Disney Springs Sweet Cuisine Quest at Sprinkles Bakery

Anthony and I stayed at Disney's Saratoga Springs property during our trip to Florida.  It was a great location as we easily walked to and from the bus depot to head over to the parks and on the day we visited Disney Springs (formerly Downtown Disney) we caught the boat to head over across the pond.  We could have walked but it was fun to hitch a ride on the water.

We did make a stop at Starbucks for a quick bite of breakfast.  Most restaurants do not open for early morning eats so we saved our larger meal for lunch.  Disney Springs is still under construction but we were able to visit quite a few shops (most open between 10 and 11 a.m.) while we were there including the Disney Candy Cauldron (mouthwatering treats), Star Wars Galactic Outpost, Qniqlo (Japanese Label Design Garments), etc.

For our sweet culinary adventure we visited the newly opened Sprinkles Bakery.  Although we were the only customers in the shop they assured us that the roped waiting lines out front fill up quickly and the store is normally crowded with customers.

If you have not heard of Sprinkles before they are a Beverly Hills, California-based cupcake bakery chain established in 2005. It is considered one of the first cupcake bakeries.  Candace Nelson who was originally an investment banker and her husband (also an investment banker) opened Sprinkles.  Candace is described as taking a sophisticated twist on the classic cupcake, using ingredients like sweet cream butter, pure Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon vanilla, Callebaut chocolate, fresh bananas and carrots, real strawberries and natural citrus zests.  Her cupcakes have also received quite a few celebrity endorsements and she has become a celebrity too.  Along with Florian Bellanger and a rotating judge, Candace is a judge on the competition series Cupcake Wars.  She has also appeared on other Food Network shows.  Nelson also has been featured on television shows, including The Today Show, Nightline, The Martha Stewart Show, and profiled in People magazine. Her cupcakes have been featured by The Oprah Winfrey Show, Bon Appetit magazine, Food & Wine, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.

It was fun to sample the cupcakes at Sprinkles after hearing so much about the bakery for years now.  I love the show Cupcake Wars and it's neat to see what she offers as a judge of so many others cupcakes.  We only sampled two mini cupcakes (since we had not eaten lunch at this juncture).  I would say at $3.50 each they were a bit pricey for mini cupcakes.  Regular sized cupcakes were $4.95 each.  The decorations were simple and classic.  Not quite as decorative as my Dark Vader cupcake from Starbucks at Hollywood Studios (which I absolutely adored).  They were flavorful and good but Anthony and I both thought they were actually a wee bit dry.  It might be because we only sampled mini cupcakes vs. their full sized options.  I think the smaller the cupcake the harder it is to keep the moisture inside.  Anthony also found the frosting to be much sweeter than he would like.  I thought it was sweet too but I have a sweet tooth so I am more tolerant to sweet treats than he is.  Overall it was fun to visit and try Sprinkles Bakery cupcakes which are not available here in Boise.  I would be interested in picking up her cookbook to see if the recipes at home turn out better than the ones we sampled at the bakery.  She must be doing something right with over 17 shops in the United States and abroad.