jinian | cupcake battle royale (Reply)

Apparently I am doing a series on modern food trends (see also frozen yogurt).

On Saturday I was near both Cupcake Royale and Trophy while both were open, so I acquired a lemon cupcake from each to do the long-awaited head to head cupcake comparison. The Royale seemed to closely resemble what I've had there in the past. I've had Trophy less often, so this may not be completely representative.

Criterion	Cupcake Royale	Trophy
Presentation for travel:	CR - Simple, clever, and reusable. Boxes for more than one are reasonably attractive and well-branded.	T - OMG FOR CUTE.
Cupcake appearance:	CR - Simple. Frosting texture looks good.	T - A little overblown, perhaps.
Toppings:	CR - An ACTUAL DELICIOUS LEMON DROP.	T - Yellow sugar and tiny white spheres, which taste like nothing and add only a gritty texture to the experience.
Frosting:	CR - Thick, very slightly grainy, sweet and a little tart with strong lemon flavor.	T - Thinner, which we knew it had to be to make those ruffles. Totally smooth and way sweet. Homeopathically lemony.
Cake:	CR - Flat top, dense crumb, visible dark flecks that I suspect are vanilla. Excellent white-cake flavor and texture.	T - Flat and slightly gummy top, looser crumb. Good lemony flavor, but also some baking-soda offness. (Note: marzipan_pig thinks T has better cake than CR generally, though this test does not support that hypothesis.)
Entire bite:	CR - Lemony and good, some vanilla aftertaste.	T - Tried first to attempt to taste without bias. Damp cake from cake mix. Possibly lemony? Frosting disappeared.
Pricing:	CR - $33/dozen, according to the straightforward web site. Individual cupcakes are $3-3.50.	T - Information not available on web site with 15-second load time up front. The cupcake evaluated was $3.50.
Merchandise available:	CR - Lots. Kind of kitschy, but I'm susceptible.	T - None found.