Sprinkles-The Cupcakes' Quest to Rule the Universe Continues

I went today. There was a line. I’m not generally interested in waiting for a sweet, but I was meeting a friend who wanted to go before her meeting. I figured I would get a chance to talk to her while we waited.

When I arrived she was there with three friends. One was super excited, not about the cupcakes, but I kid you not, Bill Rancic and his wife Giuliana being on hand. These two were apparently a draw for a substantial number of folks in the line.

Once we got to the counter I ordered four cupcakes. My standard test for cupcakes is red velvet. Sprinkle's red velvet was described as a “light chocolate cake” with cream cheese frosting. I also ordered the lemon cupcake with lemon frosting, the key lime cupcake, and the cherry cupcake. The latter was described as containing pureed cherries in the cake as well as the frosting.

They are definitely cute cupcakes. Shockingly, they taste pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good to quote my favorite fictional curmudgeon.


The red velvet, did not, thankfully, taste like a light chocolate cake. I’ve always believed a proper red velvet doesn’t taste like chocolate or anything else but red velvet. That’s because it has just a bit of cocoa in the batter. The frosting was not too thick and not too sweet. I shared these with another friend off-site and we both agreed this was good. It does look more like deviled food cake than red velvet to me so I’m glad it didn’t disappoint.

The lemon cupcake was another keeper. I was a bit put off by the crumb. It’s denser on these cupcakes than I prefer. It looks more like pound cake by the crumb. I tend to prefer an airy crumb on cake if it’s frosted. Surprisingly, this was much lighter than I expected for a crumb this size. It was very, very good. Again, the frosting seemed to be a not too thick or too sweet and it offered a complimentary citrus taste that seemed different from that in the cake itself. This is a definite go-to cupcake.

Then there was the surprise hit, the cherry cupcake. The ratio of frosting was the same as the cupcakes mentioned above. I would like to hope the twee pink frosting was courtesy of actual cherries versus my dear friend #2 red food coloring. The cake and frosting also tasted of almonds, but not overwhelmingly. As I ate this cupcake I kept looking at the cake expecting to see fresh baked cherry fruit, like you would expect in a blueberry muffin, because that’s what it tasted like.

Finally, there was the key lime cupcake that is a no-go for both of us today. It was too tart. I felt like I’d entered the world of sour patch kids meets cake, except it didn’t taste fake ( Unfortunately, I also tried to eat the cute little disc on this one. Note: Please treat that cute little disc the same way you treat the liner and throw it away. It was awful.

This is by far the best, although not the most exotic (that probably goes to More and Phoebe’s Cupcakes) exclusive cupcake place I’ve tried in the city. Yep, I would go back and try more of them in the future.

More pictures are here.

Sprinkles
50 E. Walton
Chicago, Il
Mon.-Sat: 9-7
Sun.: 10-6

I mostly agree with your assessment. The cupcakes were good, but not great. I tried the Cherry, Chocolate Marshmallow and Dark Chocolate. Cherry was my favorite, follower by dark chocolate and I did not care for the chocolate marshmallow at all.

As for the little dot - it's definitely not edible. Is it supposed to be? Why didn't somebody warn me before I almost cracked my teeth on one and got red food coloring all over my mouth and fingers (as I tried to spit it out, to no avail).

Time Out Chicago has some photos and a little commentary about the opening.

Hi- Today's version of the Red Eye, gave Sprinkles a thumbs down. They said that there are too many places selling cupcakes, and that the market is saturated. Hope this helps, Nancy