Photo via

The other day I was in Rockefeller Center and of course, saw its popular Magnolia Bakery storefront. I’ve been a faithful fan of Magnolia since my first trip to NYC four years ago—the cupcakes follow a traditional recipe and their buttercream is incredibly difficult to beat. Well, Publix’s buttercream is pretty good… Anyway, I had to stop by Magnolia and grab my standard cupcake: vanilla cake with milk chocolate frosting.

Name: Magnolia Bakery

Location: 1240 Avenue of the Americas

Time: 2pm on a Friday

Order: Vanilla cupcake with chocolate buttercream frosting

Price: $3.25

Review: Eating this cupcake was like reuniting with an old friend—it had been so long since we’d last seen each other, but everything felt just like the good old times. That’s probably a super dramatic and incongruous metaphor, but the cupcake tasted as amazing as I remembered. The cake had the perfect vanilla bean flavor and wasn’t dry at all (the biggest—and false—complaint I hear about Magnolia). The creamy frosting struck the right balance of sweetness and the milk chocolate flavor was prominent. As I write this, I want another one… Or maybe another six.

Rating: 5/5