Best Cupcake in DC

Disclaimer to those who stumble upon this blog and don't know me : my review is by no means scientific, exhaustive or a true representation of the 'best cupcake' in DC.  I am not a professional baker and am just offering my 'average cupcake eater' opinion.  

Since moving to DC, I have had more cupcakes than I had during my entire childhood.  Because there are so many bakeries that sell nothing but cupcakes, I have been looking for the best place to eat a cupcake in this town. The hunt began when my sister heather visited in March and continued with the bakery owners, uncle Doug and aunt Marilee and now, will hopefully be over because I don't think I can afford the new, larger wardrobe that goes along with eating 3 1/2 cupcakes (okay it was actually 4) in a day. Amy's one request for her trip to DC was to go to 'that famous cupcake place'. I figured why stop with one, when we could go to four!

@ georgetown cupcakes..before the sugar high really set it.

Baked and Wired: 1052 Thomas Jefferson Street NW, $3.50/cupcake

Baked and Wired's great location

This is the place the locals recommend but I can only figure it is for the coffee or the 'scene'. It is near the canal in Georgetown and is in a cool location up the street from the water.  The cupcakes are 'made from scratch' so have kind of a homemade look but the frosting was terribly sweet and not in a good way. My particular choice was fairly dry...It seems that they have too many options for the amount of customers they have coming in to buy cupcakes.   My biggest complaint though was not with the cupcake. I bought a bottle of water and then was sent to the other side of the store to their coffee counter to pick it up. After waiting in a 2nd line,  I was handed a bottle that was at room temperature.  It's 95 degrees out!  If I am paying for water, I want it to be cold!  Amy and Natalie's complaint: the creepy, giant santa claus that had a sign in his hands that read, "I like to watch you while you sleep"

"Teresa's Birthday Cake".  I don't know Teresa, but I wanted the maple frosting.  

Sprinkles: 3015 M Street NW, $3.50/cupcake

This cupcake store is a chain that started in Beverly Hills and now the founder of the store is a judge on cupcake wars..I do not watch cupcake wars and had not heard of sprinkles so I had no preconceived opinions about Sprinkles.  I ordered my personal favorite, red velvet.  It was nothing to write home about and the fondant decoration on the top was really dry and did not taste good.  I tasted the key lime pie cupcake that Natalie ordered and I found it to be bitter.  They had the most inefficient system for getting people in and out of their store. There was no line so I ordered right away.  Rather than pay right away, I was to step aside and wait while a 2nd girl bagged the cupcake and handed it off to yet another employee who rang me up.  What should have taken 1 minute, ended up taking 5.  Like I said...not efficient. 

Red Velvet Cupcakery: 501 7th Street NW, $3.25/cupcake

Red Velvet Cupcakery's storefront

This cupcake was really good, even though it was no longer in pristine, cupcake shop condition. I chose their seasonal special that was a white cake with strawberries in the middle. It had a lemon frosting with a blueberry on top.  This shop is really small and so their was no place to sit but other than that, it's a decent place to get a cupcake on the go.  They also have a chocolate vegan cupcake if that's what you do :)

Really good despite looking really ugly..I am not sure what happened on the trip home.

Georgetown Cupcake: 3301 M Street NW, $2.75/cupcake

Still smiling... despite the line.

They were the winners of our sunday cupcake challenge!  Their strawberry cupcake was so amazing!  It was moist and had the best frosting.  I have less than delicious cupcakes from here before but on this particular day, they were fantastic.  The staff is really friendly, and while we were waiting in line, they brought ice water out to their soon-to-be customers.  I suppose that they need to be super-nice to maintain their positive reputation, but I felt they were genuinely happy to see their customers.  (I would be happy too if this were my business :) Now, I just need to plan a trip on a Tuesday to get their maple cupcake...

So great. 

 If you want to read about my friend Lee-Anne's own cupcake tour while visiting DC, see here.  I agree with her assessment of Crumbs so much that it did not even make it into our sunday cupcake tour line up.  They are just too dry...save your money and go to my true favorite, Bayou near the courthouse metro. It's a restaurant that happens to sell the greatest red velvet cupcake (or RVC as we call it) around. Well, my guests have left so I will now have a chance to catch up telling my read diary about our weekend activities.  Hope you have a good one.