Molly's Cupcakes

I have been taking a finance course over the summer (yuck!) to fulfill a requirement for school and to get it out of the way, and today was the final.  After a long weekend of studying and spending hours creating the world's most intense study sheet, I knew that I wanted to find some way to celebrate finishing the class.  Of course, I immediately thought, "what special food/dessert item should I treat myself to?"  Since I haven't had a cupcake in a while and have been craving one, I settled on that.  The next step was deciding where to get it from, because there are tons of places in the city that you can supposedly find the "best cupcake."  I have been to Magnolias, Butter Lane, Sprinkles, Georgetown Cupcake, and Two Little Red Hens, among others, so I have definitely gotten around to sampling some of NYCs best offerings.  Instead of going back to one of these places, I remembered Molly's Cupcakes- a place I have been meaning to try for a while.

I first looked them up on yelp and saw they have 4 1/2 stars, which is a very good sign.  Then, when I looked on their website and saw their menu, I knew I had to come here.  The first specialty cupcake listed on the menu is the Ron Bennington, which is a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter filling, chocolate ganache frosting, and a crushed butterscotch topping.  Needless to say, I was immediately sold.  I continued looking at the menu just to see what the other offerings were, and I couldn't believe I had never been here before!  Some of the other cupcakes that sounded awesome to me were the Cake Batter (vanilla confetti cake filled with raw cake batter, topped with vanilla buttercream and sprinkles), the Cookie Monster (vanilla chocolate chip cake, raw cookie dough center, buttercream, and a mini chocolate chip cookie on top), the Salted Caramel Butterscotch (vanilla cake filled with butterscotch caramel pudding, topped with salted vanilla buttercream and caramel drizzle), Peanut Butter Nutella (peanut butter cake filled with nutella, topped with nutella buttercream), and Flourless Molten Chocolate (flourless chocolate cake, dulce de leche ganache filling, french vanilla buttercream, and chocolate drizzle), to name just a few.  They also have a bunch of fruity cupcakes (mixed berry, lemon meringue, peach cobbler, blueberry cheesecake, etc.) but none of those particularly appealed to me.  Even though all of their offerings sounded delicious, I knew I had to get the Ron Bennington.

After much anticipation and a sigh of relief after finishing my final, I finally made my way over to Molly's Cupcakes.  It is a very cute shop nestled in the heart of the West Village, and is worth making the trip.  All of the cupcakes in the display case looked perfect, and even better than I had imagined.  While I could have easily bought a half dozen, I just got the famed Ron Bennington for myself, and the Cake Batter for my sister.  I took them to go, but if you are coming here with someone else they have tables to sit at where you can play board games while devouring your treat.  I made it back to my apartment at around 3pm, and opened the box to see the beautiful cupcakes staring at me.

Since it was only 3pm and I was trying to wait to have the cupcake for dessert, I had to immediately close the box.  The next three hours were torture, as I sat there on the couch thinking about this cupcake.  Finally, I finished dinner and it was cupcake time!  

Just when I thought I could not get more excited, I cut into this and saw the creamy peanut butter filling!  I finally took my first bite, and was in heaven.  You will happily know that it is even better than it looks in the picture, and that says a lot. Every aspect of this cupcake is delicious, and it is safe to say that this was the best cupcake I have ever had.  Yes, that means better than Magnolia's, Sprinkles, and all of the aforementioned cupcake establishments that I have been to.  The chocolate cake is so moist and chocolatey, and while I usually am disappointed by the base of a cupcake, this one was great.  The chocolate ganache frosting, however, was by far my favorite part.  It is so fudgy, rich, decadent, and chocolatey.  A lot of cupcakes with chocolate frosting are too sweet which overpowers the chocolate flavor, but these have the perfect balance.  Then, after a few bites of pure bliss, just when you are thinking that it couldn't possibly get any better, you reach the peanut butter center.  It balances out perfectly with the chocolate, and is a peanut butter lovers dream.  The crushed butterscotch on top also added a nice dimension to the cupcake.

If you are in NYC, don't buy into the hype surrounding the better known establishments like Magnolia's, and instead go to Molly's.  Their cupcakes are so unique and creative, and you will not be disappointed.  I HIGHLY recommend the Ron Bennington, and am already looking forward to the next time I will be able to return and enjoy my new favorite cupcake.  

(Just as a side note--this is the inside of the Cake Batter cupcake.  I tried a bite, and while the Ron Bennington is still my favorite by far, this one was very good too!)