Taste-Off!

So, everyone who knows me knows how fond I am of cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery, on Bleecker and 11th in the West Village. My mom, however -- even though she inevitably eats the cupcakes I bring home -- has always claimed they're not that great. Then last week from work she sent me five different e-mails about cupcakes. Apparently some people claim that cupcakes from rival bakery the Buttercup Bake Shop are better than Magnolia's. The gauntlet had been thrown!

Actually, the owner of the Buttercup Bake Shop defected from Magnolia, so the whole thing is really a "moo" point (you know, it's like a cow's opinion. It just doesn't matter. It's moo). In any case, tonight in my household, we held a cupcake taste-off.

First, a pink-frosted cupcake and a chocolate-frosted cupcake from each bakery were carefully prepared in seclusion.


Next, my expert tasters weighed both options, washed each one down with a glass of skim milk, and offered their educated opinions.


As the taste-off moderator, I was accused of impartiality. But I assured even my harshest critics that I was prepared to offer an unbiased opinion.


The verdict? Both tasters -- even my mom, who claimed she could tell just by looking which cupcake was which -- agreed that the cake portion of Cupcake B was drier than Cupcake A, whose frosting was also deemed superior. Which means, for those of you eagerly awaiting the results, that Magnolia Bakery still produces the finest cupcakes in New York City!