Travel diary: Washington DC

I have just returned from a whirlwind trip to beautiful Washington DC. I calculated that we were actually only in the District of Columbia for about 42 hours but we definitely took advantage of every minute of it.

Whenever I visit a city, I make a point of visiting a handful of bakeries. I love seeing creative concepts, unique ideas, and of course: sampling!!

The first bakery on my list was a no brainer: Georgetown Cupcakes home to TLC’s DC Cupcakes. I was intrigued to see for myself if the cupcakes would live up to the hype. All the foodie sites and blogs warned of the massive lineups that form daily at this DC institution. After scoping out the official site, I found my loophole to avoid waiting: preordering. If you’re visiting the city on a limited time frame: you don’t have an hour or two to waste standing in line. A better option is to order online and have it waiting for you when you arrive. You can pick a classic dozen or create a combination of your choice. Perfect!

So on Saturday morning I woke up and made the trek to beautiful Georgetown. I arrived around 10:00am and there was already a 30 minute wait to enter the store. On the website it instructs to go to the cash to pick up your order. Well it looked as if there was no way I was getting passed the girl manning the door. She advised me to a second smaller line to the left of the door. A second employee was retrieving carrier bags already filled with preorders. After a couple of minutes (Note: not an hour!) I had, in my hands, fresh Georgetown cupcakes (GC).

There are a couple of drawbacks to the preorder system. Firstly, I was not allowed to actually enter the shop. Above is a picture I snapped through the window. To be honest, it was blazing hot and there was a ton of people: so I don’t really feel like I missed out too much. The retail space is much smaller then it appears on the show and has a very basic atmosphere: trays of cupcakes, flavors on the wall, and a cash. Secondly, when using the online order system not all flavors are available. I really wanted to try the chocolate lava fudge which is a Saturday option. Unfortunately it was not on the online ordering. Since I didn’t enter the store: I couldn’t order it. Lastly, you have to order a dozen (29$) online if you choose to pre-order. If you want to order a smaller quantity: head to the back of the line!:) A single cupcake is 2.75$, while a half dozen will set you back 15$.

Above: The line at 10:00am, about 20 minutes Above: The line at around 8:00pm, over an hour!

My biggest worry was the aforementioned heat. I ended up traveling all the way back to Montreal with them and luckily there was only one fatality. GC has very sturdy boxes with round slots for each cake: so no worrying about rolling cupcakes.

But on to the best part: how did the cupcakes taste? I customized my own dozen and got: chocolate2, chocolate3, chocolate birthday, chocolate ganache, chocolate & vanilla, red velvet, vanilla2, vanilla birthday, and peanut butter fudge. I’ll review some of them here because several do share the same chocolate cake or vanilla cake base.

My brother sampled the chocolate2 and declared it ‘the most chocolatey thing he’d ever eaten’. How’s that for a rave review? A moist and delicious valrhona chocolate cake with a chocolate valrhona frosting. Another positive comment was about the type of icing. Cupcakes are usually garnished with as much icing as there is cake and it isn’t always good. With GC’s chocolate2 there was no overwhelming gob of icing on the top. Perfection and rated a must try!

Honorable mention goes to the peanut butter fudge. I impulsively put this in my pre-order because I needed one more cupcake. I did not have high expectations, so I was blown out of the water when I actually tasted it. A dark and rich chocolate cake topped with a perfectly ‘peanut buttery’ whipped icing. Oh and did I mention the injected fudge core? A definite standout and a must taste for all cupcake fans.

The one let down in the box? The red velvet. (In the above photo, they're the white icing with the red heart) I would advise to skip this one. The cake itself was moist but had very little chocolate flavor. The icing could be identified as cream cheese but just wasn’t that great. I was disappointed because in the show they talk about the popularity of red velvet a lot. There are other flavors that are much better and deserve a place in your box over this one.

My Dad chose to try the vanilla. I suspect his eye was more drawn to the chocolate offerings but he went for the vanilla instead (And I might add, the only cupcake that was damaged in transit). He let me have a taste and I’ll rate it as ok. Good moist cake and icing but I didn’t find it had an overly vanilla flavor. I would suggest trying one but it’s not a must have.

Overall, my experience at GC was extremely good. The cupcakes were delicious and the staff that I dealt with were nice. I had no problems with the online ordering system and my order was ready on time. If you are in the DC area: I would recommend putting this on list of places to visit.

My second stop was Sprinkles. For other unacquainted Canadians: Sprinkles is an L.A. based cupcake chain. I’d heard of the chain before and was happy to discover there was a location in Washington DC. Sprinkles cupcakes are mostly identified by the round dots that garnish some of the flavors. The staff was very friendly and approachable and made flavor suggestions when I couldn’t make up my mind. I left with the chocolate marshmallow with bittersweet chocolate ganache and Belgian dark chocolate with bittersweet frosting. The cupcakes were 3.50$ each (Ouch!) and 39.00$ a dozen.

