Just say no to cupcakes…

Look carefully, that might appear to be nothing more than a picture of cupcakes but I will let you in on a little secret, those are actually a highly addictive substance. You see those are not just cupcakes those are Magnolia Bakery cupcakes, which the government should list as a controlled substance.

If you have never been to New York City, you probably haven’t tasted one. You are the lucky one because you really can’t have just one. Oh sure they are great for an occasional visitor, you get to taste them and then go home to the safety of your neighborhood bakeries and Betty Crocker cook books, but I am not so lucky.

The first time I tasted one was when I was a freshman in college. I had heard a celebrity I was crushing on swear by them and I simply had to try and he was right. I then went back to my life in the Bronx and College in upper Westchester, safe from their delicious temptation tucked away on Bleecker Street. I am now almost two years removed from college and my interest in that celebrity has gone by the waste side, when I think of him at all I am baffled by the infatuation in fact. However, I’ve never forgotten the cupcakes and now I work in Manhattan just blocks away.

One day I saw a sign in Grand Central Station stating that they would be opening a Magnolia Bakery annex there the following week. I made my first visit there the last week of February. It is now the second week of March and I have visited Magnolia locations three times and just today literally had to force myself not to go to Bleecker because I was only 5 blocks away.

The cake is just cake but the frosting is like crack! I don’t eat chocolate cake but last week I was babysitting for friends who had a box of Chocolate Magnolia cupcakes and I not once, not twice, but three times stuck my fingers in the frosting and had to rearrange it so that the mother wouldn’t notice I did it. And it gets worse, there are two other locations in Rockefeller Center and Columbus Ave. bringing the grand total to 4 Magnolia Bakeries around Manhattan, I cannot escape them they are literally Uptown, Downtown, Eastside, and Westside.

So please, don’t be like me. If you have never tasted this mouth-watering treat, save yourself. If you don’t’ heed my warning and do become addicted (and you will) don’t say I didn’t try to warn you.