Hello Cupcake - Cupcake Classes

If you want to learn how to make cute little fondant pieces and pipe like the pro's, then you'll definitely be interested in the techniques being taught in Hello Cupcake's class!

Their first class will focus on cupcakes for Valentine's Day (that this weekend people!) and is scheduled for February 13th from 10am - 12pm. You should email them to make sure there is still room in the class (info@hellocupcake.com), but I do know you can sign up in person at the Dupont store. Classes are $50.

You Had Me At Hello Cupcake

According to Daily Candy, share your best (or worst) pickup lines on the Web with Hello Cupcake and get a free cupcake in-store! This fun little promo is running from now through Monday, February 15th.

Hello Cupcake is located at 1361 Connecticut Avenue NW at Dupont Circle.

Hello Cupcake Holiday Flavors

Hello Cupcake is featuring 3 holiday flavors – Gingerbread, Hot Buttered Rum, and Candy Cane. I remember HC having Hot Buttered Rum last year and never had a chance to try it; but I’m sure if they’ve brought it back for a 2nd year in a row then it’s a winner!

Above are two pictures from the Hello Cupcake website of their Hot Buttered Rum and Gingerbread Flavors. The Gingerbread flavor is a spicy ginger cake with lemon cream cheese frosting, and the Hot Buttered Rum flavor is made up of rum raisin cake with rum frosting and rum-soaked raisins on top. I didn’t see a picture of the Candy Cane flavor posted on the site, so you’ll have to drop into HC and check it out for yourself!

New Hello Cupcake Flavor!

I just noticed a new flavor on the menu at Hello Cupcake, although it's been a while since I looked so it might not be that new! It's Gianduja - a Nutella-like Hazelnut Chocolate Cupcake topped with Hazelnut Chocolate Ganache and Caramelized Hazelnut Crunch. Has anyone tried it???

Gianduja is served up on Tuesdays and Fridays, which means Tuesday is now my favorite Hello Cupcake day since I can get both Gianduja AND Velvet Elvis. MMMMMmmmmmmmmm!

Celebrate Hello Cupcake's 1st Anniversary!

Next week, Tuesday, August 25th, is Hello Cupcake’s 1st birthday! To celebrate, Hello Cupcake will be hosting a “Free Cupcake Day." Could this mean what you think it means??! Yes! Free cupcakes!

Hello Cupcake will be making many of their best sellers that day. They're offering one free cupcake per person - no special orders, deliveries or multiple cupcake boxes that day, just one cupcake for anyone who wants one, to help them celebrate!

Remember, this is only while supplies last, so get yourself over to Hello Cupcake next Tuesday and say Happy Anniversary!!

Hello Cupcake Donates to Share Our Strength

Make sure you drop into Hello Cupcake this week. I’m a little late on getting this out, but from May 11th through May 16th, Hello Cupcake will give 100% of the proceeds from the sale of its “Original” flavor cupcakes to Share Our Strength to help end child hunger in America.

Original flavor cupcakes include Chocolate or Vanilla Cake Cupcakes with Chocolate or Vanilla Buttercream topped with colorful confetti sprinkles.

Hello Cupcake Sweet Tart Cupcake

In continuing the run down of Valentine’s Day cupcakes this week, Hello Cupcake has their Sweet Tart Cupcake available from now through Saturday, February 14th. The Sweet Tart is a Pink Lemonade Cake topped with sweet lemon cream cheese frosting, and finished off with pink, white, and red hearts. If it’s anything like their You Tart cupcake, I’m sure it’s great!

Hello Cupcake’s Cherry Blossom cupcakes (an old photo, but thought it went well with the Valentine’s theme!)

By the way, I found out through one of the blog readers, Bryce, that Hello Cupcake has a frequent buyer card called Bakers Dozen! Yup. Buy 12 cupcakes and get one free! So buy 12 for someone special this Valentine’s Day, and save the freebie for yourself ;)

New Hello Cupcake Flavors

I was in Dupont on Friday afternoon, and of course I can’t make a trip there without dropping into Hello Cupcake! I picked up three new flavors I’ve yet to try: Pumpkin (not the Gluten Free I’ve raved about before, the regular one), Tiramisu, and Chocolate Chai.

