THE BEST: Muffins and Cupcakes

[Blondie]

I went to Make My Cake on 110th and lennox today.. One of the best slices of red velvet cake i have ever had.. It was a cream cheese icing.. The cake itself was extremely moist.. I think they might have put orange or lemon peel in it, however they denied it..

The cupcakes were superb. Besides being amazing, it was also huge..  One of the better cupcakes in the city.. Not a big selection, but great none the less.

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Is that the place on Central Park North? If so, I had a great German Chocolate Cupcake there when we went to see the Gates around Harlem Meer.

I still love Sugar Sweet Sunshine best, but I thought this was nearly as good and far better than Magnolia or Billy's Bakery.

[Pan]

Yes, that would be on Central Park North -- which is really nothing else than the segment of 110 St. that goes past the northern end of the park.

[ewindels]

Magnolia (of whose cupcakes I am not a fan, dry as toast and shortening frosting) has spawned several off shoots, one of which, Billy's on Ninth Avenue between 21st and 22nd, offers cupcakes which are IMO a substantial improvement over its progenitor. The cake was rich and moist, and the simple buttercream not nearly as overwhelming as Cupcake Cafe's (which is great on the first bite and dizzying thereafter).

Edited April 20, 2005 by ewindels (log)

[sherribabee]

I was so excited to try an actual Magnolia cupcake today. I mean, with all the hype and all.

*gag*

It was worse, yes WORSE, than the pre-packaged, 6-for-a dollar variety I associate with grocery store chains around the globe. And I didn't really like those, even as a kid. And I am NOT, by any means, a picky person.

Dry, stale, virtually inedible cake with a disproportionately large glob of sugared Crisco on top.

Horrid.

[rooftop1000]

Ok you have to give up now and go uptown to Citarella...Just before a show at the Beacon we were killing time in there and saw the cupcakes from hell....ooooh just loook at those. We even had a parking space on the street close enough to go sit and eat them....little nuggets of heaven under a white chocolate butter cream

back to your regularly scheduled program

tracey

[lia]

Citarella the FISH store? Where are the cupcakes sold? Of course I'm gonna go right there tomorrow on your rec, but it still sounds a little odd.

[Todd36]

Citarella the FISH store?  Where are the cupcakes sold?  Of course I'm gonna go right there tomorrow on your rec,  but it still sounds a little odd.

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Try Amy's bread on Bleecker or perhaps other branches for some good cupcakes. Better than Magnola's at least.

[donbert]

Sugar Sweet Sunshine is my current favorite place for cupcakes. Perfect size, frosting that isn't overwhelming, and a light fluffy cake that is flavorful on its own.

After reading about Downtown Atlantic in this thread, my girlfriend and I went to go check them out on Sunday. Perhaps it was just an off day (Mother's day? Sunday?), but they were some of the worst cupcakes I've ever had. My girlfriend got the vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting and I got the vanilla cupcake with chocolate frosting. Both the vanilla cupcakes were really hard and dense, almost like a dry cornbread muffin, and very large. The vanilla frosting wasn't bad, light and creamy, but the chocolate frosting was practically hardened ganache. Neither of us finished our cupcakes and afterwards I felt a bit sick to my stomach from the chocolate frosting.

[cakewalk]

Cupcakes don't appeal to me at all (except I was a Hostess Cupcakes fan in my yoot), but I do love muffins. The other day I was in Whole Foods and bought some (I never bought their muffins before), and what a disappointment. I bought chocolate chip, blueberry, and blueberry corn. I had some of each and threw them all out (a very unusual thing for me to do.) Even coffee didn't help the dryness and tastelessness of these muffins. I tried the blueberry muffin first, and when that went in the trash I thought it must have been just an "off" muffin, but the other two were the same.

[JennyUptown]

Count me as a fan of Magnolia. I ate more than my share while living nearby.

As for muffins, at least once a week I find myself craving a banana blueberry bran muffin from Grey Dog's Coffee (Carmine Street near Bleecker). The best, particularly when split, toasted and buttered.

[Pan]

Yesterday, I got four chocolate cupcakes and four flourless chocolate cakes from Magnolia for a cousin's birthday.

I thought the cupcakes were good except that the amount of icing was ridiculously excessive to my taste and too buttery or something (we had a discussion around the table on how much of the fat may have been butter or shortening).

On the other hand, the flourless chocolate cakes were surprisingly dark and had some bitterness remaining, plus a somewhat smoky taste, and weren't that moist. I liked them, and they were good with some Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream.

My verdict? I doubt I'd wait on line again for cupcakes, but I'd be willing to try some of their other non-iced items.

Edited October 4, 2005 by Pan (log)

[lapasterie]

I had a bride that wanted to give a cupcake and a donut as a favor .

She loves the cupcakes from Magnolia but they would not take an order for 160.

They max out at 4 doz. She gave me the recipe that they claim they use(from their cookbook) It came out good but she said it was not like theirs .She described theirs as dense and muffin like. She brought me one to see if I could copy it. I thought it was horrible,and so did 2 of my baking friends. It turned out that her Mother got her to scrap the whole idea and they donated money to Hurricane Katrina relief. Boy was I glad.

[Jason Perlow]

In case anyone didn't see the Magnolia-bakery inspired rap video on SNL over the weekend

Lazy Sunday

"Two! No Six! No Twelve! Bakers Dozen!"

"68th and Broadway, Step on it sucka, Whatcha wanna do Chris? Snack attack mother#$%#!"

[Pumpkin Lover]

Re: Lazy Sunday--almost as good as Wayne's World. I've been watching that video *non-stop* since yesterday.

Back to cupcakes!!! Sugar Sweet Sunshine's my joint. They got the bomb frosting.