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!!

Get Your Fourth of July Cupcakes!

If you're planning on buying, not baking, your patriotic cupcakes this Fourth of July, I've got you covered. Check out this list of local places who will be selling the festive treats all week long:

Bittersweet Catering
Flag Cupcakes made up of white cake with Vanilla Buttercream, decorated with red stripes and blue stars, for $3.00/each

Buzz Bakery

Patriotic Themed Cupcakes

Cakelove

Yellow butter cupcakes topped with buttercream, raspberries, and blueberries.

Cupcakes Actually
Choose from Apple Struedel with Cream Cheese Frosting, Simply Red with Cream Cheese Frosting and Vanilla Bean with Vanilla Buttercream. Each cupcake is adorned with a handmade 4th of July themed decoration.

Georgetown Cupcake
Fourth of July Cupcakes are available every day during the holiday week and throughout the holiday month by special order.

Heidelberg Pastry Shoppe

Heidelberg's Patriotic Themed Cupcakes are either Yellow or Chocolate cake with white icing and red, white and blue sprinkles on top. They're $1.25 each.

Hello Cupcake

Fourth of July Cupcakes are available all this week. They are the "HC Originals," (vanilla or chocolate cake with vanilla or chocolate buttercream frosting) with special Independence Day decorations and are the normal price, $3/each. Note their holiday hours: 10am-9pm July 3rd, and 10am-5pm July 4th.

Red Velvet Cupcakery

RVC will definitely be selling patriotic-themed cupcakes this week, but weren't able to tell me which flavors they'll be using as the baker hasn't decided yet. The themed-cupcakes will probably only be available Saturday, Friday at the earliest!

Springmill Bread Company
All the local locations are baking Patriotic Themed Cupcakes, priced at 4 for $8.

Know of anywhere else? Let me know and I'll add it to the list!

Larry's Should Stick to Ice Cream

I recently became aware that Larry’s Ice Cream in Dupont also carries cupcakes, so when I was in Dupont with my boyfriend Mike visiting some of his friends, we all walked down to the shop. It was a cute little place right in the heart of Dupont. Anddd that’s where the cuteness ended.

Mike walked right in and saw 3 different types of Red Velvet cupcakes – one with cream cheese frosting, one with buttercream frosting, and one with chocolate frosting. He looked at a big man on a Blackberry behind the counter and said, “I hear your Red Velvet is good, which one should I get?” The guy proceeded to look at him and say “Does it look like I give a shit?”

I have no patience for people like this, and at that point was ready to turn around and walk out but Mike still wanted to order one. He ordered the chocolate cupcake with raspberry filling and the red velvet with cream cheese frosting. At the register, Mike tried to make conversation again, asking the guy “so are you the baker?” The guy looked at Mike like he just asked the stupidest question in the history of all time, and said “Does it look like I’m the baker?” Mike fired back and said “Maybe? What kind of question is that?” The guy slammed the drawer shut, pushed the cupcakes at Mike, said “here you go” and walked off to play with his Blackberry some more.

Seriously, nobody is asking for this guy to be Mary Sunshine, but are you kidding me??? When your customers are trying to make conversation with you and ask you about your product, it might behoove you to engage in some pleasant conversation and not curse and be a smartass. I have been to DOZENS of bakeries since beginning this blog over a year ago, and have never encountered someone so rude.

Not only is the customer service horrid to say the least, but the cupcakes taste awful. The cake was dry, the frosting on the red velvet was sour and didn’t even taste like cream cheese frosting – I threw it out after taking 2 bites. I wouldn’t even try the Chocolate, but Mike who will eat pretty much anything wouldn’t even finish it.

Walk a couple hundred feet over to Hello Cupcake, take a trip down a few blocks to Baked & Wired, Georgetown Cupcake, or Red Velvet Cupcakery. Whatever you do, do not give a single penny of your money to this place. The service at Hello, B&W, Georgetown & Red Velvet is friendly and the cupcakes are worlds better. Larry’s ice cream may be good, but he clearly jumped on the cupcake bandwagon to make a quick buck. His product is awful and so is his attitude; avoid this place at all costs.

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!!

DC Metro Cupcake Group Meetup No. 6 - Red Velvet Cupcakery

Today was the DC Metro Cupcake Group's January Meetup. Everyone braved the cold and headed to the new Red Velvet Cupcakery in Penn Quarter, right by the Verizon Center. The Red Velvet Cupcakery is a cute little shop, with a big cupcake display and a small area for about 4 people to sit down.

Since there was about 20 of us, everyone grabbed their cupcakes and went next door to TangySweet - which is owned by Aaron Gordon, brother of Red Velvet Cupcakery owner Canada Gordon. TangySweet has plenty of space to sit down and encourages RVC go-ers to bring their cupcakes in. We got a chance to talk to Aaron, who manages both Red Velvet and TangySweet, who was really nice and fun to talk to! Aaron was sweet enough to give the group some free cupcakes fresh out of the oven - Vanilla, Peanut Butter, and Devil's Food. And when I say fresh out of the oven, I'm serious - they were still hot!