I first dug into the Pumpkin. The cream cheese frosting was perfectly creamy and sweet, as always. While the top of the cupcake was a little hard, the center was moist and rich in spicy pumpkin flavor, specked with little pieces of nuts…walnuts maybe? I think the flavor is great, but honestly I prefer Hello’s gluten-free version over this one! It taste’s just as great, if not better, and has those coffee-cake like crumbles (minus the coffee flavor) on top. Delicious!

You don’t hear me say this very often about a Hello Cupcake cupcake, but I wasn’t crazy about the Tiramisu cupcake. The presentation was cute…dusted with cocoa and topped with a chocolate covered espresso bean. The frosting was a delicious mascarpone frosting which I enjoyed every bite of, but I think the espresso flavored cake was what was bothering me. It was a little on the dry side, and the espresso flavor just seemed a little dull. If you’re a fan of all things coffee-flavor, you may still like this, but it just didn’t do it for me.

Onto the last of the group – the Chocolate Chai Cupcake. Now I’m not a tea drinker so I don’t have too much experience with Chai, but I do know the drink is generally composed of various spices like cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and pepper…so I was interested to see what the spicy chai buttercream would taste like. It had a little spicy kick to it, not overpowering by any means, but I just wasn’t impressed. Maybe I’m just not a fan of the chai flavor – so I’d like to hear from someone who drinks chai and see what they think of this cupcake. Aside from the buttercream, the cake was Hello’s standard chocolate cake, which never disappoints.

Have you tried the Tiramisu and Chai? Let us know what you think!

Cafe Trope's Banana Cupcake

I had heard that Dupont's Cafe Trope has a Banana Cupcake with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting on the menu (for a hefty $8!), and while doing a little digging to see what people think of it, I came across the Election Day Party they're having tonight.

There's no cover charge, and they'll be showing election coverage on the big screen while serving food and drink specials all night long. While the cupcake isn't one of the food specials, be sure to try it if you go! From what I've read, it's received pretty good reviews. And of course if you do try it, come back and let us know if it's worth the price tag :)

Meetup No. 4 - Hellooooo Cupcake

The DC/Metro Cupcake Meetup Group had it's fourth Meetup this past Saturday at Hello Cupcake in Dupont. Penny Karas, owner of Hello Cupcake, was sweet enough to drop by even though it was her Wedding Anniversary so she could say hi to some of the group members and thank us for coming in!


Half of Hello Cupcake's Saturday Selections


The Other Half!

While she was there, she pointed out Hello Cupcake's latest seasonal flavor: Pumpkin. And let me tell you, it is a MUST try. Seriously, get your behind over to Hello Cupcake and try this cupcake before it disappears. It was moist and crumbly with just the right amount of spice. Those of you who like your frosting minimal and who have expressed dissatisfaction in Hello Cupcake's ample frosting (which, being a frostaholic, I love) will adore this special edition. There is only a small rosette of frosting atop this fabulous fall flavor. Here's a picture:

Everyone had a great time. For some group members it was their first time visiting Hello Cupcake, and I think the overall consensus was that everyone really liked what they tasted! We all got a cupcake (or two) to sit down and enjoy with our coffee, and some of us purchased a box for the road! Check out more pictures from the Meetup below.


Meetup Member Shelley and her friends trying to decide which flavors they want!


Meetup Members Liza & Greg enjoying their cupcakes

DC Cupcake Contest Photos

I finally uploaded all of the pictures from the contest to my Photostream on Flickr, so feel free to check them all out by clicking here!

Death by Cupcake - DC's 1st Cupcake Contest

At first thought, being a Judge in DC's 1st Annual Cupcake Contest may sound like fun and glitz and glamour, but ohhhh no my friend. For myself and the other 4 Judges, it was quite the gluttonous debauch. Covered in frosting and crumbs, we taste tested 27 different cupcakes from 9 different bakers in order to determine who would get bragging rights for being the winner of DC's 1st Annual Cupcake Contest.

The contest was held in the beautiful Patterson Mansion at 15 Dupont Circle, which is owned by the Washington Club. I arrived a little early to take pictures of the contestants setting up their tables:


The ladies representing 52 Cupcakes set up their table


Mollie of Molliecakes.com making her cupcakes pretty!


Baking in the Amateur category, Yours Truly, Cupcake, sets up their cupcakes


Also baking in the Amateur category, Sarah Burton and her husband frost some cupcakes.

