D.C.'s Best Cupcake No. 7: Sprinkles, Part Deux

So I still haven't actually been to Sprinkles - currently planning an excursion in August when Sister V. comes down - but according to this Washington Post article, D.C. is getting its own 24-hour Cupcake ATM!!! Granted, Georgetown is not nearly as convenient as say...mmm...Arlington, but when those 2 a.m. cupcake cravings hit, at least there won't be any traffic! :D

Cupcakes No. 6: CakeLove

The cupcake gods hate me.

I had ridiculously high hopes for CakeLove, most of them stemming from the fact that it is within walking distance of our neighborhood and I enjoyed the thought of gourmet cupcakes whenever the craving struck, but alas, it is not to be. Why? Because they’re terrible, that’s why.

Okay, terrible is way too harsh. It is really hard to make a terrible cupcake, especially when it’s someone’s successful livelihood. (They’ve been around for 10 years, so who am I to judge?) I’ve finished every CakeLove cupcake I’ve ever started, but at $3.35 a pop – unless you get the weekly special, which are usually priced at $2.75 – the grocery store bakery next door starts to look reeeally appetizing.

The chain has six locations in the DC Metro, but I’ve only been to the one near our condo. The employees are always very cheerful – noticeably and wonderfully so – and the interior is clean and bright and modern looking. But outside of the baker’s racks and a plain, ol’ foodservice display case, there is really nothing in the décor to differentiate it from a deli or a coffee shop other than a slew of construction-esque signs that warn you to eat your cake at room temperature. The signs themselves are entertaining, but they seem a little random without a larger scheme to tie in to.

They’re also a bit ironic because CakeLove serves their cupcakes straight out of the refrigerated case. And while I understand the concern for food safety and the trumping power of health inspectors, anyone who thinks I am going to wait 15 minutes for my cupcake to come to ‘room temperature’ has obviously never seen me eat cupcakes before. (Or anything, for that matter. ;) Many of the cupcakeries I’ve visited don’t refrigerate their cupcakes, so I wonder if that is something left up to the reigning health department. Sour Buttercream – what a way to go!

However, in the interest of a fair review, I gave them the benefit of the doubt and tried them both ways, room temp and cold. On my first trip about a month ago, I bought a Raspberry Vanilla cupcake for me and a 44 (As in, the president. I do love the DC humor. ;) for my friend Hannah. The cupcakes sat in the warm car for several hours before we ate them and, while you’d think they’d be all soft and melty, mine tasted like a dry muffin buried in a blob of strangely unmeltable buttercream. Strike one.

Tiramisu (left) and Coffee (right). Afterwards, we went home and drank coffee. Cause that's how we roll...!

Trip number two occurred a few nights ago, when I lured the huz away from his homework with promises of a sugar fix. (Secretly, I’d walked past CakeLove earlier in the day and saw them advertising a Tiramisu cupcake, which I knew I had to try.) Drew ordered a coffee cupcake and we set upon them immediately, fresh and cold from the case, but unfortunately, with the same results as before: a heavy, dry cake with dense, toupee-like frosting. The center of the Tiramisu cupcake had the benefit of being injected with espresso, which softened it up a bit and gave it a lot more flavor, but not enough to save the day. Strike two.

Do I dare give them a third try? Probably. Someday. Perhaps then the Lords of the Cupcakes won’t be quite so cruel. :(

Cupcakery Design - Two out of Five Cupcakes

The Cake - One out of Five Cupcakes

The Frosting - Two out of Five Cupcakes

DC's Best Cupcake No. 4: Sprinkles

Okay, so I haven't been to Sprinkles yet - I thought they were West Coast only, but a quick search showed that a new one just opened up in Georgetown! - but I couldn't resist sharing this video on a Saturday when the beautiful sunshine is affecting my ability to write at any great length. Apparently, their Beverly Hills location has - get this - a 24 Hour Cupcake ATM! For reals? Genius! Genius, I tell you! Hopefully, they will not import it here. Otherwise, I'm toast! (Cinnamon swirl toast. With cream cheese frosting. New cupcake flavor? You heard it here first! :)

(via Design Mom)

Have a great weekend!

