Starbucks' cupcakes

REMEMBER WHEN you were a kid and the only gang you knew about was the Little Rascals - or the gang at Sesame Street? There was nothing better than celebrating your birthday at school. Your teacher stuck smiley face stickers on your Le Tigre shirt, your friends sang to you - and your mom brought in dozens of icing-globbed, homemade cupcakes.

Fast-forward to today. Your laptop is broken. It's 20 degrees out. What better food to lift your spirits than a cupcake?

Last week, omnipresent coffee giant Starbucks added cupcakes to its roster of sweets, preying on everyone's love of this childhood comfort food. The beloved treat is back in vogue, recently gaining popularity as a nouveau wedding cake, a gourmet restaurant dessert and even as an old-fashioned indulgence, thanks to "Sex & the City's" obsession with New York's cupcake-cuckoo Magnolia Bakery.

When cupcakes call, the Chain Gang answers.

Available in two flavors, Vanilla Sunshine or Chocolate Chocolate, they retail for $1.75 each, or $6.95 for a box of four, and are made by what Starbucks revealed only as "one of our preferred national suppliers."

But better get them early in the morning; when our all-girl Gang (think "Grease's" Pink Ladies) snagged six cupcakes from the 20th and Callowhill Starbucks, we cleaned them out.

Once back at the Gang's lair, we got down to business and, alas, it was more business than pleasure.

The vanilla cupcake tasted like it was made with yellow cake mix, and while the cake was moist, the icing had an "artificial taste." Little white and yellow jimmies on the icing were a plus, however.

The chocolate cupcake was loaded down with about an inch of chocolate frosting - and covered on top of that with another inch of dark chocolate shavings. Tasters agreed the icing was yummy, but the cake, again, tasted artificial, like a boxed mix.

Nothing like mom's.

Overall grade: C+

Next week: Kildare's.

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