Friday, November 7, 2008

Monday is National Vanilla Cupcake Day!

Attention Cupcake Lovers! Monday, November 10th is National Vanilla Cupcake Day (yes, there is such a thing) so do something to celebrate! Like bake some with your friends, or bake some cupcakes this weekend and bring them into work to share!
You can use the Vanilla Cupcake recipe in the posting below from Best Buns Bakery, or you can use this Magnolia Bakery recipe I've reposted from the Food Network website:
Makes about 2 dozen cupcakes (depending on the size of your cupcake papers and muffin tins)
CUPCAKES:
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
ICING:
Vanilla Buttercream (recipe follows) or Chocolate Buttercream
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers.
3. In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about three-quarters full. Bake for 20–25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
5. Cool the cupcakes in the tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing. At the bakery we ice the cupcakes with either Vanilla Buttercream or Chocolate Buttercream.
Note: If you would like to make a layer cake instead of cupcakes, divide the batter between two 9-inch round cake pans and bake the layers for 30-40 minutes.
Vanilla Buttercream:
The vanilla buttercream we use at the bakery is technically not a buttercream but actually an old-fashioned confectioners' sugar and butter frosting. Be sure to beat the icing for the amount of time called for in the recipe to achieve the desired creamy texture.
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
6 to 8 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Add 4 cups of the sugar and then the milk and vanilla. On the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. You may not need to add all of the sugar. If desired, add a few drops of food coloring and mix thoroughly. (Use and store the icing at room temperature because icing will set if chilled.)
Icing can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Yield: enough for 2 dozen cupcakes or 1 (9-inch) layer cake

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

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!

Live Chat with the Ladies of Georgetown Cupcake

If you could ask Georgetown Cupcake co-owners and sisters Katherine Kallinis and Sophie LaMontagne anything about their cupcake business, what would it be? Maybe you'd ask how they have the energy to bake for 14 hours a day? Did they actually get the meet Russell Crowe when he lined up for their cupcakes???? How do they make that icing look so darn cute?


Photograph from www.bisnow.com

Well this afternoon from 1:00-2:00pm, Sophie and Katherine will be joining the Washington Post Food Section staff for an online chat, and you'll be able to submit questions for the girls to answer!

Click here for the link. You can submit questions both in advance and during the discussion! (After the chat, you can check out the comments to this post for some excerpts)

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 & CafĂ© 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

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Cakelove Election Day Discount

Not that I like to promote anything having to do with Cakelove since I think their cupcakes are awful, but for those of you who disagree, walk yourself on over to their 15th & U Street location and flash your "I Voted" sticker to get $1 off your cupcakes.
(And just an FYI - Here's a couple other Election Day Food Freebies: Show your sticker at Krispy Kreme and get a free donut, show it at Starbucks and get a free tall coffee, show it at California Tortilla for a free Taco, show it at Ben & Jerry's from 5-8pm for a free scoop of ice-cream, and last but not least, some Chick-fil-a's are giving away a free original sandwich to voters, but only if you turn in your sticker!)
Unrelated to the election, they're also running a promotion to Celebrate their 6th Birthday where you can buy 5 cupcakes and get the 6th one free. One catch though - you can only get this special on the 6th of each month.

Georgetown Cupcake on Martha Stewart Show

Did you have a chance to catch the Martha Stewart Show yesterday? Georgetown Cupcake owners Katherine Kallinis and Sophie LaMontagne were there helping Martha make election themed cupcakes!

The ladies shared a recipe for one of their more high profile client's favorite flavors - Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting, which you can take a look at by clicking here. And that high profile client? That'd be Senator John Kerry. I wonder who he thinks has the best cupcakes in town!

Today at Georgetown Cupcake you can find their Republican and Democrat Cupcakes (the Red is Red Velvet and the Blue is a twist on the Chocolate Squared flavor) for $2.75 each.

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 :)