Capitol Sweetness: Cake Gumshoe Stephanie Visits Three Washington DC Bakeries

CakeSpy Note: Cake Gumshoe Stephanie is a bona fide Cool Dudette, and when she visited DC, she shared her favorite bakery finds and even had a chat with one of my personal cake-maker crushes, Warren Brown. Want to read about her adventures? Go for it:

While in DC, we stayed in contact with the main office of CakeSpy and were alerted that the Red Velvet Cupcakery was recommended. It was late on a warm night when we stopped by and most of the business was oriented towards frozen yogurt, but I snagged a "Birthday Cake" cupcake with a little sprinkle of sugar confetti. It was not a party in my hand, but a tasty cake.

Strolling along the C&O Canal in Georgetown, we spied Baked and Wired.

Completely drawn in by the excellence of their display, but unwilling to carry cupcakes the rest of the rainy day, a couple of delicious cookies were squirreled away for later (self portrait in the window, above!)

Last day in DC, we strolled by CakeLove on our way to the infamous Ben's Chili Bowl. Friendly faces in the bakery drew us in as much as the likelihood of sweet treats. While taking a quick photo of the cupcake case, we were greeted by a melodic "Welcome to cakelove." Turned to see a smiling face that matched the photo on the cover of the book on the counter. It was the man himself, Warren Brown. We talked at length about Italian Buttercream made without Crisco, the ratio of frosting to cake, and Cakespy and her store and blog (which has featured Mr. Brown's recipes!). The strawberry frosted chocolate cupcake was easily the best of my DC sweets. Warren, if you catch this - thanks for the chat! Next time, we'll make a beeline to Love Cafe if we want to eat breakfast on U Street. It was a pleasure to meet you.

Places mentioned:

Red Velvet Cupcakery

Baked & Wired

CakeLove

Comments

[Rachel]

1. Red Velvet makes a mean vegan, gluten-free chocolate cupcake.
2. Baked and Wired is one of the PNW pockets in DC (for those of us who miss the other coast).
3. I am so glad you didn't mention Georgetown Cupcakes (woops)!
4. I have to put a plug in for a friend's new bakery business, now at the U-Street farmers market on Saturdays! http://whiskeddc.com/

[CupcakesOMG!]

well, i would recommend Baked & Wired, but it seems like Stephanie missed a few great places!! Hello Cupcake in DuPont is one of my favs...for other sweet treats in pie form, she shoulda made her way to Dangerously Delicious Pies...rounding out the trip, she would have been pleasantly surprised to stop by the all-vegan bakery Sticky Fingers on U Street.

I would never recommend the dry, expensive cupcakes at Red Velvet, and us Washingtonian's tend to have a general distaste for the chilled cupcakes (you're actually advised NOT to eat them right away and let them sit at room temp for half an hour) at CakeLove.

www.cupcakesomg.blogspot.com

[stephanie]

Our bakery adventures were all random chance, so I am glad we happened upon Baked and Wired and CakeLove. As it happened, that cupcake had to wait to be eaten for a couple of hours, so the chill was gone and it was all creamy delight.

We used the Dupont Metro stop a bunch - not sure how we missed Hello Cupcake.

Next trip, I'll check your recommendations - thanks for the heads up.