Corporate Eats: The Holiday Cupcake

Never As Good As The First Time

Isn't it the curse of corporate-sponsored food flow that the workplace is blessed with an overabundance of treats one day and left to wither in snacktime drought the next?

Anxiously awaiting rumored Popcorn Factory deliveries, the gourmet spreads of yesterday but a crumbly memory, I was forced to curb today's mid-afternoon sweets craving with a questionable second-day Buttercup cupcake. Admittedly unimpressed with the bakery's freshest offerings, I was not surprised to find that by 2:30 this afternoon, yesterday's dense chocolate cake had taken on a texture mildly akin to sawdust. The icing, congealed and crusty from overnight exposure to Citi air, retained the harsh, acidic flavor of tarnished metal, presumably the biproduct of the freakishly unnatural (as in, "Should I really be eating that?") Christmas food coloring. The hardened sugar did seem to have less tooth-staining power on the second day, a major plus considering my desire to conceal the scarfing of a cupcake significantly compromised in quality.

The sad reality: In spite of my complaints, for the love of the cupcake, I'd do it again tomorrow.