A side note that was of interest to me concerning ‘the original cupcake bakery’(I know, I know: bake geek!). Magnolia Bakery is often credited with starting the North American cupcake craze and opened in 1996. Sprinkles opened in 2006 but because it only makes cupcakes they can get away with saying they’re the original cupcake bakery, which is their motto. Interesting how playing with words can turn out, right?

So on to the taste test! The Belgian dark chocolate with bittersweet frosting had a moist and not too overly sweet cake. It would be perfect for someone that does not enjoy overly sweet baked goods. The icing paired with it perfectly and I would definitely recommend trying it. The chocolate marshmallow was also extremely good. I liked that the cake wasn’t too sweet and the icing was delicious and not overwhelming. I didn’t really enjoy the fondant dot on top, but besides that I would recommend trying both variations. I think the only turn-off for this bakery is the price. 3.50$ a cake is a lot. I do see where it could come from: they do use expensive ingredients such as Belgian chocolate. I got a full dozen from GC for 10$ less then the cost of a dozen at Sprinkles. I would suggest trying both chains to see which cupcake you personally prefer but in my opinion: GC is worth more of a visit than Sprinkles.

My last planned stop was at Baked and wired. On foodie sites this was the place to go to avoid the lineups of the well known cupcake shops in the area.

They had tables to sit outside and sitting space inside as well. But what really made an impact on me was the way their bakes good were displayed. There was no large plexiglas divider between you and the display stands. The cookie bar was a complete self serve and the other offerings had glass covers. I’ve never seen a layout like that before: very unique!

There was a lot of raving about the cookies and brownies. I purchased two brownie chunk cookies and a plain jane brownie. My boyfriend and I had a cookie each. They’re a spin on the traditional chocolate chip cookie combination by replacing the chips with brownie chunks: yum! They had good texture but not an overly chocolate or brownie flavor. They were ok. The brownie was moist and the perfect amount of fudginess. You could really taste the cocoa! I would definitely recommend them. Baked and wired has a lot of brownies on their menu which look very appetizing. After my first experience I would be eager to try their other offerings as well. I unfortunately cannot find my bill and prices are not listed on the official website for me to share with you. I didn’t find the pricing outrageous so if I had to try to remember (And remember: this is a total guess!) the cookies were around 1.50$ and the brownie maybe 4.00$.

That was the end of my planned stops. There was a large Dean & Deluca that I popped into as we don’t have them in Canada. They had a large baking counter where everything looked very appealing. I ordered a walnut brownie (5$) which my boyfriend and I both enjoyed. If I had to recommend one between my two brownie purchases of the day: I would say opt for Baked & Wired.

Finally, after 2 whirlwind days we headed back to the hotel. Unable to find a cab we started to walk up Pennsylvania Ave. To my surprise: I saw a familiar sign… It was a Paul’s! To help clarify my surprise, Paul’s is a chain from Paris. The last time I saw one was in France! I promptly dragged my boyfriend inside and ordered traditional macarons(5.45$), a croissant (2.20$), and a sausage pastry. People, you don’t understand. Paul’s has authentic Parisienne croissants. Not the gluey soft ones you get in North America: the flaky and buttery authentic version. You might also be a little shocked by the price of the macarons. Paul’s macarons are about double the size of the macarons you can get here. When I first bought macarons at home after my trip to Patis, I couldn’t figure out why they were so small. If you ever get a chance to go to a Paul’s: take full advantage. I highly recommend it because it is the best place to get a taste of France without crossing the ocean. It was a very pleasant surprise at the end of an incredible weekend.

On the non-baking side, we had such a great time visiting DC. I’d heard some negative feedback about safety at night but we didn’t encounter anything to that effect. The city was beautiful and clean with very friendly people. We took full advantage of visiting the National Mall and Smithsonian’s. Any cook or baker cannot miss Julia Child’s kitchen in the National museum of American History. Another must see was definitely the National Holocaust museum. It is informative, touching, and raw. Not something easily accomplished with such tragic subject matter. Pay attention to the warning on the official site about reserving passes for the permanent exhibition: it was sold out the day I was there. Passes are available in advance online and definitely worth purchasing if you’re visiting in the summer.

So, in closing, I would definitely recommend a visit to Washington DC for its great tourism and of course bakeriesJ. We had such a blast! I wish that we had been able to spend a little more time but I got to see everything I wanted to. Have any of you ever experienced DC? Any bakery recommendations of your own to share in the area?