Monday, July 21, 2008

Meetup 2 - Sticky Fingers Bakery


This past Saturday we had our second DC/Metro Cupcake Group Meetup! (By the way, the group is now 103 members strong!) It was held at Sticky Fingers Bakery in DC. Sticky Fingers is a vegan bakery that was voted Best Bakery by the readers of Washington City Paper for their 2008 Best of DC Contest, so we thought it would be a fun and different place to try out.

Despite delays on the metro lines all day, there were about 14 or 15 of us that came out. We staked out our little corner of the shop and sat down with some iced coffee and cupcakes. (You'll have to forgive me...I don't have a lot of pretty cupcake pictures this time as a lot of them came out pretty blurry.)

The first cupcake we tried was the Cookies n Cream. It was a chocolate cake cupcake with a white frosting. The chocolate cake was decent. It was thick and moist, which was good, but the frosting had this flour-like after taste that a lot of the group members didn't like. I mean a frosting that tastes like flour? Blah.

Next up was the Vanilla Cupcake with Vanilla Frosting. The frosting here was much better, definitely on the sweeter side compared to the Cookies n Cream frosting, but still with that floury after taste. The vanilla cake, on the other hand, was no good. Very bland and a little on the dry side.

The last one I tried was the Peanut Butter Fudge. The chocolate cake in this cupcake tasted better than the Cookies n Cream version. It was very dark, practically black, and very moist. The frosting on top was good, not sweet but definitely not bland, and had a nice dollop of peanut butter in the center. This one, along with the Almond Creme, were the group favorites. I didn't try the Almond Creme because I was too stuffed from everything else, but if you're ever around Sticky Fingers I would keep these as your go-to flavors.

Other members tried the Raspberry Chocolate, but weren't too crazy about that one either. I wish we had a vegan join us so they could tell us how these cupcakes rank of the list of other Vegan desserts they've tried!

My overall review is that considering Sticky Fingers cupcakes are dairy/lactose-free, egg-free, cholesterol-free, low in saturated fat, and made with soy and non-hydrogenated oils, they didn't turn out too bad. However with all the other fine and delleicious cupcakes in the area, I don't think I'll be returning to Sticky Fingers any time soon. Yes, other bakeries may be higher in fat, but at least I'm getting what I paid for (about $2.75 each).

One more thing before I leave this post, I thought I would see if anyone out there has ever made cupcakes, or any dessert for that matter, that are free of allergin's such as wheat and dairy, etc? One of our group members bakes for children who have severe allergies. She is looking for ideas and as you can imagine it's pretty hard to come up with a dessert recipe that doesn't contain these kind of products. If you know of or have ever used any recipe that's free of these ingredients, please share! Thanks!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Danielle, I went to Sticky Fingers and had the mocha and the carrot cake cupcakes. I'm surprised you didn't try the carrot cake since I'd like to have known what you thought!

Danielle said...

Hi! I forgot to mention this in the blog post, but I was super bummed out because they didn't have any carrot cake cupcakes for sale that day! If they did, that would have been the first thing I tried :) Is it good?

Anonymous said...

Hi, I saw this post linked from Cupcakes Take the Cake. I follow a vegan diet and make cupcakes all the time! I haven't yet been to Sticky Fingers, so I can't compare their cupcakes but I do find that many vegan desserts are not quite as good as ones I make myself. I don't know much about gluten free baking, but there is a whole cookbook for vegan cupcakes, called "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World" by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terri Hope Romero. They have maybe one gluten free recipe included.

Anonymous said...

Hi Danielle. I liked both cupcakes I got: mocha and carrot cake, but I don't think I'm that critical. That said, I didn't have any odd flour taste from the frosting. The cake wasn't as moist or as flavorful as I'd hoped, but I was pleasantly surprised for a vegan place - not that I have something to compare it to, that is. Maybe in the near future, the cupcake group will hit another vegan place :)

Bitsy said...

As omlyeh siad, The book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World has two gluten (and clearly egg and dairy free) recipe. See: http://vegancupcakes.wordpress.com/

In anycase, this book is worth your time to check out, though the cupcakes are never quite as good as non-vegan ones, they pretty darn good.

shanexedge said...

I'm a little late to the party, so to speak, but here's some more info/resources for vegan desserts:

Sinfully Vegan - great cookbook with a lot of reeeeally good recipes
http://www.amazon.com/Sinfully-Vegan-Decadent-Desserts-Satisfy/dp/1569244766

My Sweet Vegan - I haven't checked this one out yet, but it looks good.
http://www.amazon.com/My-Sweet-Vegan-passionate-dessert/dp/0979128617

Vice Cream - as the name suggests, pretty much just "ice cream" recipes.
"http://www.amazon.com/Vice-Cream-Sinfully-Delicious-Dairy-Free/dp/1587611996/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224988389&sr=1-1

Lickin' The Beaters - again, I haven't checked it out, but I've heard great things.
http://www.amazon.com/Lickin-Beaters-Low-Vegan-Desserts/dp/1604860049/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224988513&sr=1-1


Pretty much any dish you can think of can be made vegan, or free of any other allergens :)