Cupcake Munchies at Baked & Wired

I'd been wanting to try Baked and Wired for a long time. Well, I finally did right before the holidays. I know, I know...you're probably asking "Melissa, is this review even relevant anymore?!" To which, I say "who do YOU think YOU are?!! I'm the one with the blog and I do what I want!!"

Admittedly, the flavors may have changed in the past couple months, but the quality undoubtedly has. These are straight up, some of the MOST delicious cupcakes I've ever had.

The cupcakes are literally put on pedestals and encased in class jars!! It reminds me of the children's classic puppet movie,  The Hugga-Bunch, in which the Evil Queen's youngberry tree (her fountain of youth) was housed in a glass case. She could only get to the magical berries with a key, which ultimately she loses in the very glass case meant to protect her precious tree from children and their puppet friends.

Nevertheless, I look at these cupcakes very much in the same way that the Evil Queen in The Hugga Bunch looked at her berry tree--this is MY fountain of youth! I've caught myself more than once saying to strangers "Go ahead, feel free to compliment me!"and for no other reason than the fact that I know as much as I do about cupcakes.

But about Baked and Wired...yes, these beauties were absolutely phenomenal. I was accompanied on my journey by my friends Erica and Julia. The day we went, there was a small line, which didn't bother me, as it gave me time to review the selection on display:

Chocolate with Vanilla Buttercream

Peanut Butter Chocolate

Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake Cupcake

There were many others, but the people behind me in line were getting pretty pissed, so I had to make my selection and get on with my bad self. I went with the cupcake everyone told me I had to try: strawberry. 

I have a lot of respect for a well-executed strawberry cupcake. We all remember my failed attempt to make them. 

Do you see that real strawberry!?!

I was incredibly happy to find a real strawberry cupcake that was as pleasing to my eye as it was to my belly. The fresh strawberries were my second favorite part of the cupcake. My favorite part was the icing! It was sweet, but fruity, and there was a generous amount of it, but it wasn't all mounded in the middle--it was evenly distributed across the top, meaning I didn't have to unhinge my jaw to take a bite. The cake was pretty good, but it was a bit airy. 

Those chocolate cupcakes you see flanking the sides of my strawberry cupcake belonged to Erica and Julia.

Pretty sure this was a chocolate mint cupcake. It was RICH!! I love chocolate, but I can't do this. One bite was more than enough for me, but look at that frosting, shimmering in the overhead lighting. It's gorgeous. Julia and Erica have stronger chocolate palates than I, and even though they thought their cupcakes were delicious, they couldn't finish them either. (Editor's Note: I do have pictures of my friends enjoying their cupcakes, but I fear that if I post them, they will no longer be friends.)


Will I go back to Baked and Wired? Yes, yes, a resounding YES!!! Why wouldn't I return to my fountain of youth?! I really want to return when I feel more comfortable perusing my options and there aren't so many peasants in the mix. Plus, this isn't just a cupcakery, this is a full-on bakery!! Even if you don't like cupcakes, you probably like cookies, brownies, or pie!! And if you don't like any of those, then you're probably a robot. And nobody likes a robot. Nobody.

Sugarbaby's Cupcakes Review

I spent my Labor Day like any true American--eating. And in Texas.

Though I haven't lived in Houston for 7 years now, I still consider it home. Maybe that's 'cus my parents live there, maybe it's 'cus I want to be affiliated with the plethora of cupcake shops that have opened over the past couple years. The point is, cupcakes have swept the nation, mmkay? And Texas is no exception.

I know of two shops in Houston currently (Sugarbaby's and the new Crave Cupcakes), and there's more on the way, including the West Coast phenom Sprinkles Cupcakes, which will debut a new shop in the shwanky Highland Village area this fall.

So, if you had one guess, what do you think we did as soon as I got off the plane? ONE. GUESS.

We got barbeque, duh!

Okay, then what? Alright, yes, then we went for cupcakes at Sugarbaby's, y'all!!

The inside of the shop looks like Paris Hilton and Marie Antoinett's love child threw up. Translation: it's haute.

These plastic cupcake-shaped thingies are cupcake holders. They're meant to hold your cupcake in place whilst en route from one place where you'd eat a cupcake to another. As cute (and realistic) as these are, they actually destroy your pretty cupcake by piercing them directly through the middle. But they're cute and let's face it, looks are really all that matter, so I took a picture.

This case was filled with their chocolate-covered-cherry-topped Velvet Rouge cupcake, chocolate espresso cupcakes, and carrot cupcakes (they're riiiiiiight there in the lower corner. Hello carrot!)

What you see here is the Dippity Do Da cupcake, a chocolate cupcake topped with vanilla icing, dunked in chocolate ganache and topped yet again with a star of vanilla icing.

