One of the managerial folk at work had his last day today, so I couldn't resist springing a mess of cupcakes from Sprinkles on the whole gang. I figured it would be a good excuse to try out the cupcakes that chowhounds all over town have been swooning over. The setup in the store is simple. Behind a wall of glass are wooden cupcake racks holding the day's 11 flavors of the 21 that they make throughout the week. To the right of that is the counter where you place your order, and to the far right is the cash register hiding behind wood paneling. On the side wall is a selection of retail items, including DIY cupcake mix ($14 for enough to make a dozen) and T-shirts ($25 to $40, ouch!) Six flavors are made all week long, and the rest have a regular rotation, always appearing the same days every week. So far, I have tried the Cinnamon Sugar, Red Velvet, and Peanut Butter Chip, and can say that these are some of the best retail cupcakes around. Their Red Velvet borders on legendary. They're very moist cupcakes, almost *too* moist: After a couple of hours in the box, the fat in the cupcakes managed to soak through not only the wax paper cupcake liner, but also the waxed paper lining the box, and the cardboard box itself. I'm starting to think that their recipe starts with lots of butter, adds just enough sugar to make it sweet, and then only adds enough flour to keep everything held together through the oven. A few minutes after eating one, I feel sort of like I just ate a stick of butter.
Alas, Sprinkles falls squarely into the same trap as gourmet peanut butter sandwich purveyor PB Loco: The price is absolutely ridiculous. It's $3.25 for *one* cupcake. If you get a whole dozen, they have the decency to drop the price to $36, only $3 each! If it was, say, $2.50, you would likely find me there two or three times weekly. At their prices, once a month tops. I'll leave Sprinkles to the chichi Scottsdale Desperate Housewives crowd with their bleached blonde hair and oversized sunglasses with white plastic rims, and just make my own cupcakes at home.
