Cupcake Break - trip to Magnolia at Rock Center

Having gone to school at NYU, trips to Magnolia Bakery in the West Village were part of my undergrad experience. Going with a bunch of friends to wait in line, staring through the windows at a few trays of vanilla and chocolate cupcake and mountains of pastel buttercream frosting goodness, and then finally getting one and downing it in about 3 minutes, resulting in a painful, sugar headche filled walk home. Now that I'm supposedly older and wiser, I wanted to give Magnolia's another go, to replace my painful yet great experience with a more civilized, one.

I found out Magnolia was opening a 3rd location right near my office (located at 49th and 6th) I rounded up some coworkers and headed out for a cupcake fix.

Amazingly, it wasn't all too crowded (though it was about 3pm on a weekday) and there were seemingly endless amounts of trays of yummy Magnolia cupcakes, meaning minimal waiting and a faster purchasing experience.

I immediately was drawn to a pink frosting and sprinkled cupcake, with a sugar breast cancer pink ribbon. While it cost an additional 50 cents (which goes to the Susan G Komen association), I felt that the $3 was warranted for no line waiting. The cupcake was so girly and cute AND it felt even better because I contribued to breast cancer research.


From the side, it had less frosting than previous Magnolia cupcakes I've eaten, which for me was great as generally Magnolia's buttercream becomes overbearing.


Overall, the chocolate cake was just the right amount of sweetness mixed with chocolate, neither element overpowering each other. It was somewhat moist (not fudgy like some chocolate cupcakes) and it helped to balance the extreme sweetness of the frosting. The sprinkles were a nice mix of the round sprinkles with colored sugar, so there was a slight crunch to every bite, adding to the texture of the cupcake.

Eating it in the office was a tad embarassing but completely worth it. A solid 2 1/2 JAMs out of 3 simply because I loved the cake and frosting combo together but like a slightly moister cake.



JAM note: My coworker, Uptin, enjoys Magnolia so much that he purchased 4 (two chocolate frosted, two vanilla) to bring home and said that this location was less crowded than the Upper Manhattan Magnolia.