Cinnabon Cupcakes Review

I have a great affection for desserts in general (friggin sweet tooth) but cupcakes are particularly close to heart because they are so darn cute...and basically bite-sized cakes :}!  I love Cinnabon cinnamon buns so when I heard they were releasing a cupcake line this year I had to try it.  They only have four flavors and so I got to sample them all ^_^ In the end, the cupcake was either quite good or pretty darn bad :\ No "okay" cupcakes, if that makes any sense ^^;; Descriptions from Cinnabon website.



Cinnacake Classic
A tribute to our famous Cinnabon® Classic Roll - moist, vanilla cake infused with our Makara® Cinnamon, topped with our signature cream cheese frosting and garnished with a caramel, Makara Cinnamon swirl.
This was definitely the most tasty of the bunch.  It actually tastes like a cinnamon bun and it's a gorgeous cupcake to boot. The cake was delicately moist, not too heavy and the cinnamon flavor isn't overpowering but its flavor is unmistakable.   The cream cheese frosting was not too sweet (to me, I do admit I like sweet things) and the caramel topping tasted a little more like chocolate to me with just a hint of cinnamon but the cinnamon flavored cake more than makes up for it. The way they incorperated the iconic cinnamon bun look with the frosting is just the cherry on top :D

Chocolate Passion
If you like chocolate, you'll love our moist, decadent chocolate cupcake topped with rich, chocolate buttercream frosting.
Mmmm...I think this might be the fault of the particular store carrying the cupcake rather than the cupcake itself but this was a very dry cupcake for me. It was definitely chocolaty but the dryness killed the overall experience.  The red candy on top didn't do much for me either; it had a faint cinnamon-y tang but that's it.  The buttercream was pretty good but I could tell the cupcake was old :\ as it had dried out around the edges making a little "crunchy" - hardly a word I want to use to describe frosting.  Maybe if I tried a fresher cupcake...

Vanilla Bliss
Calling all cupcake purists: This moist, divinely vanilla cake topped with luscious, vanilla buttercream frosting is for you.
This cupcake was a bit of a fail for me but I could tell it was an old cupcake :\ The cake was very dry (even more so than the chocolate one) and flavorless and what's with the random, cheap candies on top?  This blue candy didn't even have a flavor, just a weird gummy consistency. The frosting I think COULD have been good if the cupcake weren't so old.  My least favorite of the bunch, which is disappointing considering I love vanilla flavored desserts.

24-Carrot Cake 
Picky about carrot cake?  Try our gold-standard carrot cupcake!  It's perfectly spiced, has a hint of pineapple and coconut and is topped with our signature cream cheese frosting.
My second favorite cupcake.  The cake part was deliciously moist with real chunks of carrot with a light pineapple and coconut flavor.  The cream cheese frosting was soft and complimented the carrot cake very well.  The orange sugar topping added an interesting crunch to the overall experience but I think I would have preferred the cupcake without it since it made the frosting a little too sugary.

Overall, the Cinnacake Class and 24-Carrot Cake were definite winners.  Next time I get a box I'd get only these two cupcakes.  The other two were very disappointing :(~