Cupcakes and Sprinkles

My boyfriend, Rob, and I have reached our first real, planned "break" in our two-month road-trip.  We're stopped in Palo Alto, California, where Rob's dad is on a temporary work assignment.  We've decided to take a few days to hang out around here and reboot.  We'll visit nearby San Francisco, of course, and we're considering buying tickets for a lunch on the Napa Valley "Wine Train," but that'll be in a few days.  For now, though, it's time for some relaxation, sun, and as we discovered yesterday afternoon, Sprinkles cupcakes!

We're near the Stanford University mall, and we took a quick ride down yesterday to browse some of the shops.  Much to my delight, we stumbled upon a Sprinkles bakery!  The Sprinkles brand began in L.A. a number of years ago.  Having lived in New York City for three years, I'm well aware of the gourmet craze that cupcakes have become.  I've waited outside, in a line, in the snow, for cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery in SoHo.  I've searched far and wide — and even put up with the 1 train — for Buttercup Bake Shop and Eleni's.  I love to bake, and I love all things sweet, so I had heard of Sprinkles but hadn't come upon it while I was in New York.  We got an unexpected treat yesterday and bought 4 delicious-looking varieties — vanilla milk chocolate, peanut butter chocolate, almond dark chocolate, and marshmallow chocolate.

I'm happy to report that the 2 we've tried so far — the vanilla and peanut butter milk chocolates — are just as delicious as they looked.  (How we haven't eaten the other two yet, I don't know.)  Their icing tops were dipped in, you guessed it, sprinkles, which added a fun element to the sweetness.  I'm admittedly a sprinkles nut (the topping, I mean).  I can't eat frozen yogurt or ice cream without some kind of rainbow-esque little bits on top.  Rob's the opposite, but even he enjoyed them on top of the peanut butter cupcake.  The cake itself was rich, but not too sweet.  Were they overpriced?  Of course, but for such a novelty, it was worth it.  They weren't as good as Magnolia's, which are just seriously sinful they're so amazing, but they were a good runner-up.  I've always dreamed of opening my own bake shop.  At least I'm putting in the hard hours of research by trying out all these specialty bakeries.  

— Catherine :)

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