Foodie Girls Lunch Brigade - Special DC Cupcake Edition

This just in from FG4, who recently relocated to the Washington D.C. area.  In true FG fashion, she managed to take one for the team* in the midst of all the packing boxes and an unbearable heat wave.   We salute you, FG4!

We passed by a cupcake shop in the middle of downtown Bethesda (about 10 minutes from our new house) with a line of people out the door.  Line of people...for cupcakes????  I was a bit mystified. After dinner we walked over to said cupcake shop and got in the line (nothing better to do, and we assumed these must be some pretty awesome cupcakes for people to line up like this...).  While we waited they passed out pink balloons with their logo on them, along with glasses of ice water (did I forget to mention this line-up was happening during 95-degree heat?!) They got points for that.  After chatting with people in line I find out that we have stumbled upon none other than the cupcake shop featured in tonight's premiere episode of "DC Cupcakes" on TLC (a reality show about their bakery).  Better yet, today was free cupcake day.  Count me in!  They handed out beautiful 8" x 8" heavy cardstock 2-sided menus to look over while you wait in their signature hot pink and black colors. More points for those - really nicely done, and tasty sounding treats, I gotta say!

30 minutes later we finally got into the shop, and it was clearly an overwhelming day for this satellite store (the main one is in Georgetown and this second shop is in Bethesda).  They had lovely three-tier displays of all today's cupcakes and one wall full of pink cupcake boxes for your future order. Cupcakes were around $2.75 each, with 6 for $15.  $15?????!!!!!  Okay *sigh* count me in...I've waited for this long and I don't think I'll be doing it again soon. I placed my order:

2 lemon blossom (light lemon cupcake with a lemon cream cheese frosting topped with a candied lemon)

2 lava fudge (Valrhona chocolate cupcake with a rich fudge core topped with vanilla icing with a fudge star drizzle)

1 vanilla & chocolate (classic Madagascar bourbon vanilla cupcake with a whipped callebaut chocolate frosting topped with a fondant flower)

1 chocolate pb chip (valrhona chocolate cupcake baked with peanut butter chips topped with a peanut butter frosting and a chocolate ganache drizzle)

For my free cupcake I chose chocolate (complete with a "DC cupcake" decoration on it.)

We left the store with my little while logo bag, complete with pink box of cupcakes.  I only had a short walk back to the car, and then the A/C was on until we got home...but there was still some melting/slippage that took place so when I opened my box, it was a bit of a mess.  Undaunted, I proceeded to sample (in the name of research, or course).

My review:

Lemon blossom: nice light, delicate lemon flavor -- too much frosting  - 4.5 out of 5 stars

Lava fudge: Gooooooey center, made a tasty mess, again a bit heavy on the frosting.  Good for the chocoholics among us - 4 out of 5 stars

Vanilla and chocolate:  nice flavor for both cupcake and frosting - but again, too much frosting so the balance was off.  Still a tasty cupcake (and the little flower was tasty and soft - I thought it would be hard and crunchy so that was a pleasant surprise). 4.5 out of 5 stars

Chocolate pb chip (got full, so will try tomorrow -- looks good though - but a lot of frosting...)  -- review pending

I would have liked to try the cinnamon (cinnamon cupcake topped with cinnamon buttercream frosting and a fondant heart) and their red velvet cupcakes (Georgetown Cupcake's signature cupcake - classic red velvet cupcake with a vanilla cream cheese frosting topped with a red fondant heart), and the carrot (classic cinnamon apple carrot cake with a vanilla cream cheese frosting and topped with a fondant carrot or bunny).  I'm also curious about their toffee crunch (toffee cupcake with a toffee-infused vanilla frosting topped with crushed heath bar).  I think the one I missed out most on was the salted caramel (caramel cupcake with a salted caramel-infused buttercream frosting topped with a caramel drizzle).  Except for the red velvet - which they had but I opted to try another time, all these others are baked on different days of the week, so they weren't available today.

While I ate the cupcakes I tuned in to watch the show and that was the only disappointing thing about this entire adventure.  The show was really quite bad (even for a reality show), and I'd give it 1 out of 5 stars.  Oh well, just skip the show, bring a book for the line, and get the lemon blossom cupcakes.  

Love,

Me

* What a champ!  She took these fab photos, too!