For the past few days I have been eating my way through Washington, Dc. When I was down in September I did more 'touristy' things like see the monuments and the White House. This time I went to the National Zoo, ate, and explored Georgetown!
As I said before in my previous blogs, when I was going to go down to DC, I was going to compare two well known Cupcake places. The two that I chose were Baked and Wired and GeorgeTown Cupcakes. Which was the better cupcake?
Baked and Wired was a more modern looking Bakery and Coffee Shop. When John and I first arrived there we ordered something to drink. I got the Vanilla Organic Tea. That was very good. It had a nice 'earthiness' to it. Much different than the tea I drink back home. As with most things I eat, I always add a little "sum em sum em," to it to give it that kick. So to my tea I added some cream and Simple Syrup. Speaking of Simple Syrup...I was quite surprised to find out that they offer Simple Syrup to their customers vs. regular sugar. As many of you know simple syrup is 50/50 sugar and water...boiled and brought down to cool. Many Pastry chefs coat fruits in Simple Syrup to give it that glossy look. But I was definitely surprised that Baked & Wired offered it to their customers. It did not occur to me that you could use it in tea or coffee....I guess you learn something new everyday! ;) John ordered a Costado, a little but really strong espresso drink. It was adorable but too bitter for me!
Then we went to order our cupcakes as part of my DC challenge.
We ordered their Red Velvet and Tessita Cupcakes
Here are the two Cupcakes that we ordered. The one on the left is the Tessita and the one on the right is the Red Velvet.
According to Baked & Wired website the Tessita is: "Vanilla caked with dulce de leche filling and Chocolate Hazelnut satin icing." This Cupcake was very good. The cake was absolutely moist, just what everyone would want in a cupcake, but the Vanilla cupcake lacked that Vanilla taste. You had to search for the vanilla taste a bit, but if you waited a bit you would realize it is there. The Chocolate Hazelnut icing was really good. The icing had great texture with the right amount of fluff and firmness at the same time. The only problem I had with it was, the initial taste of the icing the chocolate was a bit overwhelming that took over the Hazelnut taste. But the aftertaste was definitely Hazelnut.
The size of this cupcake is enough to share between two people, so if you are looking to share a cupcake with someone Baked & Wired is definitely the spot to go!!!!
The Red Velvet was the one that I chose, (I absolutely love Red Velvet Cake), I figured since it was one of my favorites I would get this.
According to Baked & Wired website the Red Velvet is: "A little Chocolate, A little Vanilla, and lots of deep red color." mmmmm :)
This cake was good, but not as flavorful as other red velvet cakes I've had. The color was very nice. Surprisingly the icing was not a Cream Cheese Icing, instead it had a very vanilla taste to it. Like the Chocolate Hazlenut icing, it was very rich and thick. The icing was one of my favorite parts. they classified the icing as a buttercream, but in my buttercream experiences it was way too thick. Buttercream has more of a airy and fluffiness to it. Not thick. But even so, the icing was awesome!
If you wanted to share a cupcake with someone Baked & Wired is the perfect place to go..they are bigger than the average cupcake. Just remember to eat it with a fork ;)
DC CUPCAKES!!
This place was in the heart of Georgetown on the main street. It was absolutely adorable. There was a line that went from inside Georgetown Cupcakes to the outside and up the road. UNBELIEVABLE!!! John and I waited inline for about a half hour. It was just so thrilling! (At least for me!)
While waiting in line we received their menu. It had their everyday cupcakes and their special featured flavors. John and I decided that we wanted their Vanilla2(squared...because there is one that is called Vanilla Cubed)and their special Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge.
When we (finally) walked it, I never saw so many cupcakes before in my life. Some were on really cute cupcake stands... and there had to have been 5 cooling racks filled from top to bottom of all sorts of different cupcakes. The amount of pick-up orders was just out of this world, there were tons of pink bags everywhere!
CUPCAKES!
MORE CUPCAKES!!
OVERLOAD OF CUPCAKES!!!
When John and I ordered these cupcakes we actually didn't eat them till around 9:30, we were on such a cupcake sugar rush...we needed time to cool down from the sweets a bit.
These were the cupcakes that we ordered. The cupcake on the left is the Peanut Butter Fudge and the one on the right is the Vanilla2. Both are so cute!
The Peanut Butter and Fudge had a Peanut Butter Icing with Chocolate cake with a small fudge center. This was absolutely my favorite cupcake. Almost anything Peanut Butter and Chocolate is right up my alley. Everything just complements each other with this cupcake. John seemed to think that the Peanut Butter in the icing was a little overwhelming, but I felt differently. The icing was light and fluffy, definitely different from the Baked & Wired's thick, heavy icing. The only downfall I have with this is the cake was not as moist as Baked & Wired. I enjoy cupcakes that have a moist texture. The taste was great, and it was not missing any flavoring at all, but had just the right amount. Unlike Baked & Wired which had a strong icing and weak cake, Georgetown Cupcake's cake was so flavorful that it could stand alone without any icing. This cupcake size was the normal size cupcake as if you were making them right from home.
The other cupcake that we got was the Vanilla2. This cupcake was really good as well. This icing was probably one of the best vanilla icings I have ever had, and it had sort of a Cream Cheese or Sour Cream taste to it. I didn't mind that at all! The vanilla cake had nice flavoring as well, again the only let down was is that it was not as moist as Baked & Wired. Both cupcakes had a drier taste to it as if it was sitting out for a bit, but if you would eat both the icing and the cake together it didn't matter that much. But nonetheless, cupcakes should be moist no matter what.
Both cupcake places were good but had their letdowns. Though Baked & Wired had a superior moistness and richness of texture(in fact, the leftover cupcake was still most almost twelve hours later!), Georgetown Cupcakes had the superior cupcake overall. The icing and cake worked together more, and the flavors were stronger. I also preferred the smaller Georgetown Cupcake size, which leaves you wanting a bit more! If you could just combine all of the good together it would be one heck of a cupcake. My recommendation? If you're going to Georgetown, try both!!! But if you can't, Georgetown Cupcakes is the way to go. One secret tip, if you don't want to wait in line, you can call in and order ahead of time!
Also, a few months ago John brought me some Cake Love cupcakes when he came back from school... but both Baked & Wired and Georgetown Cupcakes are way better!!
I can't wait to come back and try new flavors!!!
I hope you enjoyed by blog, I had a lot of fun eating and evaluating them!!!
Keep posted! Next little post will be how to make parchment piping bags!
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