DC's Best Cupcake No. 4: Lavender Moon Cupcakery

If I was slightly more hip, slightly more quirky, and slightly more in possession of a cupcake pan – I got angry at my silicone one and Goodwilled when we moved – Lavender Moon Cupcakery would be exactly the kind of cupcakery I would want to open if I ever felt like making a drastic career change. (Not that I have a career now or anything, but you know what I mean…)

This Old Town cupcakery is tucked away in a sliver of a row house off of King Street, and while the exterior looks like an obedient member of the Historic District, the interior is anything but. The walls are painted with thick vertical stripes of pink and red, all the furnishings look fresh out of the thrift store (in a good way), and the ceiling is festooned – for lack of a not-quite-so-random word – with cupcake ornaments and mismatching chandeliers. If the Mad Hatter let off the tea, switched over to cupcakes, and moved in with your eccentric aunt, this is where they would party.

Very eccentric. Very original. You get the idea.

The cupcakes are displayed on raised cake plates behind a sheet of framed glass. There was a microscopic menu taped to the front of the case, but as none of the cupcakes are labeled and I almost blind, it wasn’t very helpful. This was annoying while we waited in line, but when it was our turn to order, the woman took the time to point out and explain every flavor to us, which turned out to be very personable and much more informative than reading mystifying names off a menu. (Aka “what happens to me every time I go to Ben & Jerry’s.”) Sister V., Mr. C., and I chose, respectively, the Red Velvet, Peppermint Patty, and a S’mores cupcakes.

The table wasn't that gross in real life. I'm not sure what's going on there...

We elected to sit down and eat there, so our cupcakes were served on paper plates – nothing too exciting. (Although the pink and red paper napkins matched the walls. I love those kind of details!) Cupcakes-to-go, however, are served in adorable Barbie-pink boxes. Oh man…you could sell me pretty much anything if it’s in a cute box. ;)

Sister V.’s Red Velvet cupcake consisted of cream cheese frosting and a strangely-not-red cake. The frosting was tasty, but it was the only thing you could taste. The cake was moist, but nondescript. I’m not even sure what flavor it was. In hindsight, I kind of wonder if they even gave her the wrong flavor. It was the most un-Red Velvet-like cupcake I’ve ever tasted.

Sister V., double-fistin'!

The frosting on my S’mores cupcake was actually a lightly torched meringue – a very pleasant surprise, although I wish they offered a “burnt to a crisp” version cause that’s how I roll. ;) The chocolate cake was dry, but I don’t know if the graham cracker crust sucked the moisture out or if it’d just been sitting around too long. (It was probably around 6 p.m. when we sat down to snack and the cupcakes are displayed ‘open air.’) The chocolate cake in Mr. C’s cupcake was "box mix moist" (i.e. practically perfect), so maybe it was just a fluke. The frosting on his cupcake tasted like peppermint patty concentrate. Holy smokes, no watered-down extract here!

So what did my panel of cupcake tasters decide? (Speaking of cupcake tasters, you people are coming out of the woodwork! ;)

Cupcakery Design - 4 out of 5 Cupcakes

The Cake - 3.5 out of 5 Cupcakes

The Frosting - 4 out of 5 Cupcakes

If not for the inconsistent cake moisture issue, Lavender Moon would be tied for first place with Alexandria Cupcake in my book! Way to go, Old Town! Cleaning up the cupcake wars. :)

Cupcakes No. 3: Red Velvet Cupcakery

I was excited about going to the Red Velvet Cupcakery from the get-go, if only because they reaffirmed my use of the word “cupcakery.” (Which is more than my spell check can say.) I actually went there twice last week – once to the one on 7th Street with Cousin Emily and once to the one in Reston with my friend Amy – and while I was a bit concerned about the condition known as Too Much Sugar, multiple trips to the same cupcakery turned out to be a good idea, as I feel it reduces the margin of error in this very scientific survey. Legitimacy: always a good thing. ;)

On the exterior, the DC Red Velvet Cupcakery totally rocks the ‘Main St. Quaint’ look, but the inside is too small to convey any sort of feel. You’ll need to jockey around in line to get a glimpse of the cupcakes, which are artfully laid out on a Mancala-like board, and shimmy past the rest of the line to make it out again. (Hopefully, you have not had too many cupcakes before entering. ;) There’s seating available at the adjacent frozen yogurt joint, but we took ours to go.

