Sprinkle, Sprinkle Little Cupcake

Usually, we don't cupcake binge two weeks in a row, but I noticed that Sprinkles has a salty caramel cupcake featured this month, so I didn't want to miss it. I've had a hankering for caramel (especially salty) lately. Plus, it’s been awhile since I've eaten Sprinkles.

The biggest draw for Sprinkles is its chic Beverly Hills origin and the founder is a judge on Cupcake Wars. They are somewhat comparable to Crave in terms of presentation (i.e. frosting application, use of fondant, etc) and similar in taste. Sprinkles and Crave vary slightly in flavor options, size and price. Sprinkles cupcakes are a bit smaller and about 25 cents more than most cupcakeries. But if you follow them on Twitter, they often feature a free cupcake flavor each day to the first 50 or so customers who whisper a secret phrase when placing their order. I got myself a free strawberry cupcake by doing this over the weekend.

Now, to the good stuff...my flavor selection included: salty caramel (top middle), strawberry (bottom left) and cinnamon sugar (bottom middle). Boyfriend got pumpkin (top left), vanilla (top right) and dark chocolate (bottom right).

Boyfriend ate his vanilla and dark chocolate cupcakes before I got home from work, so I didn't have a chance to try them. With both of these flavors, you are given the option of having sprinkles on them or not. What's a Sprinkles cupcake without sprinkles? Never mind. Anyway, the vanilla is made with Madagascar vanilla and the dark chocolate is Belgian dark chocolate cake with bittersweet chocolate frosting. Boyfriend enjoyed them. I guess there isn’t much to say about these core flavors.

When I got home, I had the strawberry. Again, another standard flavor. I liked it. It had appropriate cake and frosting consistency.

The second cupcake I had was the cinnamon sugar. I had this cupcake a long time ago, so I needed a refresher. It's lightly spiced buttermilk cake dusted with cinnamon sugar. It was good enough. It reminded me of a cinnamon donut. I would have preferred frosting on it.

Finally, boyfriend and I had our specialty cupcakes. Boyfriend had his pumpkin with cinnamon cream cheese frosting and it tasted as he expected. I don’t care for pumpkin, but I tried it and thought it was good.

Saving my hotly anticipated cupcake for last, I had my salty caramel. It was buttery caramel cake with caramel cream cheese frosting and sprinkled with fleur de sel (aka salt). It was yummy. It had the perfect amount of caramel and salt. I prefer the chocolate cupcakes with salted caramel a little more, but this one satisfied my craving.

While not on the top of our cupcake list, Sprinkles is a good alternative once in awhile; especially when they have special featured flavors.

And so, the cupcake journey goes on...