5,600 Cupcake Art Installation at the Smithsonian

So I think I’ve been procrastinating on writing this blog post because I am SO bummed out that I’m not going to be here for it! Seriously, it pains me!!! Myself aside, you all deserve to have all the details!

As some of you may have heard, the very talented Zilly Rosen was recently asked by the Smithsonian to create a cupcake image for Family Fun Day this Saturday for the President’s Day activities in honor of Obama’s election & Lincoln’s 200th Birthday. You might remember Rosen as the woman who put together the amazing 1,240 cupcake portrait of Obama last month (see below).

Photograph of Zilly Rosen & her Obama Portrait from ZillyCakes.com

This weekend’s cupcake image will span 9 ft x 14 ft (hxw), and will be made up of over 5,600 cupcakes. The design, “A New Birth of Freedom,” includes the faces President Obama and Abraham Lincoln with an American Flag behind them. Rosen says she's using 17 colors and variations to create the image.

Visitors can view the installation from noon through 5pm this Saturday February 14th from the mezzanine levels of the Smithsonian’s Luce Foundation Center. Following the Presidential Family Fun Day activities, visitors can flock to the Kogod Courtyard to take part in the de-installation of the artwork, aka, eat one of the cupcakes!

If you go, please take pictures to share with the rest of us!

National Geographic Loves DC Area Cupcakes

Thanks to CTTC, I found out about this National Geographic Article on Cupcakeries! To encourage people to skip the box of chocolates this Valentine's Day and give a box of cupcakes, National Geographic put together "a select list of of top cupcakeries around the U.S." Fun! You can click here to read the whole article, but I'd just like to share who made the cut from our area.

Photo by Thomas Fahey, from National Geographic Article

Baltimore
Charm City Cupcakes Most unusual flavor: Ouzo Peach. Price: $1-2.50

Washington, D.C.

Georgetown Cupcake Most unusual flavor: Key Lime (key lime cake with key lime frosting topped with candied lime). Price: $2.75

Hello Cupcake Most unusual flavor: Tiramisu (espresso cake with mascarpone frosting). Price: $3

Red Velvet Cupcakery Most unusual flavor: Peanut Butter Cup (chocolate chocolate-chip cake with salted peanut butter frosting). Price: $3.25

Congrats on making the list!!

CTTC 12 Days of Cupcakes Post

The girls over at Cupcakes Take The Cake recently asked me to do a Guest Blog for their Guest Blogger series for the month of December. I thought it would be fun to do a 12 Days of Cupcakes piece! I've reposted it here for you guys to see, or you can check it out on the CTTC Blog by clicking here. Happy Holidays!

I’m so excited to be doing a guest post for the ladies over at CTTC! These girls inspired me to start the Washington DC/Metro Cupcake Meetup, which in turn inspired me to start a blog on cupcakes in the DC/Metro area. Ever since then, my life pretty much revolves around cupcakes!

When the girls asked if I’d like to be one of the guest bloggers, I jumped at the chance! After much brainstorming, I thought it’d be fun to put a spin on the 12 Days of Christmas – how about the 12 Days of Cupcakes! I’ll cover different holiday flavors from 12 cities across the country. Hopefully I hit a city by you, or maybe even inspire you to grab the flour and eggs and get crackin! Happy Holidays everyone! And enjoy!

On The First Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me, a Hot Buttered Rum Cupcake From Hello Cupcake in DC! Washington DC’s Hello Cupcake is serving up this original holiday treat for the month of December. It’s a rum cake with rum soaked raisins and rummy cream cheese frosting. RUM!!! Oops, I mean…YUM!!!

Hello Cupcake’s Hot Buttered Rum and Gingerbread Cupcakes. Credit: Penny Karas, Owner Hello Cupcake.

On The Second Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me, Trophy Cupcake’s Snickerdoodle Cookie! (Cupcake, that is). That’s right, a Snickerdoodle Cupcake from Seattle’s very own Trophy Cupcakes. A butter cake baked full of cinnamon & sugar, topped off with a cinnamon buttercream, this one makes me want to grab a glass of milk and get down to business!

Credit: Chris Blakeley’s Flickr Photostream, Blakeley Photography.

On The Third Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me, a Candy Cane Cupcake from Albuquerque! (Catching on to the rhyming yet??) Candy Cane isn’t the only charming holiday flavor on Cake Fetish’s menu this December. If you drop in to the store, you can get your fix with Eggnog, Pumpkin Pie, Biscochitto, Gingerbread, and Christmas Coconut.

