The Williams Family Cupcake Showdown

So, my friends keep talking about Sprinkles cupcakes and how incredible they are.  When I heard about these cupcakes, I was convinced that they had to be something very special becase of the wistful tone in all my friends' voices as they described the goodness that is Sprinkles.  I happen to follow some posts about Downtown Houston that led me to the MMM Cupcake Truck , which had to be sampled for Virginia's birthday lunch.  We chose three types of cupcakes and found all three to be quite delicious, so my curiousity was sparked!  I had to know, "who makes the better cupcake?" and The Williams Family Cupcake Showdown was born.

The Roundup
We piled the family in the car this chilly Saturday morning and headed out on a pilgrimmage to Sprinkles.  This was our maiden voyage to the hot spot near the Galleria.  The store is cute cute cute!

We picked up a Chocolate with chocolate frosting, Red Velvet, Pumpkin and Chocolate Marshmallow.  (In order to keep the matchup fair, I asked the MMM Cupcake Truck what would be on the menu so that we could buy similar flavors at each place.)  The service was quick, efficient and friendly.  This is definitely an upscale cupcake shop... after all, it's roots are in Beverly Hills!  Four cupcakes + one not-so-hot coffee later, the check came out to $18.25.

My trusty iPhone made one of the leaves on my Thanksgiving Blessing Tree because I don't know how I'd live without the thing!  It came through again as we went from there in search of the MMM Cupcake Truck, which was parked by the Menil Art Museum yesterday.

We GPS'd it over there and bought a Chocolate with chocolate frosting, Red Velvet, Pumkin and, since they didn't make S'Mores :( , a Cookies and Cream (which is delightful, by the way!)  Four cupcakes later, I paid $10.00 by debit card over the MMM Cupcake Truck's iPhone Square (a handy little device that Jeremy already has and I may or may not need to get and a completely brilliant tool for this small business).  We were all very impressed with how nice the

Now, we that we were armed and dangerous with enough sugary treats to keep a kindergarten class hyper for a week, we turned back home to see the two face off and judge for ourselves.

The Contenders

Sprinkles



MMM Cupcake Truck

 

The Showdown 



The entire family was in agreement that the MMM Cupcake Truck had the better Chocolate with chocolate frosting.  The votes were unanimous.  I liked the addition of chocolate chips in the cake batter.  Jeremy thought he tasted a hint of cinnamon, which Justus echoed.  Lexi is a four-year-old chocolate connoisseur and agreed that the truck had the better moist chocolate cupcake.

 

In the Pumpkin category, it was literally a split decision.  Not the decision itself, we were all unanimous in agreeing that Sprinkles had the better frosting and MMM Cupcake Truck had the better cake!   A perfect Pumpkin cupcake would require the marriage of the two bakeries.



In the Red Velvet event, the winner was handed to Sprinkles.  The cake was about the same... very similar, in fact.  I think it came down to a preference for Sprinkle's less cream cheese-y frosting.



This may not be a fair comparison... as I mentioned, we planned on comparing a S'Mores cupcake to a Chocolate Marshmallow, but the S'Mores were unavailable, so I called an audible and picked up a Cookies and Cream.  Guess, we'll call this the Freestyle category.  Also, if I'm honest, by the time we got to this part of the competition, Jeremy and I couldn't take any more sugar and the kids were pretty set on eating the cupcakes they picked out.  So, Lexi ate the Chocolate Marshmallow and Justus had the Cookies and Cream.   I tasted both and would have to select the Cookies and Cream, but that may be a preference for Oreos (including a whole Oreo at the bottom of the cup!?!) over marshmallows in general.  Jeremy abstained from this round.  Winner goes to the MMM Cupcake Truck for the Freestyle Competition.



The Conclusion

Sprinkles has a lot going for it: cuteness overall in presentation and packaging, the cupcakes were delicious, the frosting (aside from the chocolate flavor) was preferred, and we definitely felt like we were doing something fancy, so the posh experience is a plus.

But we're going to have to hand the winner to the MMM Cupcake Truck for this Showdown.  The cake was overall more moist and flavorful.  We liked the unexpected extras too, like the chocolate chips and the Oreo lined cupcake cup.  I don't know the owner's name, but he's extremely friendly.  And we certainly felt adventurous tracking down the truck!

We made a memory and I'm afraid I may have nearly made my kids sick on sugar, but I'm pretty sure you can tell by their faces that they were completely delighted by the whole experience.



Happy, but a little overloaded on sweets.



Covered in frosting and cake and lovin' every minute of it!