Hello cupcake

Holy headrush, who needs cocktails when you can have sugar? Manhattan seems to be the unofficial town of cupcakes and I've had a bit too much fun trying out as many as I can get my sticky little fingers on.

Without further ado, the top five cupcake purveyors in town:

1. Sugar Sweet Sunshine - 126 Rivington St
This cute Lower East Side bakery, decorated with funky light fixtures and mismatched thrift-shop furniture, is renowned for its trademark little pieces of heaven - their $1.50 cupcakes. Best flavours: Pistachio and Spicy Pumpkin

2. Magnolia Bakery - 401 Bleecker St, at 11th St

If you're willing to wait in the line that seems to perpetually snake around the blue-awning corner, you'll be rewarded with delicious cupcakes frosted in pretty pastel colors. Best flavour: Hummingbird

3. Babycakes - 248 Broome St, btwn Ludlow and Orchard

Their radically wheat-free, sugar-free, dairy-free cupcakes are the yummiest in town - and you’ve got to love a place that sells frosting shots for a buck, mmm. Best flavour: Red Velvet

4. Billy’s Bakery - 184 Ninth Ave, btwn W21st and W22nd St
This Chelsea bakery, known for its moist, buttery cupcakes topped with to-die-for icing, are beautifully displayed with the retro charm of a family kitchen circa 1940. Best flavours: all of them

5. Buttercup Bake Shop - 973 Second Ave, nr. 51st St

The tiny bakery sports a retro 1950s look, with a pastel colour scheme and fake pressed-tin ceilings. Best flavours: Devil Dog and Lady Baltimore