Baked & Wired is in!!!! Georgetown Cupcake is silent...still

Yum, my personal favorite cupcakery has committed to the First Annual DC Cupcake Contest.  Where's Georgetown Cupcake?  After two attempted contacts...nothing.  Wow.  Wonder if they are afraid....

8/8 Update: Cupcake Contest Competitors

To date, the first Annual DC Cupcake Contest is generating quite a bit of interest. Here are the competitors as of now:

Professionals:
The Baltimore Cupcake Company
52 Cupcakes

Baked & Wired

Amateurs:
Amanda Gregory
Catie Woolley
Tiffany Rose Goodyear

Out of Towners:
PattiCakes (Bryn Mawr, PA)
Sweet N Sassy Cupcakes (Newark, DE)
Nostalgia Cupcakes (Annapolis, MD)

A Cupcake Coma!

As I lay here dying... I thought I would share the details of the cupcake-induced coma in which I find myself. On a whim, a co-worker of mine and I ventured into Georgetown in search of a sweet treat to satisfy our mid-afternoon slump. Somehow she convinced me to give Georgetown Cupcake a second chance (to which I reluctantly agreed?!?!) After trying to navigate down narrow Potomac Street and being very frustrated by delivery trucks taking up all the parking spots, I was mildly encouraged because the line was the smallest I'd ever seen - only extending out to the front step. It was all good til I saw the last guy in line - leave. Never a good sign. So, I rolled down my car window and asked how long he'd been waiting. He responded, "Not long, but I hate lines!" As a long-line-hater myself, I took off and headed straight to Baked & Wired, secured parking easily, waited in a minimal line of 3 people and ordered my cupcakes. How easy was that? Super easy! So, I trekked back to the office and devour the chocolate birthday cupcake with vanilla icing. The cake itself (which I cut the bottom off so as to give the cake itself a fair evaluation sans the sweetness of the icing) was nothing short of delectable. Really. Moist but not flaky - it stood up nicely to my knife. Very chocolately, but not overpowering. I would have been happy with the cupcake bottom by itself, but the white icing was a like a little cloud of heaven. I'm in love and in a coma right now.

And, I told the lady waiting on me about the Cupcake-Off - she was really excited and told me who to get in touch with to set it up. Yay!

Cupcake Controversy: A New Contender

Hot off the presses and straight from Apples and Bananas, the news has hit the blogosphere that another cupcake bakery is going to throw its muffin tin in the ring and compete in the cutthroat competition for best cupcake in DC.  Georgetown Cupcake - watch out!  Cakelove - pay attention!  Baked & Wired - listen up!  There's gonna be a new cupcake in town!  As reported on Apples and Bananas from discussion in the Don Rockwell forum - Hello Cupcake! is coming to town.  You'll have to wait for summer, but this newest contender will be strategically located in Dupont Circle.  

Post Script:  Summer in DC = humidity.  I wonder what the humidity will do to cupcakes???

Cupcake Controversy: Don't Believe the Hype about Georgetown Cupcake

After much discussion, debate, and dreaming of cupcakes, two colleagues and I decided to finally suck it up and wander over to the much-hyped Georgetown Cupcake, wait in the ridiculous line, just for a personal experience with the cupcakes to beat all cupcakes.  The cupcakes that make Magnolia hang its head in shame, the cupcakes that make Cakelove cringe, the cupcakes that will make my mom hang up her apron from cupcake-baking forever!  Man, I couldn't wait for these cupcakes.  And, then - the client called and I had to bail from my much-dreamed about trip to the soon-to-be world famous Georgetown Cupcake!  I was devastated.  But, all was not lost.  My favorite co-worker, Tracey (did you like the shout-out Trace?!?), brought back a dozen in the prettiest PINK box.  And then she offered me one - my choice!!!!  We ripped open the box and... there were the little tiniest mini-muffins I've ever seen.  Like the kind third-graders bring to school on their birthday to share with the class.  But, ok, so they were small, but I was sure, convinced, I believe these were going to be an eating ecstasy, so I carefully selected a red velvet cupcake with white cream cheese icing (I mean, really - how could you go wrong with that?) and took a giant bite!  I threw all caution to the wind and chomped down, without a thought of having red velvet cupcake all stuck up in my braces.  And, then - I was crestfallen.  A slightly dry mini-cupcake with unpleasantly tangy tart cream cheese icing is what I ended  up with, mushing it around in my mouth.  Trying to recover from my first bite, I shoved the rest of it in my mouth with one fell swoop.  That just confirmed that a nearly $3, over celebrated cupcake, is exactly that - a too expensive, not tasty enough, too much talked about piece of cake.  Well if nothing less, as a marketer myself, I respect how successful their Word-of-Mouth marketing efforts have been.  But that is it.  Skip the trip and head over to Baked & Wired on Thomas Jefferson St. (just three short blocks from Georgetown Cupcake) and try theirs.  I hear they are expensive, but well worth it!  Now that's what I am talking about!

For others' views on the cupcake controversy, check out:

Cupcakes Take the Cake's Commentary

Chowhounders' Opinions

Cordial Girl's commenter's rant (which is also published on blogs elsewhere)

Pie V. Cake's Post

Brunch And The City's Baked & Wired Experience 

Sarah Disgrace's Disgust With 'G'town Suck-Cakes'