Sprinkles turn everything into a party

There's an old saying, "You eat with your eyes." Never was this truer than when it comes to sprinkles.

For some grown-ups and most kids, these tiny cylindrical objects, about the size of ants, make an ice cream cone or a cupcake into a party. Kids clamor for the ones called rainbow, in vivid colors.

Sprinkles look festive. They're hard and waxy, sweet and crunchy. In my opinion, though, they interrupt the smooth, seductive mouth feel of ice cream.

Arthur Katsafouros, owner of Marvel Dairy Whip in Lido Beach, said that nine out of 10 kids prefer rainbow sprinkles. At Sprinkles in Blue Point, scooper Erin Schottler said that rainbow sprinkles are the most popular, but "little girls like pink." When people order sprinkles, except for chocolate ones, they talk about color, not flavor.

Here, we preface the word sprinkles with chocolate, rainbow or another color, but in New England, chocolate sprinkles are called jimmies.

I wondered if I could find a way to make better-tasting sprinkles from scratch, but I quickly realized two things: (1) I lack the industrial equipment that would make a sprinkle look like a sprinkle, and (2) most people don't care how they taste.

Stu and Carolyn Feldschuh at Snowflake Ice Cream in Riverhead, "make" mint-flavored chocolate sprinkles. They start with regular green and chocolate sprinkles, but they are not divulging their secret technique. "When it comes to ice cream," Stu Feldschuh said, "everybody is a kid again."

If you grate or finely chop a dark chocolate bar, it will taste better than sprinkles, but it won't be the same, because it was not extruded from a machine.

Martha Stewart has a "recipe" for custom coloring sprinkles, but they won't taste better. To impart flavor to sprinkles, add a drop or two of good-quality extract of your choice, cover, shake and marinate. They will pick up some of the extract flavor . . . oh, why bother?

On my cone, hold the sprinkles. But I will defend your right to eat them; I can't argue with a rainbow.

RAINBOW CUPCAKES

2 cups sifted cake flour, not self-rising

2 teaspoons baking powder, very fresh

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons unsalted butter softened

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

2/3 cup milk

3 egg whites

1/4 cup rainbow sprinkles

For frosting:

1 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 tablespoons rainbow sprinkles

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Sift together cake flour, baking powder and salt.

2. Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla and almond extracts.

3. Add dry ingredients alternately with milk, mixing well after each addition.

4. In a clean mixing bowl, beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold gently into batter. Last, fold in sprinkles. Divide batter equally among 18 cupcake wrappers in regular-sized muffin tins. Bake 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from pans and cool on racks.

5. Whip cream and sugar until it is in soft peaks. Fold in vanilla. Spoon whipped cream onto each cooled cupcake. Top with sprinkles. Makes 18 cupcakes.