Since this is Red Velvet Cupcakery, let's first talk about the Red Velvet cupcake. Delicious! A lot of the group members tried this one, and everyone raved about not only the cake portion but the frosting. It was the perfect combition of sweet and cream cheese flavor; very light and fluffy. I would definitely recommend it.

My other favorite? The Vanilla! Finally, someone who does the Vanilla cupcake correctly! A lot of Vanilla cupcakes I've tried in this area are dry with a way too sweet buttercream that literally makes your teeth ache. Not this one. You can see the vanilla beans in the frosting, which is, like the cream cheese frosting, just the right amount of sweet but with a great vanilla flavor. The cake portion is moist, not at all heavy, and has more of the natural vanilla flavor. I loved this one too.

The other one I tried was the Peanut Butter Cup. There was a salted peanut atop a delicious mound of peanut butter frosting, above a warm chocolate cake. So good. Other flavors the group members tried and really enjoyed included Summertime (Lemon Cake w/ Coconut Frosting) , Key West (Key Lime Cake w/ White Chocolate Buttercream), and B-Day (Yellow Cake w/ Milk Chocolate Ganache).

In summary, if you haven't checked out Red Velvet Cupcakery already, get over there and get yourself a cupcake!

A Red Velvet Cupcakery Review

Last posting on Red Velvet Cupcakery for the day, I promise! I’m just excited for our upcoming meetup! I took some parts of the ModernDomestic's (Jenna Huntsberger) review of her experience with Red Velvet Cupcakery and posted them below for you guys to see!:

Photo courtesy of the ModernDomestic

"I tried three cupcakes on my visit: the coffee-flavored Morning Call, the Red Velvet, and the Peanut Butter Cup. Each was $3.25/piece or $36 for a dozen.

The cupcakes were well made, with the exception of a small technical difficulty. All the cupcakes I sampled had a hard, slightly bitter, crust on their tops, as if they’d been left in the oven too long. But that problem is easily fixable, and may just have been opening day jitters.

Photo courtesy of the ModernDomestic

My favorite cupcake, by far, was the Peanut Butter Cup - a chocolate cake topped with a slightly salty, rich peanut butter frosting. The cake was tender and had a deep chocolate flavor, but the frosting really stole the show. It had a fluffy texture, with a rich salty-sweet peanut butter flavor. I love the combination of chocolate and peanut butter together, and this cupcake was really to die for.

Photo courtesy of the ModernDomestic

The Red Velvet was also a strong contender - the cake was fluffy and tender, and had that deep red color of a proper red velvet cake. The cream cheese frosting was the right balance of tangy and sweet, with a smooth texture.

Photo courtesy of the ModernDomestic

The Morning Call, an espresso-chocolate cupcake with mocha buttercream, was my least favorite. I didn’t taste the espresso in the espresso-chocolate cake, although it had a rich chocolate flavor and tender crumb. The frosting tasted like a classic buttercream - it tasted strongly of butter, had an oily texture, and was overwhelmingly rich. To be fair, the mocha flavor was well balanced, and the richness and the texture are all things I’ve encountered in buttercreams before. But I’m not a huge fan of classic buttercreams, so my dislike of the Morning Call may be more a matter of personal taste than anything else.

Photo courtesy of the ModernDomestic

I was pretty happy with Red Velvet Cupcakery - just writing this makes me want to make a b-line for the store so I can get that Peanut Butter Cup cupcake again. But I also think that Red Velvet has some room to grow.

Red Velvet’s flavor combinations are classic, but seemed a little boring and expected - as though they took a gourmet dessert menu and adapted it for cupcakes. This isn’t a bad thing, but Red Velvet Cupcakery is competing with stores that are passionate about cupcakes, and which offer daily rotating menus in addition to seasonal offerings. Doing classic flavors well just isn’t enough to compete."

All around, great reviews so far for RVC! Have you meetup members have picked out which flavors you're going to chow down on?! I have!

More on Red Velvet Cupcakery

And here’s Red Velvet Cupcakery’s second mention of the week in the Washington Post Express. The great reviews continue!

Photo from Express Night Out Eating Around Article

The Velveteers

Canada Gordon has always had a crush on cupcakes, and Ceiba's original pastry chef, David Guas, shares a similar affinity for the dainty desserts. They've opened Red Velvet, a lovely little place to spend a date and grab a sugar high.

Try the Morning Call, a chocolate espresso cake with mocha butter cream. Devil's food-chocolate buttermilk cake with bittersweet chocolate ganache is sinfully satisfying; the Peanut Butter Cup, a chocolate chocolate-chip cake dolloped with salted peanut butter frosting is a textural marvel of sweet and salty. And the Southern Belle is the, well, belle of the ball: A red velvet cake with whipped cream cheese frosting; it's simple, elegant and too scrumptious for words.