The Reston outlet was the opposite. It’s inside Reston Town Center, so they don’t have much leeway as far as exterior appearances go, but the inside was spacious, with an open ‘kitchen,’ dark wood floors, and modern seating. Their cupcakes were displayed on raised cake plates that, while not as clever as the mancala boards, did make the baked goods a lot easier to see.

Over the course of my two trips, I tried three different cupcakes – Summertime, Hazelnut Café, and a seasonal Orange & Serrano creation – which was really easy to do because Red Velvet definitely has the most creative flavors so far. (Amy ordered the Peanut Butter Cupcake and you could literally smell the peanut butter wafting off of it!) Summertime, lemon cake topped with cream cheese frosting and shredded coconut, was my favorite, with Hazelnut Café, hazelnut cake frosted with “sexy espresso buttercream” (How is buttercream sexy?), not too far behind.

This is how you make buttercream sexy! Mmm...not so much. ;)

The only problem with creative flavors is that they don’t always work. I was really intrigued by the whole Orange & Serrano concept, but it turned out to just be…strange. Citrus and heat lends to an interesting aftertaste, which is kind of an awkward attribute to a cupcake. Mad points for trying though!

The cake itself is a little more dense than I prefer – kind of like when I try to bake from scratch and OD it on the butter – but stays within the lines of “cake” without veering over into the heavy world of muffins. The hazelnut cake was a bit dry, but that always seems to be the nature of the “cooking with nuts” beast. Their buttercream was not heavy, and struck the perfect sweet note for a Frosting Hater such as myself. I also loved how they piped it on in discs, rather than the traditional ‘circus tent’ look. Very modern.

The consensus? I'd definitely go back. (There's one in Arlington!) And order a normal flavor. ;)

Cupcakery Design - Three out of Five Cupcakes

The Cake - Four out of Five Cupcakes

The Frosting - Three out of Five Cupcakes

DC's Best Cupcake No. 2: Crumbs

At the risk of alienating cupcake-eating city folk on both coasts, I'm just going to come right out and say it: I didn't really care for Crumbs. I know. That sounds ridiculous. How can anyone not care for cupcakes, regardless of the brand. So let me explain. (And before you judge, I promise it has nothing to do with the fact that they are a national chain. I love chains. Me and Dunkin Donuts? Tight.)

My cousin Emily is in town on February Break - she's a middle school English teacher, God bless her - and graciously volunteered to accompany me for an afternoon of cupcakes and culture. (In between bakeries, we spent a few hours at the American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. I had never been to either and wanted to check out the Annie Leibovitz: Pilgrimage exhibition before it closed. Her photographs were cool, but I definitely fell in love with almost everything in the Modern and Contemporary Art Gallery instead. I miss MASS MoCA. However, I digress. This post is about cupcakes. Not art. My bad.)

Crumbs was our first stop and initial impressions did not disappoint. Walking into that place is like walking into Willy Wonka's version of a Norman Rockwell painting. That’s the nice thing about chains – they have the bank accounts to invest in legitimate branding. The ‘hometown photos’ on the wall looked like staged ones that came with the frames, but the two Emeco Navy Barstools at the one counter made it okay. (Those chairs are expensive, yo. I’ll cut your budget some slack there.)

The cupcakes themselves are absolutely beautiful and look like mini works of art - like when bakers make fake cakes out of cardboard to showcase their frosting skillz - but in this case (and probably most), art doesn’t really translate well to food. Why?

