugs were a bit soft, almost over cooked it seemed, much like the dumplings.  They were battered slightly, but were soggy since submerged in sauce.  

The sauce was fascinating, "black pepper butter" says the menu.  It was rich, thick, spicy, and really quite interesting. I'm sure crazy unhealthy, but it was tasty, particularly with the greens.

However, the kale was literally just two pieces in the base, that soaked up tons of sauce.  The kale was *delicious* and I really wanted more.  Juicy greens in that sauce is a definite winning combo.  

On top was a tiny bit of pork floss, saffron, and cilantro (meh cilantro!).

Overall, this was so much seafood, expensive seafood, but I wasn't particularly impressed with the experience of eating it.  I ate it because it was expensive, and I wanted protein, but ... yeah, meh to the seafood.  That said, I used some leftover sauce the next day with a sweet asian bun, and that was a nice combination.

I wouldn't get this again, nor really return to Lotus.

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