NYC Cupcakes

It’s no secret that I love sweets. Cupcakes are like crack to me. Last time I was in New York, I convinced Christina it was a good idea to get a 6 pack of cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery. It was actually not a good idea. I ate 5 cupcakes in one afternoon. This time around, I showed some restraint and ate 3 cupcakes in 5 days. I decided to try cupcakes from a few different shops so that I could find my favorite. I won’t say “best” because 1. new bakeries pop up every day and 2. taste is so subjective.

– Little Cupcake Bakeshop: Christina and I were wandering around and stumbled upon this bakeshop located on Prince Street. I wanted to love this cupcake. I really did. I mean, the shop was adorable, plenty of seating, friendly staff and they served Illy espresso.

There was a large range of flavors, and on the suggestion of the girl at the counter, I chose a coconut cupcake to split with Christina. Unfortunately, this was a pretty dry cupcake. It crumbled easily and was just okay. The frosting was laced with tons of coconut and light as air, so it made up for the dryness. I thought maybe the coconut was just not a great choice, but the ladies at the table next to us also commented on the dryness of their cake. No one worry – I still managed to force this down 😉

– Crumbs: With locations all over the city, Crumbs is a really popular cupcake spot. The sign outside the door actually bragged about being voted the best cupcakes in the city. The cupcake I sampled was delicious, there is no doubt about that, but it wasn’t the best one I had. What did impress me though, was the cuteness of these cupcakes!

Crumbs obviously puts a lot of effort into how good their products look. I had such a hard time deciding. I wanted to get this gigantic red velvet cupcake, but like I said, I was trying to practice restraint. Plus, calories are listed on the menu. Can’t decide if that’s good or bad…

I ended up choosing the carrot cake cupcake, which was great. Cream cheese frosting and plenty of nuts, I mean how can you go wrong? Honestly, I don’t know why everyone freaks out over Crumbs though. It was great, but not OMG!GOOD!! ya know?

–Billy’s Bakeshop: My hands down favorite cupcake in the city! Billy’s had it all. Adorable shop, great variety of flavors, good iced coffee and a super friendly staff. Not only do they have cupcakes, but a variety of other homemade baked goods like pies, muffins, cookies, etc.

Christina chose the vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting. I asked the girl at the counter for her favorite because I couldn’t decide. She gave me a banana cupcake with cream cheese frosting. I don’t even really like banana, so for this to be my favorite cupcake, you know it had to be good!

So that concludes my mini-cupcake tour of NYC! I wanted to have another cupcake at Magnolia and try one from Two Little Red Hens, but we weren’t ever in the neighborhood. Do you have a favorite NYC cupcake spot? I feel like anyone who’s been has an opinion on the matter.