Sprinkles Cupcakes

Posted by Edmund in Bakeries & Sweets, Los Angeles | 2 comments

Sprinkles Cupcakes

Various locations in major metropolitan areas across US, including LA, Chicago, and Dallas

I went to the original:
9635 Little Santa Monica Blvd.
Beverly Hills, CA

So, if you live in LA—or even if you don’t for that matter—you’ve probably heard of Sprinkles, the legendary cupcake store in Beverly Hills that started the whole cupcake trend throughout the US. I, however, was a little slow on the uptake. Having lived in LA all my life, I didn’t really learn anything about cupcakes until I went over to DC and saw the cupcake craze with my own eyes. Ironically, that’s where I heard about Sprinkles, supposedly the best of all the cupcake stores in the US. I don’t know how true that is, but now that I’ve returned to LA as a cupcake fiend myself, I have no choice but to head over to Sprinkles and see for myself.

Anyway, I headed over at night yesterday with a good friend of mine. Beware, because it’s quite a long drive, especially if you go at the wrong time of the day. It was around 5 pm when we started from Pasadena, and we got to Sprinkles about 50 minutes later because of all the traffic. To be honest, I felt a bit foolish for wasting so much time driving just to get a damn cupcake. No cupcake, I thought, could be so good to justify that much of a time sink.

Boy was I wrong!

Surprisingly, Sprinkles has some of the best cupcakes I’ve ever tasted, and all of the cupcakes I tried were consistently excellent, except perhaps for the red velvet. All the cakes are top notch—moist, with great texture. Typically the frosting is not not overly sweet or cloying at all. It has good texture, good creaminess, and blend extremely well with the cake.

Moreover, the location is fantastic—right on Rodeo Drive, in the midst of beautiful architecture, lots of money, and tons of people. It’s a very hot area, with a lot of life. And good cupcakes only make it better.

What I had (recommendations in bold):

1. Red Velvet—The only cupcake that really disappointed. It wasn’t bad. It just didn’t live up to expectations. The cake itself wasn’t too bad. It was more on the cornbread flavored side. Pretty moist, but not as much as some of the better cakes in town. Also, kind of plain, though flavor isn’t bad. Biggest problem is that frosting doesn’t mesh as well as with other cupcakes. It’s a bit on the overly sweet side, and cake is a bit too flavorless, so clashes. However, unlike most places, cream cheese flavor does come through really well in frosting. It’s an okay cupcake, but you can get better.  Kiss my Bundt stands out as a very similar, “cornbread” style red velvet that tastes better on all accounts.
2. Dark Chocolate—Belgian dark chocolate cake with bittersweet chocolate frosting. The first keeper on the list. The dark chocolate is right on, both in the cake and the frosting. Typically, I don’t like dark chocolate too much because it’s too bitter, but surprisingly, in this case, the bitterness was balanced with a bit of sweetness. The pound cake was great, as with the other cupcakes. Moist, nice consistency, with a nice dark choc flavor to it, which really came through but which wasn’t overpowering by any means. The frosting also had just the right amount of sweetness. Still on the bitter side (characteristic of dark chocolate), so it wasn’t a sweet cupcake, but the frosting was sweet enough to balance out the bitter chocolate. If you like strong chocolate flavors, this is a phenomenal creation. Probably even beats out Kiss My Bundt’s chocolate flavor.
3. Vanilla—Madagascar bourbon vanilla cake with creamy vanilla frosting. If you like vanilla, this cupcake is a keeper. The vanilla cake tastes just like extremely moist pound cake, with great flavor, somewhat buttery, but not with a greasy flavor. Very simple, consistent, and well done. Vanilla frosting is a tad too sweet for my taste, but it’s rich, creamy, with a great lightness to it, so that you can just eat it by the spoonful. Blends well with the cake, but at the same time, it’s just too sweet for me. It would be perfect with the chocolate frosting (i.e. the Vanilla Milk Chocolate flavor).
4. Peanut Butter Chocolate—Chocolate-chip studded peanut butter cake with fudgy milk chocolate cream cheese frosting. Mega keeper! This was beyond excellent. Typically, I hate peanut butter cupcakes. They are way too sweet for a PB flavor. But in this case, it’s right on, and the cupcake is extremely unique in comparison to other flavors (kind of reminds me of the Oinkster’s). The frosting is fantastic—milk chocolate flavor mixed in with some PB, making for a great blend. Very rich, creamy. Not like the typical frosting—a lot thicker, much more like a ganache or PB. The cake itself is also fantastic—moist, with a great pound cake flavor, mixed in with a light PB flavor. Chocolate chips within the cake are extremely well integrated and add a new layer of flavor to the cake itself, which is typically much more neutral. All in all, top notch. Frosting and cake are perfect. If you like PB or chocolate, this is for you.

Overall Score: 4.0/5.0. If you know the right flavors, probably more of a 4.4
The sweetness and creaminess of the frosting + moist, flavorful cake = probably the best cupcake store in LA.