For this month’s issue I decided to postpone my diet another week and visit the most popular cupcake bakeries in the Dallas area to see which one was the best. Here’s what I found.

The Cupcakery

2222 McKinney Ave, #230

¾ Stars

The Cupcakery’s most popular cupcake is the South­ern Belle Cupcake (aka the red velvet.) Its appearance is more modest than that of Gigi’s or Sprinkles, but manages to look delicious all the same. The cup­cake itself is moist enough but almost tasteless, but fortunate­ly the sugary icing helps mask that. The icing leans more to­wards a vanilla flavor than the advertised cream-cheese, yet overall, it’s a good cupcake

Sprinkles Cupcakes

4020 Villanova St.

2.5/4 Stars

Oh, Sprinkles: an obvious contender and probably the most popular cupcake store in Dallas. Their most bought cup­cake is the red velvet, which seems to be a universal favorite in the world of cupcakes. Unfor­tunately, Sprinkles did not live up the hype. The cupcake bread itself was on the dry side with a somewhat bitter taste. The ic­ing, however, was spot-on with its cream cheese taste. Overall an okay cupcake, but I was dis­appointed by the way people talk it up all the time. (Also, what is that circle thing that they put on top? It’s cute, but what am I supposed to do with it? I feel bad throwing it away…) If you’re going to Sprinkles, get their red velvet ice cream in­stead. That stuff is bomb.

(PSA: Don’t try to eat the cute circle thing they put on top. Does not taste good. I repeat: Does not taste good.

Gigi’s Cupcakes

5450 W Lovers Ln #130

3.5/4 Stars

When I first walked into Gigi’s Cupcakes, there was a tiny Yorkie dog running around looking super ador­able, so that’s an automatic win. The very friendly lady at the counter told me the most popular cupcake was the Wed­ding Cake cupcake, which looked very fancy and almost too wellmade. The icing was pretty much the height of the cupcake bread, which was im­mediately a problem for me. How am I supposed to bite a five-inch cupcake? Also, the icing would’ve been very good if there hadn’t been so much of it. Instead, it ended up tast­ing like diabetes. The cupcake alone was perfect, however. It’s indescribable how good it was. Overall, an awesome cupcake. Just scrape off the top half of the icing and you’re good.

Stein’s Bakery

12829 Preston Rd #417

2/4 Stars

Stein’s most popular cup­cake is their White on White cupcake, which happens to be a fancy name for vanilla. (What is the name for their chocolate cupcake? Brown on brown? That sounds extraordi­narily unappealing.) In fact, the White on White is so popular that when I came, it was sold out. The baker had to go to the back and get me one/make me one, which might be why what he gave me looked like a bake sale cupcake. It looked sloppy and homemade, but it’s the taste that matters, and the taste wasn’t nearly as bad as the ap­pearance. The cupcake bread was nice and moist, the way a cupcake should be, but was vir­tually tasteless, and the icing was way too sweet, even with the little amount I was given. In total, a mediocre cupcake. Sorry, Stein.