Photograph - Caryn, Owner Cake Fetish

On The Fourth Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me, a rich Red Velvet Cupcake from the island of Hawaii! What do you get when you put together Hawaii and cupcakes? Honolulu’s Cake Couture Cupcakes, of course! Located in East Oahu, this cupcakery serves up their Red Velvet flavor Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Delish!

Picture from Blogger DebinHawaii of Kahakai Kitchen

On The Fifth Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me, an Eggnog delight from Cupcake Lane Bakery! This very merry creation, also known as “Bedford Falls,” comes straight from the streets of Las Vegas. Available only in December, it’s an eggnog cake covered with a light topping of whip cream, dusted with nutmeg and finished with a holly design.

On The Sixth Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me, Vanilla Peppermint Cupcakes from LA’s Sprinkles Cupcakery! This famous west coast (and beyond) cupcakery will be serving up Vanilla Peppermint Cupcakes in celebration of the holiday. The flavor is composed of their traditional Madagascar-bourbon vanilla cake with vanilla-peppermint frosting and crushed peppermint. And what’s more, Sprinkles recently decided to share this recipe! Click here to check it out!

Photograph from Sprinkles/Andrea Lenardin

On The Seventh Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me, a Chocolate Peppermint cupcake from Cakes & Tee! Okay okay, it’s actually called Tee & Cakes (sorry, needed it to rhyme!) and they’re located in Boulder, Colorado. Their other holiday flavors include Coconut Snowballs, Spicy Gingerbread, and Red Velvet!

Photograph from Tee & Cakes Gallery

On The Eighth Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me, a Pumpkin Spice Cupcake from the Windy City! Molly’s Cupcakes “Chief Egg Cracker” named this bakery after his third grade teacher, Molly! This holiday flavor is made up of spice cake with a sweet and creamy mascarpone center, topped with brown butter buttercream. I just spent a weekend in Chicago and was lucky enough to try some of these cupcakes, including Pumpkin Spice, and they were fantastic!

Molly’s Cupcakes, Pumpkin Spice is top right corner.

On The Ninth Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me, an Apple Cinnamon Cupcake from the Polkadots Cupcake Factory! This charming Austin bakery serves up 12 different flavors a day, and for every 11 cupcakes you buy, the 12th is free! To make Apple Cinnamon, Polkadots tops an Apple cupcake with Cinnamon buttercream and sprinkles it with Cinnamon Sugar.

Polkadots Cupcake Factory’s Apple Cinnamon Cupcake

On The Tenth Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me, a Crème de Menthe Cupcake with a Chocolate Ganache Pattie! Sweet Cupcakery of Boston, MA is serving up quite the selection of flavors now through December 31st, with options like Gingerbread, Candy Cane, and Crème de Menthe (Sweet’s dark Belgian chocolate cake with creamy mint filling, topped with peppermint buttercream and a chocolate ganache “pattie.”), how could you resist?!

Check out Sweet's gallery for Crème de Menthe and Candy Cane, but here’s a shot of their Reindeer topped Chocolate & Vanilla cupcakes!

On The Eleventh Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me, an Apricot Almond Cupcake from Knoxville, Tennessee! I wish Tennessee weren’t 11 hours away; otherwise I’d hop in the car and head to Magpies so I could try this gem! “Dense almond cake shmeared with tangy apricot jam, topped with almond buttercream and an almond sliver” sounds divine! Magpies other holiday flavors include Gingerbread, Buttered Rum, Dark Chocolate Peppermint, and Caramel Apple.

Photograph from Magpies Gallery

On The Twelfth Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me, Spice Islands Carrot of Sweet Revenge in NYC! Carrot Cake, Pumpkin Spice, and Eggnog, are some of the traditional holiday flavors you can grab from NYC’s Sweet Revenge. While I’ve never had the opportunity to try these unique looking cupcakes (where else have you seen a frosting pattern like that?!) I’ve heard nothing but great reviews since their opening this past summer!

Photograph from Rachel’s Flickr album - Spice Islands Carrot Cupcakes

Interview with Cupcakes Take The Cake

A couple days ago, Rachel from Cupcakes Take The Cake asked me if I'd like to do an interview! Of course I was really excited and agreed. You can check it out on Cupcakes Take The Cake by clicking here, or just take a look below:

Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Cupcake interview with Danielle Buckley, DC/Metro Area Cupcake Meetup Organizer



Name: Danielle Buckley
Age: 24
Location: Rockville, MD
Occupation: Government Contracts Administrator by day, Cupcake Blogger and Aspiring Entrepreneur by night.
URL: http://www.delleicious.blogspot.com/

Why did you start your blog and how did you get interested in cupcakes?
I love traveling around DC area bakeries trying all sorts of cupcakes; I thought it would be fun to have a place to talk about my finds and post the pictures.

