Photo: Ratko Radojcic

 

Sprinkles kindly sent over an unsolicited box of its new maple bacon cupcakes this morning. Um, thanks!

This surprise dessert—maple frosting, vanilla upcake, chopped bacon, and a little pig-shaped candy—seemed like the kind of thing to divvy up democratically and evaluate in the court of public opinion.

What follows are the first impression comments from everyone at Chicago magazine who found themselves chewing on a cupcake at some point today.

 

  • I liked it! But really, the most important part of cupcake to me is if it’s light and fluffy with a reasonable cake to frosting portion, which Sprinkles always gets right. With that said, I feel like they can pretty much adopt any flavor and make it taste good. They should add some bacon crumbles to the frosting though, or salt, the maple flavor was overwhelmingly sugary and distracted from the bacon bits. —Paige Pritchard
     
  • I’m always down for weird bacon combos—I once had a bacon milkshake at Nana’s (milkshake, alcohol, and bacon) and lived to see another day—but this cupcake was underwhelming. More maple flavored than bacon flavored—even with the bacon bits. —Tomi Obaro
     
  • Sorry, one whiff of the cupcake and I set it down. If I wanted pancakes and bacon, I’d go to a breakfast joint and order it! (I know, I’d be a terrible critic. I’m all for trying new things—when those new things don’t taste like tried & true classics.) Sorry! —Jennifer Medema
     
  • I think they got the proportions wrong. If the goal is to evoke crispy bacon dipped in syrup at the end of a hearty breakfast (and that is what it should be), the salty, savory bacon should take center stage. Instead, it's overwhelmed by sugar—think bacon bits drowning in a vat of pure Grade A maple syrup. The cake texture was spot-on, like a fluffy pancake, but the sugary flavor and sticky-sweet frosting had me wondering who put chewy, nearly flavorless meat bits in my cake. That said, the aftertaste (aided by a few sips of water) was delightful. —Kaitlyn Jakola
     
  • That cupcake was extremely flavorful. One taste of the buttercream, and I thought I was actually drinking syrup. I thought it complimented the bacon bits nicely, but I am not sure if I would be able to eat a whole cupcake. It was a little too rich.  —Amy Simms
     
  • I must have a terrible sense of taste. I tasted a bit of maple, but I was not sure that was what it was. It was good, but mostly because it was fat and sugar. I like regular vanilla better. That said, I could eat 5 of them.  —John Kenzie
     
  • It’s like a Denny’s Grand Slam, but sweeter and more, uh, dense. It definitely perked up my meager lunch from home, but I’ll stick with the red velvet in the store. —Cassie Walker
     
  • Delicious! —Beth Fenner
     
  • Cupcakes are one of the lesser forms of dessert in general, and finding soggy chunks of bacon floating through one is disgusting—like a perverted piece of flesh accidentally stirred into the batter. Frosting consistency was nice (but, of course, sweet as hell). —Harry Sawyers
     
  • I couldn't get past the frosting—so sweet it stripped my throat, and I couldn't speak for 10 minutes. Actually, that made my colleagues very happy. They might keep me supplied with these sugar bombs. —Penny Pollack
     

Sprinkles Cupcakes. 50 E. Walton St., 312-573-2010