In Cupcake News

I have been going to Starbucks less frequently these days, maybe once every two weeks. I stopped in the other day to check out the new drink, the Marble Mocha Machiato. As far as I'm concerned, it's not half the drink the Cinamon Dulce Latte was, but all good promotional drinks must come to an end. I noticed that Starbucks was featuring two varities of cupcakes, a chocolate and vanilla. With low expectations for the Starbucks cupcakes, I made it out of the joint with only my Marble Mocha.

Then I heard from SmartyPants who sent in a cupcake report. Someone had given SmartyPants and FribsinCharge a $5 Starbucks Gift Card, hopefully not as an Engagement Present. Don't spend it all in one place, kids, oh, wait, I guess you have to.... Since neither Smarty nor Fribs drinks coffee (*cough*, freaks) they decided to get one each of the Starbucks Cupcakes. After bringing them home for a taste test, the kids were disappointed because the frosting on both cupcakes tasted like coffee. Fribs relinquished his frosting to Smarty who is morally incaple of not eating food that is otherwise destined to be thrown away. It was an unsatisfactory outing all around.

I could certainly imagine that the frosting on these cupcakes tasted like coffee, after years of working in coffee bars, I would come home every night smelling of coffee (but not in a good way) and I probably tasted like it as well. I decided to try one of the cupcakes myself and opted for chocolate because that's what I was craving after lunch at My Big Fat Greek Diner. I couldn't really taste a coffee flavor, but I am probably immune to such subtle notes at this point. The frosting was not bad, although the cake was inconsitently moist. The frosting quantity was ample, but not too rich- good cake to frosting ratio. The cupcake is a little small and certainly not worth $1.95 if you have the choice of defaulting to a nearby cupcake bakery, but without this option, the chocolate cupcake is good news when you need a choco-fix.

PS Starbucks is teaming up with Yahoo to help you find a date and they have devised some puzzle in conjunction with the New York times in which you can win "coffee for life", however merely getting the crossword puzzle out of the Times is not enough, you must purchase the Times at Starbucks to receive the special game piece. Will Shortz, how could you?