I remember being interested in cupcakes way back in elementary school. I’d always look forward to my classmate’s birthdays because their parents would bring in cupcakes for everyone!

Which are your favorite DC cupcakes that you’ve tried so far?
I had the privilege of sampling 5 different flavors of cupcakes from Hello Cupcake, set to open later this summer in Dupont. Definitely the best cupcakes I’ve had. Just talking about it is putting me in a state of cupcake euphoria.

How do you think the DC cupcake scene compares to cities like New York and LA? Is there anything that’s missing from the DC bakeries you’d like to see them offer?
I think DC has definitely been a late bloomer in the cupcake craze, but now that we’re catching up, it’s full steam ahead! NY and LA definitely have more cupcake-only bakeries, while DC mostly has a lot of great bakeries that offer cupcakes. One thing about the DC bakeries I’d like to see more of is room for sitting down and enjoying your cupcake!

You’re about to launch the DC/Metro Area Cupcake Meetup. Why did you start the group and what do you have planned for it? What are you most looking forward to?
I’m so excited about this! I started the group because I knew there had to be other DC locals just as excited about cupcakes as I am, and I wanted to give everyone the opportunity to meetup and enjoy them together. I want to take advantage of this summer weather and have an outdoor social, and of course we’ll be meeting at local bakeries. I’d say I’m most looking forward to meeting new people and trying new cupcakes!

You criticized CakeLove for having bland flavors. What can bakeries do to stand out from the pack?
To make yourself stand out, I think you need to have great presentation (both with the cupcakes and your brand) as well as great taste. The cutest frosting patterns, colors, and decorations aren’t going to mask bad flavor. I think you also need to have something that is uniquely yours. Like an innovative flavor of cupcake or a special way of presenting them. Small touches like that help make customers both remember and recommend you.

What do you think makes for the perfect cupcake?
I’ve met a lot of people who try to say it’s either the cake or the frosting that make the perfect cupcake, but I think it’s both. The cake has to be great on its own and so does the frosting. Also, a nice presentation doesn’t hurt.

And now for some personal questions…

How often do you eat cupcakes?
Too often! Probably once a week on average? I lost some weight on Weight Watchers so I’m always watching what I eat, but cupcakes are the one exception.

What's the best thing about eating cupcakes?
The happy feeling they give you and how they’re perfectly portioned just for me!

What's your favorite type of cupcake?
Carrot Cake, definitely. But I’ll also never pass up a good, classic vanilla.

How do cupcakes compare/contrast to other baked goods for you?
Honestly, with the exception of cupcakes, I’m not a big sweets eater. I do like brownies though; I make an excellent chunky toffee brownie that everyone just goes crazy for.

Is there any innovation you'd like to see made to the cupcake that would improve it for you?
I’d definitely like seeing more cupcakes with surprises baked into them…like delicious fillings or layers.

Do you bake your own cupcakes? Or (even better) have someone who bakes them for you?
All the time! My favorite thing is trying new flavors and of course the decorating. I’ve become the go-to girl for cupcakes among my friends and family. Unfortunately, nobody bakes them for me!

What's your first cupcake-related memory?
When I was little, my mom used to make cakes for children’s birthday parties. My twin sister and I wanted to be in the kitchen with her, so she’d prep a bowl of icing for us and let us decorate a batch of cupcakes while she worked. We always made a mess!

What's the most fun you've ever had with a cupcake?
One night my boyfriend was having a guy’s poker night, and along with the usual chips and dips I decided to bake a batch of Carrot Cake Cupcakes (his favorite) for all of them. The cupcakes practically disappeared! All of his friends were raving about how delicious they were and asked if I could make them for every poker night!

We're Famous!

While I was sunning my pale self in Ocean City this weekend, the ladies at Cupcakes Take the Cake wrote about our new DC Cupcakes Meetup Group! When I blogged about the group last Sunday, we had 14 members...we've now got 55! Our first meeting is a week from today (June 22nd) at Baked & Wired in Georgetown. I hope everyone can make it!

Click here to read the shout out at the Cupcakes Take the Cake blog: DC Cupcake Meetup Group