As attendees begin to arrive, the Judges and I headed back to our separate judging room and began the sugar overload! Here's a look at some of the cupcakes we tasted:






All entrants submitted one chocolate cupcake with white frosting, one yellow cupcake with chocolate frosting, and a wildcard. The wildcard really was wild - one cupcake had a goat cheese frosting and pine nuts! While there were a lot of great chocolate and wild card submissions, I've got to be honest and say that I wasn't impressed by any of the yellow cupcakes. A lot of them were very dry, and many of the chocolate frosting's bordered on tasting like Duncan Hines.

The cupcakes were brought to us one group at a time. We were not told who the cupcakes were from to make sure everything was kept fair. We would each have three cupcakes to taste from that entrant, evaluate the cupcakes on a number of factors (decoration was not taken into consideration), and then record our scores for each cupcake on a scale of 1-10. We would add up the three scores for each cupcake, and that would be the entrant's final score. After almost an hour of scoring and taste testing all of this:

we had two clear winners! One for the Amateur category and one for the Professional category.

Amateur Category Winner: Mollie Ohlhaut. My favorite one of Mollie's submissions was her deep rich chocolate cake with a chocolate pudding center. If I didn't have to eat 26 other cupcakes, I would have taken down this whole thing. It was topped with chopped nuts and bits of chocolate...so good! I wasn't crazy about her yellow cake, but I will say that the frosting was delicious. The wild card was a Chocolate cupcake with raspberry filling. It was flavorful and rich, just like the other chocolate submission, and the raspberry filling was great.

Professional Category Winner: Sharon White of Nostalgia Cupcakes (opening in Annapolis later this year). Sharon entered a great Chocolate cupcake with creamy sweet vanilla frosting, and her wildcard was one of the favorites - a Rollo Cupcake...you know, like the candy!

In terms of my own scoring, the highest score I awarded for a wildcard actually went to Tiffany Rose Goodyear for her Carrot Cake Cupcake. It was spicy - chock full of nutmeg and other spices. The frosting was also very good.

The highest score I gave for a Yellow Cupcake went to 52 Cupcakes. It was the lightest and sweetest of all the yellow cupcakes submitted, which in my mind is just how a yellow cake should taste.

And lastly, the highest score I gave for a Chocolate Cupcake was to the Amateur category winner, Mollie Ohlhaut.

I hope everyone who went had a good time! Aside from feeling like I was in a sugar coma, it was lots of fun and I really enjoyed having the opportunity to take part in this fun event, meeting loads of great cupcake lovers, and meeting a lot of the blog readers!!

The Cupcake Contest

While I am working on the actual post for this, I wanted to give you guys a little preview of the sugar shock I went through to judge this competition last night.

Yup, had to taste all of those....and that's not even all of them!!!

Cupcake Contest TONIGHT!!!

Just a reminder to all those interested, DC's 1st Annual Cupcake Contest is being held tonight at 6:30pm at the Washington Club in Dupont. Yours truly will be one of the official Judges for the contest - so make sure you stop by, say hi, and eat some cupcakes!


Picture from Londonist.com

It's $5 to get in and there will be a cash bar and plenty of cupcake mini's for you to feast on! Jenni over at Blonde's-I-View, who is heading the Cupcake Contest, reminds attendee's to please respect the Washington Club's dress code of professional attire.

Hope to see you there!

Hello Cupcake Update

I dropped by Hello Cupcake around 12:30pm to pick up some cupcakes for my boyfriend. I walked right inside and waited in line for about 2 minutes. I suppose nobody is coming out since they think they will be waiting out in the rain! So today is the day to try Hello Cupcake if you haven't already!

Hello Cupcake Opening Day

As promised, here are a couple pictures from Hello Cupcake's Opening Day this past Monday. I had forgot my camera, so Penny's husband let me borrow theirs to snap a couple pictures. As everyone knows by now, it's been pretty busy over at Hello Cupcake, so it took a few days for them to get the pictures to me :)


The line winding out the door to get a taste of Hello Cupcake.


That's one way to eat a cupcake.


The pretty pink chandelier


Some customers digging into their boxes of cupcakes in Hello Cupcake's seating area.


Get 'em while you can, they go fast!

4 Cupcake Limit at Hello Cupcake

Just an FYI for anyone planning on venturing out to Hello Cupcake anytime in the near future...

