🧁Baked Cravings🧁 and Why I Hate Krispy Kreme

It's more than just a stupid name

I gotta be honest friends, my bakery momentum has slowed the last few weeks. There’s still plenty of content to keep this newsletter going for many months, but whether it’s the weather or the uncontrolled spread of disease I just haven’t been as excited to explore the city’s sweet, buttery offerings like I was this summer. If there’s something you’ve been excited about, let me know! Maybe that’ll get me back in the groove.

In good news though, Cinnabon now sells their frosting by the pint. I think their cinnamon goo is the best component, but their frosting is still pretty tasty and the next best thing to eat from your stomach while you binge The Queen’s Gambit. (side note - I’m still real upset that I can’t find any of their breakfast products that launched earlier in the year in NYC. If you’ve got a lead hmu)

This week we’ve got a review of the East Village branch of cupcakery Baked Cravings, and as promised from last week why Krispy Kreme donuts suck.

Baked Cravings

Back in September, Harlem-based Baked Cravings opened an outpost in the East Village and I finally got around to checking it out. Baked Cravings specializes in nut free (and some GF versions as well) cupcakes, which you can buy locally or they ship nationwide online. I’m generally not a cupcake person - they’re fine, but I don’t think the format allows for a lot of creativity (and at least in NYC there’s almost no creativity) so cupcakes aren’t something I tend to seek out. Baked by Melissa is the exception here given the teeny-weeny size makes them more like a yummy snack.

Either way, given Baked Cravings was a handful of buildings down the block I figured I’d check it out.

clockwise from top left: root beer, cinna craze, smores in a cup, pumpkin spice

I picked up a variety of the more interesting flavors, plus one of their cupcakes in a cup situations. The verdicts:

• The root beer was pretty mild - there wasn’t much of root beer flavor, and I forgot to ask what was in it, but I think maybe some marshmallow creme? It wasn’t all that strong on unique flavor but the cupcake base was quite good

• The cinna craze similarly had a very mild flavor - just a hint of cinnamon on a standard yellow cupcake with a very creamy frosting. Good, but not standout.

• The smores cupcake in a cup/jar continued this theme of being very good but not super unique. There was a dusting of graham bits, followed by a layer of chocolate cupcake, frosting, then chocolate chips, then more chocolate cake. I feel like it would be really good on ice cream, but on it’s own left me wanting more

• The pumpkin spice was a HIT. Loads of pumpkin flavor, a healthy amount of spice, if you get a cupcake get this one. Super tasty, would recommend.

If you’re big on cupcakes these were definitely some of the better ones I’ve had, so check them out in the EV or Harlem (or order online!). I am disappointed the previous shop, Dun-well Doughnuts closed down, but this is an acceptable replacement. Speaking of donuts…

Why I Hate Krispy Kreme

(image from Krispy Kreme)

This came up last week because Krispy Kreme (KK) announced they would be serving two new donut flavors, caramel and salted double caramel crunch. These actually sound really good! And they probably would be, if KK wasn’t an abomination and affront to the donut gods. First, the name is bad. It’s a bad name! The other things I think of when thinking of Krispy Kreme, are the Krusty Krab and Krusty the Clown, neither things associated with delicious sweet fried dough rings. It’s also one letter short of being incredibly racist, although hailing from North Carolina that might’ve been what they were going for. It’s 2020, just think of some other dumb alliteration that isn’t a misspelling of two words that already started with the same letters.

And where’s the “kreme” anyways????? Some fake news right there for you.

Beyond the misleading and almost offensive name, the actual donuts aren’t that great. The dough is way to light and airy (that is such a thing), and the glaze is way to sweet. I’d honestly prefer two day old grocery store donuts to the conveyor belt of glazed shit they pass for donuts (beware the “hot light”). A donut needs to be yeasty, it needs a bit of heft and texture, and the glaze needs to accentuate the dough without overpowering it. And KK fails on each of those points.

I’ve never had their cinnamon bun, and didn’t know they sold one until I wrote this sentence, but just looking at the pictures on the website I know it’s not going to be good.

I believe, that Krispy Kreme nailed the instagram aesthetic before that was a thing and people just buy their donuts because they look picture perfect. Which, you know, is probably a bad sign when a mass-produced food product looks and tastes the exact same nationwide.

Prove Me Wrong!

But that’s just my like, my opinion. Do you love Krispy Kreme? Tell me about it and we can get a good point-counterpoint thing going here. I honestly want to know (and I know other readers do too). And maybe, maybe, I’ll visit their new monstrosity in Times Square so I can “have the best seats in town to watch the theatrical journey of Krispy Kreme’s doughnut making process taking place right before [my] eyes.” 🤮

Ok next week will probably be less ranty, I’ve got some CONTENT about LEVAIN BAKERY that is probably going to be DELIGHTFUL, so mash that share button and tell your friends. Stay safe bun buds and wear a mask 😷