I'm having dreams about these white chocolate macadamia nut cupcakes. The "I'm flying and just won a million dollars and Don Draper is in love with me!!" kinds of dreams...

They dress up boring vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with fun colors and sprinkles. It's really just the right thing to do.

 

Should they not allocate enough sprinkles to your cupcake, then you can sprinkle your greedy little heart out at the sprinkle bar:

I'm seriously considering getting one of these for my apartment. Every corner of my apartment.

Noticeably absent from their selection were gluten free and vegan options. I suppose I'm a spoiled city slicker, as almost every dining/cupcake establishment in the DC area has at least one special diet option on the menu. I find this a severe oversight, seeing as my mom has a gluten allergy.

So as not to embarass my family, I won't get into how rude I thought the girl working the counter was when I asked if they had a gluten free cupcake. I especially won't get into the snarl that so readily appeared on her face when I deigned to ask about a vegan cupcake option. Oh, and I should probably leave out that they snapped at us when we were making up our minds whether it was for here or to go. Yeah, I'll just leave that part out.

Can't you see how excited he is to try a German Chocolate cupcake for the first time? He must not be from the south, otherwise this would have been a staple of his diet from birth. I forget where he's from. We're dating, but I mean, I really don't pay attention to the details of his life.

Brace yourself, as these are the people who make all this possible:

I made my dad show off his white chocolate macadamia nut cupcake, which disappeared mere moments after I snapped the shot.

And here's my beautiful mom, enjoying a nice big dallop of the only gluten free option on the menu: Cream Cheese frosting. She was pleased.

And here's me, in all my post-3-hour-plane-ride glory. I still posed for the papparazzi. After all, any press is good press.

And finally, my cupcake of choice: white chocolate chip cupcake, topped with white chocolate buttercream and crushed macadamie nuts.

It was fantastic. Overly sweet, yes, but that's how I like it.

The cake was flawless--no air pockets, lots of white chocolate chips. Schedule your dentist appointment now, because that icing will rot your teeth, but hey, cavities are like, totally in for the fall. I do wish the macadamia nuts had been saltier, it would have made a nice combination with the cupcake, but that's the only thing I'd change.

Well, that and the impatient help behind the counter.

I will definitely go back, but I think southern hospitality has gone the way of the north at Sugarbaby's, at least the day we went. If the cashiers would just step back, take a look at where they work, a place of magic, endless possibilities, and free from diets, then they would realize how lucky they are to be alive!! Embrace it my Sugarbaby's.

Be free!!!!! Be gluten free even, and ye shall prosper!!

Lavender Moon Cupcakes Review

I know what you're thinking: it's been a while.

I know, I know. But I've had a lot going on, okay? I'm allowed to have a life, aren't I? Even if it is almost entirely dedicated to the pursuit of happiness cupcakes, but still!

I suppose I do owe you an explanation. You see, I got a car. I got a car because I got a new job. Anway, long story short, I've been busy.

But like I said, I got a car. And in case you didn't know, getting to Alexandria from Dupont Circle sans car had proven difficult over the past two years (read: I never went to Alexandria). So, with my new car, what do you think I did first? I took my friends Georgia and Julia to Lavender Moon Cupcakes, obvi. (I'd include a link, but it seems they don't have a website...wtf?)

I'd heard quite a lot about this place before going. After all, they made it to the final round of The Washington Post's Cupcake Wars, so I figured there was at least good reason to give it a go.

In  apropriate group-of-girls fashion, we promptly asked a very confused and rather snippy group of ladies to take our picture outside the establishment:

Next, I proceeded to document all the photogenic cupcakes. These were vanilla and vanilla raspberry:

Why hello, carrot cupcakes, chocolate high hats, and Georgia peach cupcake:

Oh, and I'd be remiss to leave out the blackberry and strawberry-frosted guys:

For all you visual types, this is the interior of the store. Are you surprised that the main color scheme is pink? Are you?? And how 'bout that chandalieir, eh?:

Tell me, have you every seen a happier person? I got a vanilla cupcake to try and the chocolate covered cherry (chocolate cupcake with cherry buttercream dipped in chocolate ganache) for us to split:

Okay, so I really just wanted two cupcakes, but do you see this thing??