I'm not sure how long this rule is in place for, maybe just opening week, but Hello Cupcake has placed a 4-cupcake limit on all customers. While I think it's clear they've done this as an attempt to assuage customers' anger over standing in long lines only to find that Hello Cupcake has run out, the attempted nice-gesture has unfortunately upset a lot of customers.

People come in planning on spending $50+ on large orders to share with friends and family, but get turned down. I guess there is no way to make everyone happy. Ultimately, I think everyone is looking forward to a few weeks down the road when the excitement, and the crowd, dies down a little. Until then, be prepared for long lines and purchase limits.

It's Opening Day!

Well as everyone should know, Hello Cupcake officially opened the doors this morning to their adorable store in Dupont Circle! Around 11:30 I hopped on the Metro, getting there a few minutes before noon. As I stepped off the escalator onto the street, I was wondering if it would be hard to find, but no sooner did that thought cross my mind than I saw a line of girls, and a few guys, winding down the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street.

I walked over and jumped in at the end of the line. Everyone was all smiles and excited to try the cupcakes. I stood there eavesdropping on the multitude conversations...people were talking about how they like Georgetown Cupcake but can't wait to compare these to those, which flavors they thought they were going to order, how they had been checking out the pictures on the website for months. One girl came walking out of the front door biting into a Coconut Cupcake, exclaiming to everyone at the end of the line, "it's SO worth the wait!" She was followed by loads of people with boxes of cupcakes and iced coffees.

A Hello Cupcake employee was walking around handing out samples of a Root Beer Float flavored cupcake and little take-home menus with ordering information. He made it over to me with the last sample piece, and as I popped it in my mouth I was surprised at how similar the flavor was to an actual Root Beer Float. Turns out as I got to talking to him, I found out it was Penny's husband (Penny as you might remember from previous posts is the owner of Hello Cupcake). Her husband, Bill Bonstra of Bonstra Haresign Architects, is the one who designed the shop, bringing Penny's idea of a more modern-boutique-like cupcakery to life. And it looked great! Sparkling Pink Chandelier and all.

I was telling Bill how bummed I was that I forgot my camera, but he was kind enough to run behind the counter and grab his. I snapped a couple pictures with it so I could share them with you guys, and he should be emailing those to me in the next couple days.

Now onto the cupcakes...I only had to wait about 15 minutes to get through the line. Not bad at all. I wanted to try a couple different flavors this time, so I picked out the 24 Carrot, Velvet Elvis, and Peanut Butter Blossom (which Penny actually let me sample a couple months ago, so I already know this one is fantastic). Velvet Elvis is only available on Mondays and Thursdays, while 24 Carrot and Peanut Butter Blossom are daily flavors. Today is my fathers birthday, so I've got to save them to bring to him tonight when I get off work. Don't worry, I'll come back and repost how they taste when I try them! But from my previous experience, I already know they are going to be amazing!

If you haven't already, be sure to make your way out to Dupont Circle this week to try Hello Cupcake. It blows Georgetown Cupcake out of the water. And Cakelove? Ha. They aren't even in the same playing field.

Hello Cupcake Announces Opening Day!

Yay! The much anticipated Hello Cupcake will be having its Grand Opening on Monday, August 25, 2008. That's next week people! I am so excited for everyone to try these delicious cupcakes and give me your opinions.

If you're familiar with a lot of my old postings, you know that I think they are truly fabulous. Anyway, make sure you get down there at some point next week and check out the place! I guarentee it will win you over.

Hello Cupcake is located at:

1351 Connecticut Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20036

(Just south of Dupont Circle, across from the Metro)

Hello Cupcake!

Penny Karas, Owner & Executive Pastry Chef of the much anticipated Hello Cupcake (set to open later this summer in Dupont), graciously offered me a sneak preview of her treats before the shop’s Grand Opening. With original flavors like the Velvet Elvis and Maya Favorite Cupcake, I was SUPER excited to make my way over to Penny’s place and put my taste buds to work. And work I did! After tasting 5 different flavors, I can safely say that Hello Cupcake's cupcakes are the best I have had in this area!

