Sprinkles Is Selling a Flamin' Hot Cheetos Cupcake, and We Have Questions

We love a good food stunt as much as the next person, so when we got an email from Sprinkles Cupcakes announcing their upcoming weekend flavor — Flamin’ Hot Cheetos — we were intrigued.

And we had questions.

1. How?
The cupcakes were described as “fluffy vanilla cake filled with Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, topped with creamy white cheddar frosting and dusted with crushed spicy Cheetos.” Filled cupcakes are nothing new, but the picture showed a cross-section of the cupcake with a neon-orange core of savory snack food that inspired morbid fascination. And morbid fascination with a cupcake? That is new.

2. Why?
It’s not National Cheetos Day (which is not really a thing). It’s not 4/20. Why would a bougie cupcake chain make a limited-edition dessert with such a potentially heinous flavor profile? “Just for fun,” said the young woman behind the counter. She said that the store had sold “a fair amount” of the Cheetos cupcakes since debuting them the day before. (This isn’t Sprinkles’ first foray into savory-sweet experiments: They sold a Sriracha lime cupcake last month.)

3. Is it any good?
The aggressive sweetness of the frosting hit me first. Although the topping was described as white-cheddar-flavored, there was only a hint of cheese — the sugar was running the show.

The milder taste of the vanilla-flavored cake was a better foil for the Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, and actually made a fairly enjoyable sweet-savory combination. Eventually, though, the sweetness wore off completely and I was left with nothing but Cheeto heat. Half a cupcake was more than enough to give me a noticeable sugar rush and a mild stomachache.

So is it good? Well, sort of.

4. Should you get one?
This is nothing you need to try. But neither is any of the crazy food at the state fair. Eating for novelty is a valid reason to eat, even if things don't taste the best. So if you have $4 and an interest in bizarre dessert creations, there are worse options out there.

The Flamin’ Hot Cheetos cupcake is available through Sunday, July 29, at Sprinkles, 4501 North Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale. Call 480-970-4321.