In high school, my best friend invented a bagel/muffin hybrid (aka “a buffin”) that she was sure would granted her instant fame and fortune. (She’s still working on it, so please don’t steal her idea.) Crumbs seems to be attempting a similar cupcake/muffin monstrosity - A mufcake? Ew. - that is too dense, too sweet, and too big. (And that is coming from a girl who earned the college nickname “Hover” because of how much she ate.)

And the frosting, while beautiful, is overkill, with enough candy bits to keep the Tooth Fairy in business for generations to come. Em and I split a Baba Booey and an Elvis, and the combo of the two left me gasping for my water bottle to wash it all down. (In their defense, they also have a full service coffee bar, which most cupcakeries don't, so maybe I just wasn't eating it right.)

My rating? I wouldn't go back, unless it was to order a cup of Joe. (Dunks are hard to find down here. I guess we haven't been so tight lately...)

Cupcakery Design - Five out of Five Cupcakes

The Cake - One out of Five Cupcakes

The Frosting - Two out of Five Cupcakes

DC's Best Cupcake No. 1: Alexandria Cupcake

I don't know who can take credit for starting the whole cupcake trend, but thanks to the show DC Cupcakes, I'd like to think my new home has some sort of claim on the title. (Because TV makes things official. Everyone knows that.) While Mr. C and I walked around Old Town yesterday, I spotted at least two bakeries specializing in cupcakes - a "cupcakery"? - and a whole slew of other pastry shops that had at least one or two mini cakes thrown into the mix.

For me, this immediately begged the question: "Who has the best cupcakes in DC?" And - like most things pertaining to food and/or driving skillz - I immediately decided I could be the best judge of that. (Yes, The Post has their own list, but I feel my "new resident" status gives me a one-up in the impartiality department.) Let the cupcake war begin!

Who has the honors of breaking the ice? Alexandria Cupcake, the instigator of this whole idea. While cupcakes themselves are innately cute, selling them out of a "boutique" in Old Town only ups the factor and their cute, little logo sucked me right in.

The shop is decked out in "European contemporary minimalist style," which every recovering architecture student knows is design-speak for "empty with a touch of glass and/or metal." The line does have a tendency to get long, so I'm sure the extra space is needed, but it did feel a little...well...empty. Granted, a cupcakery does present a bit of a design problem: how do you display a small, constantly rotating product in a manageable, but attractive way? Eek! Never mind! (Please note, I did say "recovering." Some times I still slip up.)

The cupcakes themselves retail for $3 each, which from what I've gathered online, seems to be the average price across the board. If I was alone, I might have ordered a Raspberry Vanilla Cupcake, or a Rosewater-flavored one (their signature cupcake), but Mr. C and I decided to split a Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter creation instead. Since it was almost dinnertime, we ordered it "to go," which meant it came in a compostable, upside-down cup instead of a napkin. Too clever! (And it really worked too! It survived a couple hours in my purse and dinner with no problems. And on a side note, Daniel O'Connell's lamb burger with goat cheese? So yum!)

The dark chocolate cake was good, but nondescript. I hesitate to compare it to a box mix - No shame! I love box mixes! - but it was flavorful and moist in a similar way. The peanut butter frosting, however, was amazing, and that's coming from a girl who hates frosting. Whipped, light, and peanut buttery - I may or may not have licked all the leftover frosting out of the inside of the cup as well. ;)

My rating? I would definitely eat again. (There's probably going to be a lot of that in this contest. ;)

Cupcakery Design - Three out of Five...Cupcakes? (Sprinkles? Cherries? I guess cupcakes works for now.)

The Cake - Three out of Five Cupcakes

The Frosting - Five out of Five Cupcakes

One Cupcakery down. And thankfully, many, many more to go. ;)

PS Did Sister V. start the cupcake trend? Maybe. Check out these cute ones she ordered back in the day for my bridal shower. The cake and the cupcakes were both from A Little Imagination Cakes in Middletown, CT. My favorite part? The fondant Scrabble tiles. ;)