Cupcake Tour in NYC

Back in February, I saw a Groupon deal for a Cupcake Tour in NYC.  It was the Friday after tax day and since my sister works in an accounting office, I thought it would be a nice way to celebrate the end of tax season.  The Groupon was $65 for four people, so my sisters, my husband and I headed into the city for a 12 pm tour.

The tour started at the corner of Union Square Park and 14th street.  It was pretty easy to find our guide with a little hand drawn sign and other people waiting.  The website had said the maximum amount of guests would be 20 but our group was a total of 24.  The tour started promptly at noon and we were told there would be 6 stops and a possible extra stop at a chocolate store as well.

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Our first stop was Baked by Melissa.  I have mail ordered from Baked by Melissa before so I was familiar with the cupcakes from there.  Each cupcake is a small bite.  They are the size of a quarter.  But they are layered with different flavors and pretty tasty.  We got to sample the April flavor of the month, which was a vanilla confetti cake with chocolate frosting and a cereal crunch topping.   While our group stayed outside, the guide went in to get our samples.  It took several minutes but then she came out with one for each of us.  Then she gave everyone an opportunity to go into the store and make a purchase if they would like to take home additional cupcakes.   I was a little concerned about how that was going to go, but thankfully only a few people decided to buy anything at each stop.  

The next stop was Amorino which was a gelato store.  This time there was enough room for us all to go inside and sit down.  Our guide told us that we were be sampling the mango sorbet.  She had a large container and went around with a generous spoonful for each person.  While not a big fan of mango, there was definitely a lot of flavor.

From there our guide said it would be about a 10 minute walk to our next location.  Along the way, we got to walk through the Washington Mews.  This gated off area used to be horse stables but is now office space for NYU.  The cobblestone walkways and some of the doors still retained the look of stables.  I had never heard of that area before it was a cool little historical aspect to the tour.  As was our next little walk through Washington Square Park where there is a monument to George Washington modeled after the Arc de Triumph in France.

Our next food stop was Molly’s Cupcakes.  This store had a “school” theme, including swings that you can sit on at a “bar” type area.  You can design your own cupcake and then there is a sprinkles bar for you to put on your own.  They also had premade flavors in the bakery case for purchase.  We were each allowed to choose a kind of cake and icing and then you can add your own sprinkles.  They were ready for our group and had plenty of employees ready to make our creations.  I choose a red velvet cake with a buttercream frosting.  I am not a big frosting fan in general but the buttercream was good. The red velvet cake was fresh and very good.  

Our next stop wasn’t far.  Bisous Ciao sells all different flavors of macarons.  The flavor we got to sample was salted caramel, which is a flavor I really love.   I have never really had an authentic macaron.  I expected it to be light and ‘melt in your mouth.’  Instead, it was quite dense.  It was sweet but I didn’t really get the salted caramel flavor at all.  

Because it was close, we were able to make an extra stop at Royce, which is a small chocolate shop that sells chocolate from Japan.  The free sample was a chocolate champagne square.  It was very creamy and smooth.  I didn’t get a champagne flavor but it did say it contained alcohol.  

After walking a little further, we arrived at Milk and Cookies.  This shop was very small.  They make their cookies fresh each day and also sell organic milk.  Our sample was a salted oat cookie with white chocolate chips.  This was my favorite sample of the day!!  The cookie was soft and you definitely got the salty taste along with the sweet.  Yum!

Our last stop was Magnolia Bakery.  This location is the flagship location and apparently was featured in an episode of Sex in the City.  Our sample here was a mini size red velvet cake with a butter cream frosting.  While it was good, I preferred the red velvet from Molly’s Cupcake better. 

The tour lasted about 2 hours.  It seemed a little disorganized at our first stop but then the other locations seemed ready for us (our guide said she was calling each location ahead of us) and it went smoothly.  I don’t really like the idea of allowing people to make purchases at each location, though I understand why people would like to.  While only a few people did at each location, I could see it really slowing down the tour if more people had decided to do the same.  We had just planned to go back to anywhere we wanted to buy some treats to take home… though we ended up not doing that. 

One thing to note is that the tour does not end where it started.  In fact, it is about a mile away from the start.  I knew that and knowing that I am not familiar with that area of the city, I had printed out a little map.  We ended up using my husband’s GPS on his phone to direct us back to Union Square. 

Once we got back to that area, I had to make a stop at Beecher’s Cheese.  There is only one other location, the original, in Seattle.  Chris and I visited that location on a food tour we did in Pike Place Market in Seattle.  I love their Flagship cheese and had to go buy some to take home.

There was a farmer’s market going on in Union Square.  So we took the opportunity to get some fresh produce and even some Maple Candy from Vermont before we headed home.