The Ten Commandments of Cupcakes

In their final run of the Cupcake Wars, the Washington Post Food Editor Joe Yonan listed out what he deems to be the Ten Commandments of Cupcakes. I've reposted them here as I thought it might help some of you who like to experiment at home!

1. Learn to walk before you run. Perfect the classic vanilla and chocolate cakes with complementary frostings before you step up to other simple combinations, and long before you try something like Summer Peach Meringue Pie Cupcake. Actually, never try Summer Peach Meringue Pie Cupcake, which leads us to . . . .

2. Keep it simple. Cupcakes are eaten out of hand in five or six bites, so don't pack in too many components, or nothing will shine. Two components (cake plus frosting) are classic, but three (cake plus filling plus frosting or cake plus frosting plus topping) can work if each piece makes sense. More than that and you're tempting sensory overload.

3. Don't overbake. You need the right recipe and equipment, of course, but the most common baking mistake might be inaccurate timing. If you have cupcakes in the oven right now, go check them, because they're probably done -- or overdone. And nothing can fix that, not even a filling or a ton of frosting, which leads us to . . . .

4. Get the ratio right. If the cake is moist and tender and the frosting is not too sweet, the best proportion seems to be about two-thirds cake to one-third frosting. That gives you a generous dollop of frosting with each bite of cake, not the other way around.

5. Use good ingredients. The best thing about cupcakes is that they are homey. Artificial flavors are not homey, which leads us to . . . .

6. Respect your vanilla extract, and respect your chocolate. Vanilla is a flavor, not a synonym for "white." On the other side of the spectrum, people are very serious about chocolate, so if you promise it, you'd better deliver it, in a big way. A chocolate cupcake that doesn't taste deep, dark and rich is a bitter disappointment.

7. Beware the refrigerator. Of course it's easier to make a giant batch of cupcakes, frost them and put them in cold storage until serving. If there's butter or cream cheese in that frosting, it's dangerous to hold it at room temperature for more than a few hours. But cupcakes can dry out if left in the refrigerator too long, and they also can pick up flavors from other foods in there. Better to store unfrosted cupcakes at room temperature and then frost what you need as you go.

8. Use butter or cream cheese rather than vegetable shortening in the frosting. Shortening leaves a slick, flavorless mouth feel that seems to last forever -- definitely longer than it takes to eat the cupcake.

9. Watch the sweetness, especially in the frosting. You need sugar, and lots of it, for a classic cake frosting, but you also need balance, or the chocolate, vanilla, fruit or other flavor will just get lost.

10. Looks are important, of course, but don't go for overkill. Use sprinkles, sparkling sugar and other decorations carefully and in good taste. Remember to create something that showcases the flavors in an appealing (and, dare we suggest, obvious) way. And be careful about colors: Even if it's delicious, a spice cupcake with lime-green frosting is just wrong, very wrong.

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

Cupcake Wars - Week II

In yesterday’s edition of the Washington Post, Food Editor Joe Yonan and his team are back, weighing in on two more of the DC/Metro area’s cupcake bakeries. And who’s next in the ring for this week's Cupcake Wars? Buzz Bakery and Pastries by Randolph!

While this week’s contestants fared better than last week’s disappointments, the scores were still nothing to be proud of. First up, Buzz Bakery of Alexandria, Virginia. Of the Buzz cupcakes, here’s what Joe had to say about his team’s taste test:



“We had high hopes, partly because Buzz should get bonus points for such a well-designed box, which protects the contents while allowing easy access. Things started off well enough, with – finally, after last week’s debacle – moist textures and the taste of fresh ingredients. But our affection diminished as we moved through the group, which turned out to be a mixed bag. The biggest mystery: the Bumble Bee cupcake, a cute concept but a muddled combination of flavors.”

Joe and his team claim Vanilla with vanilla frosting as the “best of the bunch,” and Red Velvet as the biggest Buzz loser, as it had “very little flavor” and a “slightly funky taste to the frosting.” Buzz’s score? A 5.5 out of 10. While Buzz now holds the highest score bestowed by Joe’s team upon any cupcake place in the Cupcake Wars, a 5.5 is still flunking! What do you guys think? Is 5.5 accurate?

Next to be thrown into the gauntlet – Pastries by Randolph. This bakery has been an Arlington staple for twenty years now and bakes a wide range of desserts, pastries and other tiny confections. While I’ve never tried a PBR cupcake, I have had a slice of their carrot cake. It wasn’t the best I’ve ever had, but it wasn’t bad either.

The vanilla and chocolate cupcakes at PBR go for $1.50, while their other flavors like Cappuccino and German Chocolate go for $2.75; more expensive than Buzz! Unfortunately, Joe and the team were not fans. Take a look:



“For the most part, no better than what you’d find in a grade-school cafeteria, and they seemed to have picked up (stale) flavors from the cake. The low point: lemon, which reminded us of Pledge; and orange, which tasted like an Orange Julius. (In other words, artificial).” Ouch!! A “Pledge” cupcake??? Gross.

Joe and the team did like PBR’s Red Velvet, saying that it’s “one of the most substantial cupcakes we’ve tasted so far,” but even with that Pastries by Randolph finished with a disappointing 3.5.

Here’s the Cupcake Wars results thus far:

Buzz – 5.5
Pastries by Randolph – 3.5
Cakelove – 2.8
Sticky Fingers – 2.1

While I can’t comment on Pastries by Randolph as I haven’t tried their cupcakes, I can say that I agree with Joe and the team’s scoring so far. I feel like the scores will begin to improve as they move onto other bakeries like Lavender Moon and Hello Cupcake (which I hope are on the list!) What do you guys think?