With charming little touches like both indoor and outdoor seating, recycled pink packing, a flashy pink chandelier, and the perfectly crafted cupcakes themselves, Hello Cupcake is all about the details. And you can taste Penny's attention to detail in each and every bite. I think it's this special attention that is going to make Hello Cupcake so successful. Here are my reviews:

Gluten Free Carrot Cake - Oh.My.God. GLUTEN FREE?!?! I’ve died and gone to cupcake heaven. The cream cheese icing was SO delicious it’s hard to put into words! The mixture of cinnamon, real carrots, walnuts, and pineapple was perfect. When you go to Hello Cupcake, you have GOT to try this masterpiece.

Vanilla Gorilla - A light and fluffy banana bread with an anything but average vanilla frosting. I gave one to a friend who is a banana bread connoisseur, and her eyes about bulged out of her head when she took her first bite. “This is AMAZING!!” I would have to agree. I've never really liked bananas, but I LOVED this cupcake.

Vegan German Chocolate - I tried this one both room temperature and warmed up. I think I prefer the warmed up version as it makes the caramel topping a little creamier. This combined with chocolate cake was a great combination.

Triple Coconut - My taste buds had a field day with this one. The Triple Coconut is exactly how a cupcake should taste: sweet, light, and moist. Normally I avoid coconut as I’m not a big fan, but this was just divine.

Peanut Butter Blossom - WOW. The peanut butter frosting on this cupcake is so creamy and delicious you must try it for yourself. Unlike many other peanut butter frostings I’ve had, this one is not at all oily or overpowering. It’s perfect. The chocolate cake was smooth and rich. Put them together and you’ve got one amazing combination.

You can find these and over 15 other flavors on Hello Cupcake's menu. Speaking of which, I asked Penny if we could be expecting any new flavors once the shop opens, to which she replied "Oh definitely! Coming up with new flavors is the best part." For more on what Penny had to say about her cupcakes and her shop, check out our conversation below:

(In regards to the Vegan German Chocolate Cupcake)
Penny: “The caramel topping doesn’t have the butter in it to make it really gooey, so it hardens almost into a caramel fudge, it’s awesome. If you wanted to have the gooeyness, I would recommend just warming it up. Pop it in the microwave for about 10 seconds and it goo’s right up.

Penny: And then this is Gluten Free Carrot Cake.

Danielle: OH those are my favorite!

Penny: Oh good! This is really good even if you’re not eating gluten free, so I think you’ll enjoy it but the real stuff is also amazing . You’ll have to come and have some of those some day! The gluten-free one has carrots, toasted walnuts, pineapple and coconut, filled with all kinds of goodness, and then a traditional cream cheese frosting and a dusting of cinnamon.

Danielle: I love the way you do your icing. I was checking out the website and everything is so cute, people are loving it! You know you’ve got so many good reviews already and you haven’t even opened. Everyone is just like, “I love the way they look!”

Penny: It kind of validates the whole idea of really going for a high end brand look too. I mean, I think the products are number one, and they’re really good, so that’s a good thing, but I also think that just having the brand appeal has really attracted people.

Danielle: People really go for presentation.

Penny: I think that’s true; and I wanted the shop itself to have a modern aesthetic. The whole idea behind the shop is that when you walk in it feels more like you’re walking into a little boutique.

Danielle: Yea, I read about your pink chandelier!

Penny: Hahaha Yea!

(Back to cupcakes)

Penny: This is Peanut Butter Blossom which is my basic Scharfenberger chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting, which is addictive. [This is] Vanilla Gorilla, which is banana cake and has real bananas, not just banana flavoring, and vanilla cream cheese frosting. It’s a really nice moist cake because of the Banana.

Danielle: Speaking of the Banana, your Velvet Elvis cracks me up.

Penny: Isn’t that great? I didn’t know if people would get the reference! There is another one called Lucy, “the sassy red head.” A friend of mine who is like 10 years younger than me said “are you sure younger people are going to get this reference?

Danielle: Oh, I definitely think so.

What I like most about the cupcakes from Hello Cupcake is that not only are the cake and frosting delicious on their own, but when you bite into them together, it's the perfect combination. They look great, they're moist, the flavors are rich but aren't overpowering; they’re absolutely delicious.

Penny was shocked that I came all the way from Bethesda to her corner of DC to try the cupcakes. Are you kidding?? People are going to be coming from all over to try these cupcakes! Keep your eyes and ears peeled for the Grand Opening later this summer, Hello Cupcake is going to be a huge hit.