Georgia, my sweet, southern Georgia, of course ordered the Georgia Peach Cupcake, a peach-studded cupcake topped with whipped cream:

The cake had a good solid crumb with a cool whipped cream frosting. Ultimately, it was the group favorite for a warm end-of-summer day:

Julia, my hippie, California girl, chose the chocolate salted cupcake: 

The chocolate cake was dense yet moist, and they doled out a generous amount of frosting. It was delicious, but you'll need to brace yourself--there was a lot of chocolate. In retrospect, the box of chocolate milk I imbibed with this goody was just a tad too much, well, chocolate:

Here's where I told them to take a bite. What I failed to mention was so that I could put it on my blog. Say hi, ladies!:

Alright, here's one of me enjoying the vanilla cupcake:

The cake was good overall. A few air pockets, but great flavor and light. The cream cheese frosting was perfect with the cake, too. Not too sweet, a little tangy from the cream cheese, and a fair amount of it too. It pleased me:

And finally, as the grand finale, the chocolate covered cherry cupcake. So glisteny, so chocolatey, so...caloric:

By now, we were feeling about 9 months preggers, so we just quartered the thing and called it a day. It was the first time I had a really good cherry buttercream. I don't know how they did it, but it had a bright cherry flavor without being runny from the juice:

Lavendar Moon Cupcakes lived up to the hype, and thank God because after a couple other unmentionable disappointments, it was about time I found an alternative to my ol' standbys. The generous flavor selection is good for all tastes, minus a gluten-free option for those with food allergies, and the icing to cupcake ratio is applaudable.

Ah, I almost failed to mention that they only take cash or check, and there's no ATM in the shop so be sure to come prepared. Otherwise, be ready to grab your cupcakes and run for it!!

Will I go back? You betchyer sweet a**, I will. Did you forget? I have a car, people--a car!! I'm going wherever the cupcakes take me now.

Hello Cupcake, the review

Last Friday, the plan was to go try something new. Something different. Something unexpected.

Alright, so maybe trying a new cupcake shop isn't that unexpected, but it was supposed to be new.

However--there's always a "however" isn't there?

However, by the time I got home from work, I really didn't have the motivation to do anything other than go to the new salon I was checking out for my color consultation and watch the next movie in my Netflix queue, Renee Zelwegger classic New in Town (which was really cute, btw).

So, I copped out and ended up going to Hello Cupcake, my ol' realiable neighborhood cupcakery.

Excuse, I'm just getting on to my soapbox real quick. Oh...okay. I'm ready.

Why is it that everyone goes to Georgetown Cupcake? Is it because they came along first? Or because they were on Martha Stewart? Is it because everyoneandtheirmotherespeciallyhipstersandwannabefoodies told you it was the best in DC??

Look, I'm not trying to say Georgetown Cupcake isn't good--great even--but what I am saying is that there are other places in DC that offer an equally good, if not better, product. What I'm trying to say is that Hello Cupcake is that place.

So I dragged my friened Katie to my favorite cupcakery in DC since she'd never tried it before. We got the peanut butter blossom cupcake (chocolate cupcake with a peanut butter buttercream):

So light, so fluffy.

Pardon the pictures, they're from my iPhone. Yeah, I have an iPhone. Jealous?? (don't be, AT&T service sucks!)

So much anticipation....

Yes, this is happening...

Alright, these pictures just don't do this treat justice! The chocolate is chocolatey, but not too rich, and you wouldn't want it to be. With the appropriate 1:2 ratio of icing to cupcake, the creamy peanut butter frosting satisfies your need for the coma-inducing flavor combination. The cake is tender and moist, but not crumbly. The frosting...oh, the frosting. Light, sweet, creamy, perfection.

Katie only took a bite of hers, but as clearly documented in the pictures, I inhaled mine. Nevertheless, she noted the mild chocolate flavor with the thick frosting being the perfect pair. Oh, and did I mention they top it off with a Hershey kiss? Well, they top it off with a Hershey kiss!

If you take nothing else from today's review, just remember that there are other cupcakeries in DC...other WONDERFUL cupcakeries with OTHER flavors and MORE seating than, well, some other cupcakeries.

Will I go back? Oh yeah. I'd move in if I could, but apparently that poses some kind of health and safety concern.

Larry's Ice Cream Review

My friend Chris woke me up, uhhh, I mean texted me Saturday afternoon. It's always fun to hear from Chris. We have equally superior taste in fashion than everyone else, which is why we get along. I know Chris because we used to work together, but now he's in law school. BORRRRING.

Anyway, he texted me because he was in the city for a bar exam prep class. It's ironic because Chris is admittedly one of the laziest people I know, but somehow he managed to make the trek out from BFE for a class downtown on a Saturday afternoon. So he texted me and asked if I wanted to hang out, catch up, maybe get a cupcake after class. Did someone say cupcake?! I'm there.

We grabbed a little lunch then decided to try the cupcakes at Larry's. Now, for all you who don't live in Dupont Circle, Larry's is historically an ice cream shop. However, last winter they started selling "homemade" cupcakes. Probably because the ice cream business slows when it's 15 degrees out. It's just a guess.

