Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I gotta agree - Magnolia cupcakes are crap. The frosting and cake are always dry. I usually go with Sugar Sweet Sunshine in the city and Heavenly Crumbs in my neighborhood in Brooklyn. But never EVER Magnolia. Plus all the other spots are not crowded with the SATC tour/crowd, so that's an extra bonus.

to FamishedFem: I can't speak for the SE staff, but my dislike of Magnolia cupcakes is that that the two key components, the cake and the frosting, are both kind of crappy. The frosting is only mediocre - extremely sweet and the texture is a little too runny for my liking. The cake part is always dry! So dry!

@FoodinNY - I won't argue with you about the food, because everyone has different taste, and with these carts there is no question that it can be hit or miss from day to day depending on how busy they are, and who is doing the cooking. There's no excuse for bad food, but that could be one explanation for the difference in our experiences.

What I can say is this: They are definitely not greedy. I'm pretty sure the prices went up before they were nominated for a Vendy Award, and the simple fact is, none of these cart owners are getting rich. The cost of rice alone over the past 6 months has gone up an extraordinary amount, and these vendors just don't make that much money. Add to that the difficulty they face every day to keep their carts up to code, and not draw attention from the cops or the health department, and you've got a very difficult business to run. On top of that, the money they do make is not just for the 3-5 hours you see them serving food during lunch. Most vendors have to wake up super early in the morning, to pick up their carts from garages, and work until very late at night cleaning out the cart and preparing the food for the following day. Most street vendors work a minimum 60 hours a week. That's why an organization like the Street Vendor Projects exists, and why we should support the Vendy Awards. To call them greedy is completely unfair.