Express' Best of 2009 Competition!

Tired of looking at these "Best Of" competitions and seeing Cakelove round the top 3? Me too! Does it confuse and anger you? Me too! So don't forgot to check out the Best of 2009 Competition and vote for your favorites! (Most importantly, your favorite cupcake spot and favorite bakery).

From now through Friday, Oct. 16, you can vote for your favorite D.C. area people, places and things in more than 100 categories; the finalists in those categories were chosen by Express readers last month. You can (and should) comment, too -- they want to hear why you love what you love. The winners will be announced Friday, Nov. 6, in a special issue of Express.

The finalists in the Cupcake Category are: Baked & Wired, Cakelove, Georgetown Cupcake, Hello Cupcake, and Red Velvet Cupcakery.

The finalists in the Bakery Category are: Best Buns, Cakelove, Firehook, Le Pain Quotidien, and Sticky Fingers Bakery (Best Buns and Sticky Fingers both serve up cupcakes).

Go Vote!!

Best Buns At Tonight's National ZooFari!

Don’t miss ZooFari 2009, taking place tonight at the National Zoo from 6:30 to 10:30pm! Help celebrate elephantine appetites and the National Zoo’s commitment to Asian elephants. This enchanted evening will bring together an oasis of culinary delights, fabulous wine, live entertainment, a chance to meet celebrity chef Carla Hall and a spectacular auction.

Just a little background - ZooFari brings together 100 of the Washington, D.C., area's finest restaurants, and more than 20 vintners from around the world for an evening of gourmet foods, fine wines, fabulous entertainment, a great silent auction, and dancing under the stars. ZooFari began more than 20 years ago as a catered event drawing several hundred visitors, and has since become one of the premier events in Washington—hosting master chefs from 100 of the area's best restaurants and thousands of guests.

Best Buns is on the long list of fabulous bakeries and restaurants that will be serving up some fantastic food at the event. For the whole list, click here.

ZooFari tickets are no longer available online. You may purchase tickets at the Zoo's Visitor Center tonight at the event. FONZ Member Ticket prices are $125 each, and Nonmember prices are $175 each.

For more information on the wonderful cause, check out the event page by clicking here!

Best Buns Vanilla Cupcake Recipe

Chef Carlos Fernandez from Best Buns Bread Co. offered up a Vanilla Cupcake recipe to the Washington Post, who in turn posted it on their website for all to try!

The description of the cupcakes says "these vanilla cupcakes have a tender crumb, and follow the same basic recipe used for the vanilla cupcakes at Best Buns Bread Co. in Arlington. Canola oil is used in the cake batter instead of butter. If you have a scale, weigh the cupcake flours and sugar for best results."

If you have a scale, then you're either really into baking or at some point or another were really into dieting, in which case you'd probably like to know that the cupcakes have 300 calories and 14 grams of fat each.

Click here to see the recipe!

And The Winner of the Cupcake Wars is...

Obama may be taking up the Front Page of all the papers, but Cupcakes took over the front page of the Washington Post's Food Section as they declared a winner for the Cupcake Wars! 8 weeks and 141 cupcakes later, Georgetown Cupcake has been declared the winner.


Georgetown Cupcake's Winning Chocolate Ganache Cupcake
Photo Credit: By James M. Thresher For The Washington Post Photo

In order to determine an ultimate cupcake champion, the Post's team of tasters narrowed it down to 6 bakery finalists and their winning flavors. They were:

1. Georgetown Cupcake: Chocolate Squared, Lava Fudge, Chocolate Ganache, Red Velvet, Chocolate Vanilla, Caramel Apple, Chocolate Cubed, and Lemon Blossom.

2. Baked & Wired: Chocolate Peanut Butter, Chocolate Vanilla (Karen's Birthday Cake) and Texas Sheet Cake.

3. Best Buns Bread Co.: Chocolate Cream Cheese and Chocolate Cream Cheese with Coconut

4. Hello Cupcake: Lemon (You Tart!) and Banana with Vanilla Cream Cheese (Vanilla Gorilla)

5. Chatman's D'Vine Bakery & Cafe: Red Velvet.

6. Couture Cupcake: Savannah (Red Velvet).


Cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcake
Photo Credit: By James M. Thresher For The Washington Post Photo

According to Joe Yonan, the Washington Post Food Editor who has been heading the Cupcake Wars these last eight weeks, there was no contest that Georgetown Cupcake was the clear winner. After a final round of tasting, "Georgetown, was the only one in the finals whose average score was higher than in the early rounds. Hello's and Best Buns' scoring was virtually stable, while Baked and Wired, Couture and Chatman's saw their scores drop." "Perhaps not surprisingly, Georgetown, which had the most cupcakes (and the highest scorers) going in, also dominated this last round of scoring. And when the judges compared notes after filling out their evaluation sheets, the question was not whether a Georgetown cupcake would take top honors but which one it would be."

So congratulations to Georgetown Cupcake and their winning flavors! Washington Post Staff Writer Jane Black gave us some details on what the ladies of Georgetown Cupcake go through to keep up with the demand for their treats:

"Co-owners and sisters Sohpie LaMontagne and Katherine Kallinis, winners of our Cupcake Wars, bake from 5:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. most days. And though they allow employees to scoop batter into tins and check the ovens, they pipe the frosting on every single cupcake themselves. On average, the store sells between 2,000 and 3,000 cupcakes Tuesdays through Fridays (up from 800 when it opened in February), 4,000 on Saturdays and 2,000 on Sundays." Just think, at that rate they're selling over 835,000 cupcakes a year!

Here's a look at some of the statistics from the contest, via the Washington Post:

AVERAGE CUPCAKE RESULTS
(In Order from Highest to Lowest)

Georgetown Cupcake 7.33
Best Buns Bread Co. 6.70
Baked & Wired 6.44
Hello Cupcake 5.02
Couture Cupcakes 4.94
Buzz 3.36
Just Cakes 2.89
Cakelove 2.83
Chatman’s D’Vine Bakery & Café 2.41
Lavender Moon Cupcakery 2.32
Sticky Fingers 2.12
Pastries by Randolph 2.11
BakeshopDC 1.96
Furin’s of Georgetown 1.73
Baltimore Cupcake Co. 1.04
Heidelberg Pastry Shoppe 0.52

HIGHEST-RATED CUPCAKES (in finals)
(In Order from Highest to Lowest)

Georgetown Cupcake – Chocolate Ganache – 9.58
Georgetown Cupcake – Chocolate Vanilla – 9.55
Georgetown Cupcake – Chocolate Squared 9.17
Georgetown Cupcake – Lemon Blossom – 8.58
Georgetown Cupcake – Red Velvet – 8.50
Georgetown Cupcake – Lava Fudge – 8.30
Georgetown Cupcake – Chocolate Cubed – 8.17
Hello Cupcake – Vanilla Gorilla – 7.92
Hello Cupcake – You Tart! – 7.83
Best Buns – Chocolate/Cream Cheese – 7.75
Best Buns – Chocolate/Cream/Coconut – 7.73
Baked & Wired – Chocolate/Peanut Butter – 7.42
Baked & Wired – Texas Sheet Cake – 6.67
Baked & Wired – Chocolate/Vanilla – 6.67
Georgetown Cupcake – Caramel Apple – 6.50
Chatman’s – Red Velvet – 6.33
Couture Cupcake – Savannah – 6.25