Sprinkles Cupcakes
Don’t we wish we’d thought of it first?
The great time-tested formula for food product success in LA: Take an easy to make comfort food, dress it up with some new names and flavors, create a catchy name, and open up a store in B-Hills to sell at exorbitant prices.
I went with a friend on a weekday afternoon. Parking was a breeze only because we were able to land a spot in one of the metered parking lots directly behind Little Santa Monica Blvd. If you go at night or on the weekends, parking should be quite a pain.
As we went for the door, a sign said something like, “Please close the door behind you in order to preserve the freshness of our cupcakes”. That struck us as odd, until we saw how the cupcakes were on display. The cupcakes are directly in front of you when you walk in, placed in trays behind a panel of glass, open to the air. They look as chic as the decor-red velvet with vanilla frosting, double chocolate, vanilla with milk chocolate frosting, vanilla with coconut, cinnamon sugar, the list goes on.
We were served almost immediately by a “Sprinkles” girl-one of about 5 working that day. Any business that manages to employ that many people by solely selling cupcakes is doing well. The store is small, cramped in fact with a Starbucks-style bar facing the window with several stools and the main counter in front.
I chose a vanilla with milk chocolate frosting and my friend chose a cinnamon sugar cupcake. A couple cupcakes + drinks later, we were out $12 after tax. The weather’s been nice, and we were able to find seats at one of two sidewalk tables. At first bite, the rich creamy chocolate frosting reminded me of the donut filling old-fashioned donut makers use. It was good, and a complete 360 from the bland, dense, and dry vanilla cake batter that made up the lower half of the cupcake. My friend’s cinnamon sugar cupcake crumbled as he futily attempted to eat it. His fondness for the confection didn’t even match my low levels, stating that, “It was ok. The little red thing on the top was pretty good”. He was referring the to the hardened fondant decoration on the top of the cake. The water came in handy as we finished off our moisture-challenged kid’s food.
Well, at least we tried something new. For $6.50 in cupcakes before taxes, I can’t help but think that a box of Betty Crocker mix and a can of frosting would do about the same as our 2 cupcakes today. And we’d have enough left over to bring to work the next day.