Red Velvet Cupcakery 675 E St. NW; 202-347-7895.

Red Velvet Red Velvet Red Velvet!

Red Velvet Cupcakery is everywhere! The new cupcakery has had two mentions in the Washington Post Express this week - I’ve attached one below, and I’ll post the second one here in a minute.

Photo by Jonathan Ernst - Washington Post

DINE&DASH
The Trend Is Marching On: Red Velvet
SERIOUSLY, WHEN IS the cupcake trend going to end? Not that cupcakes are objectionable — how can anyone truly oppose tiny islands of delicious? — but there is a recession on, and those tiny islands often cost upwards of $3 each. And yet the cupcake juggernaut does not appear to be slowing, with last month's opening of Red Velvet, a new cupcake-only spot in Penn Quarter.

But don't hold your flagging enthusiasm for cupcakes against Red Velvet. The cake is moist, the frosting is intensely but not off-puttingly flavorful. Think vanilla cupcakes are boring? Try their vanilla bean cupcakes, whose frosting carries just a touch of bourbon. The red velvet flavor — avoiding the characteristically sanguine color in favor of a more appetizing burgundy — is light and tasty, with cream cheese frosting that won't leave you gasping for water, milk, anything to cut the sweetness.

Red Velvet's tiny counter top is only long enough for four or five people to gaze out on 7th St., but it's a lovely place to relax for a glass of milk — and yes, in an incredibly smart move, they do sell milk. Nothing else goes quite so well with cupcakes.

Even if the ubiquity of cupcakes irritates you, you won't be able to hold it against Red Velvet. The food is wonderful, the service is fast and chatty and if you're with a cupcake-hater you can send them to the adjacent TangySweet for their mid-day sugar fix.

Posted By Fiona Zublin at 12:00 AM on January 23, 2009

Although I’m not a fan of the cupcake hating (it’s times like these where people can truly appreciate the little things like a cupcake!), this is a pretty good review!

Update #2: DC Area Obama Cupcake Roundup

UPDATE: I've updated the DC Area Obama Cupcake Roundup posting from this past Monday to include the goodies from another cupcakery: Red Velvet Cupcakery in DC's Penn Quarter! I'll add the information to the original DC Area Obama Cupcake Roundup posting I did a couple days ago. Click here to read.

Free Cupcakes at Red Velvet Cupcakery

When I was searching for some cupcake dirt yesterday, I came across a tidbit saying that Red Velvet Cupcakery would be giving away 500 cupcakes on Thursday. Only problem - yesterday was Thursday! How could I not have known about this!? Sad sad sad.

Red Velvet Cupcakery. Photograph from User Alicia G.'s Yelp Photo's

So today when I was looking on CTTC and saw they did a posting on the giveaway, but saying the free cupcakes are being handed out NEXT Thursday the 15th, I double checked the Washington Post source and sure enough, IT IS NEXT THURSDAY! Woohoo!

Red Velvet Cupcakery. Photograph from User Alicia G.'s Yelp Photo's

So here you go folks: Red Velvet Cupcakery will offer free cupcakes to the first 500 customers, starting at 11 a.m. There will probably be a line, so make sure you get there before 11 if you want a free cupcake!

New Cupcakery Opening This Month

Santa Claus isn't the only one coming to town this December! Have those scarves and mittens handy because Washingtonian's will be coming out by the usual cupcake-crazed masses for this month's opening of Red Velvet Cupcakery.

Opening in the heart of Penn Quarter, cupcake lovers will be able to feast on flavors like Devil's Food, Summertime (Lemon Cake w/ Coconut Frosting), Key West (Key Lime w/ White Chocolate Buttercream), and of course, Red Velvet. The new cupcakery will have at least 8 different flavors at $3.25/each, or $36/dozen.

Owner Canada Gordon recently came back to her roots here in DC after living in LA to pursue a career in the entertainment industry. While on the west coast, Gordon developed a love for the cupcake scene, and despite what appears to be a rather successful career in film & television (Gordon has worked on projects like Vanilla Sky, Shopgirl, National Treasure, Lord's of Dogtown, and HBO's Entourage) she returned to the DC area to pursue the perfect cupcake.

In her pursuit of sugary sweet perfection, Gordon enlisted the help of David Guas, who is the creator and executive pastry chef behind Red Velvet Cupcakes. Guas is also no stranger to the entertainment industry, making regular appearances NBC’s Today Show and having his desserts recognized in such publications as Food & Wine, Cooking Light, and the National Culinary Review.

Will Red Velvet Cupcakery put at end to Washingtonian’s endless hunt for the best Red Velvet Cupcake in town? I’m looking forward to finding out!

While there is no firm opening date (just “December 2008"), Red Velvet Cupcakery will be opening on the corner of 7th Street and E Street, at 675 E St. NW, Washington, DC 20004