Despite their new menu item, I hadn't tried them in all the 7 months or so since they began selling them. Could be because I already have my favorites; could be because the people that own the shop run the place like the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld, which makes the entire process of choosing your ice cream quite stressful. Suffice it to say, I figured, with Chris by my side, this would be an opportune time to give the place a try.


The selection was pretty mediocre. Ice cream is still their line of business, let's not forget. But they had the basics--red velvet, chocolate, vanilla--and they had one interesting flavor, key lime filled with mango, topped with coconut icing. The man working the counter, presumably "Larry", made me feel welcome, saying "hey cutie, how can I take your money?" It's really nice to know that chivalry's not dead.

Chris ordered the mango-coconut thing:

I ordered the chocolate with sweet cream icing:


(I'm totally Lady Gaga-ing in this picture.)

They weren't the most attractive cupcakes. The icing was haphazardly piped on in stacked swirls. It obviously doesn't make the cupcake taste any better, but when you're in the cupcake biz they should look really pretty and neat.

My cupcake smelled really good. The icing gave me some concern right away though. It was definitely airy, definitely homemade, but it was SO buttery.

I love buttercream as much as the next cupcake-maniacal-Lady-Gaga-obsessed-red-head, but this was plain greasy. The cake had a light texture, a delicate crumb...it reminded me of something.


Hmmm. What is it?


Wait. No...couldn't be. But the sign, it says homemade.


Yep, this was definitely from a mix. The cake was far too light to have the same butter content as a homemade product. A homemade cake is much more dense than the kind you get from a box. Larry's just made $3 off the one cupcake I bought, which is about what it cost them to make the batch of 24. Can't blame them for a creative business model!


Chris's cupcake, on the other hand, wasn't from a mix, which was nice, but the icing was still too greasy. There wasn't much mango filling either. Overall, not a terrible cupcake, but they've got to do something about their icings. A little vanilla bean would definitely help, and obviously more sugar. They should also whip the butter a little longer to make it fluffier so you don't feel like you need a triple bypass afterward.


I'm glad we went, mostly because it gave me fodder for the blog, and because it was fun to see Chris get hit on by the dude working at Starbucks, but I probably won't go back. I'm annoyed by the employees more than ever and I'm pretty sure I'm still sweating butter.

Red Velvet--a cupcakery review

I've never formally reviewed a cupcake shop, but hey, there's a first time for everything right? I mean, if Heidi Montag can release an EP, I can definitely review a cupcake shop!


Now, if you live in the DC area, you'll know good and well that we're not short on cupcake options. Hello Cupcake, Georgetown Cupcake, Baked and Wired, Cake Love, and most recently, Red Velvet in Chinatown.


My friend Shannon was in town last week, and being an out-of-towner, I was really fulfilling my duty as host to escort her to our newest cupcake offering. (Shannon lives in Ohio, where there isn't yet a cupcake shop for every Starbucks. Yet.)


Now, by no means am I out to dog any cupcakes, okay? I want to make that clear, because a lot of people in DC consider themselves to be "foodies." And while I'm sure I am one, I don't want to seem arrogant about my opinions, even if they are always right. Look, what I'm saying is you're entitled to your wrong opinion.


Anyway, the point is I am so not judgmental...not in the way of food and cupcakes, at least. But these cupcakes were gross. Okay, well maybe not gross, but they were definitely not good.


We ordered two to split: Red velvet, obvi and key lime with a white chocolate icing. My first reaction was that not only was the place small, a little unkempt and hot (DIVA up in hurr), but the prices were the highest I've seen in DC, $3.25 a pop! Believe me, they weren't large enough to justify the cost. That's what she said.

Anyway, we took them back to my apartment to share. They were cute and had a decent-sized glob of frosting just the way I like it. After the first bite though we knew, oh we knew. They were bland. Bland bland bland bland bland. There was no chocolatey goodness to the red velvet cupcake and the cream cheese icing tasted like cream cheese. I could have been eating a bagel for all I knew! The texture was fine, but who cares about texture when you can't taste anything!! There was no hint of citrus in the key lime cupcake, and again the frosting wasn't sweet at all. And I'm not just saying that because I maintain my girlish figure by eating sugar by the cupfulls, okay?! Shannon has very sensitive, um, senses, and she also thought they were really lacking in flavor.

Will I go back to Red Velvet? Probably not. I don't live in Chinatown and takes me about 15 minutes to walk there. Walking is for peasants. Plus, I've got Hello Cupcake right around the corner (review to come) and frankly, that fits the bill quite well, thank you.

So, if you like your cupcake bland and overpriced, then these were GREAT! But if you're looking for more bang for your buck you might as well go to the old standbys. Or you could buy a Betty Crocker mix and do it yourself.

So, has anyone out there tried the place? Do you know what I'm talking about? Do you HATE me but LOVE Red Velvet?? Did you make it this far to the end???