Random Letters to the Public

So another cupcakery has entered my neighborhood, mind you I always stalk out cupcakeries that enter my neighborhood immediately, but as you can see I have been so lazy to post!  Lilly Magilly is located in the RIO Washingtonian center in Gaithersburg, MD.

For the record,  I have no idea who or what is a Lilly Magilly. First it sounds like a cartoon or book character, but I'm just guessing it is a name that has meaning and then it was punctuated with a catchy last name to sound cute.  Upon doing any research, I cannot find any information on the name, but I just I'll just have to not wonder and move on to eating some cupcakes!

Aside from the really girly interior and their very fun pink, black and white theme inside it is quite the cheery place to be.  My traveling cupcake companion, Deanna and I decided to partake in sharing two cupcakes AND THEN complimenting them with some awesome Shirley Temples!  Super fun!  =)  We decided on a Snickerdoodle (the one with the Hershey Kiss on top pictured above) and the Strawberry (the cupcake with the Strawberry on top pictured below...and DUH).  Overall, they were both pretty tasty.  The flavors that they offer are quite ordinary, but they were executed well.  The cake was very fluffy and moist and the frosting was just a touch sweet for my palette, but I think what just made me happy was the fact that we both got to sip on Shirley Temples as we ate....it's just hard not to be happy when you are sipping on a Shirley Temple!!!  Overall the, Om Nom Nom ratings chronicle would put Lilly Magilly's at an overall ranking of 3.5 down the board for cake and frosting, a 2.5 for Flavah Flav Creativity, but get a 4.0 on TADA Factor based on letting me have a Shirley Temple with our cupcake nomming!

And now it is time for the invasion of non-DC cupcake stores!  Crumbs Bake Shop comes from New York City and decided to plop themselves in hungry cupcake luvin' DC  with two locations in DC (Union Station and 11th and F Street) and 1 in Arlington, VA (in Clarendon).  As I was in the area in Arlington hanging with friends we ended up in the Clarendon location during their first week of being open.  There was a long, long line inside - and it was good to see as it was probably taking business from the crappy other bakery that my friend Deanna and I went to previously that sucked big time (I mean when do we NOT finish cupcakes?  That means it was REALLY bad!
The cool thing about Crumbs that these are some massive cupcakes!  They have 4 different sizes, from mini, to your average size cupcakes, to one that is the size of your fist, and then a colossal size which pretty much doubles as a regular cake.  Most of the cupcakes in the case were about the size of a clenched fist and pretty filling.  You basically can't go too crazy here or else you will be stuck with a lot of cupcakes, but if you want try a little something of a lot of flavors you can also get a mini cupcake pack, pictured below.  I like this concept as they look cute, fancy, flavors I wanted to sample, and I got to try a little bit of everything!

All in all, I was able to take this to work and have some Seangie cupcake nomming time, but I must say it took awhile to tread through them, since it was overwhelming to eat them all in one or two sittings.  (I know WTF is wrong with us)

So how do they rate on the OM NOM NOM ratings scale you ask?  They are pretty up there, my two cupcakes I chose were the Cotton Candy and the Elvis.  The Cotton Candy cupcake was a standout in Crumbs' display case as I think every 4 year old girl wanted the big pink cupcake.  This is probably why Deanna and I both got the Cotton Candy cupcake!

It can be spotted in kid eye level in the case, as you can see in the picture to the left of this text.  How can you NOT miss it?  So anyways, the cotton candy cupcake was a vanilla cake with a sweet cream filling and then topped with a sugary pink frosting and had itty bitty cotton candy bits on the side.  This is where I think cotton candy manufacturers hit the jackpot...I mean what the heck do you do with cotton candy bits?  All in all, the cupcake was awesome!  The cake was moist, frosting wasn't too sweet as I feared and the cotton candy bit were nommy! Overall, a 4 rating down two of my nomming rating categories of cake, frosting, and a 4.5 rating down two of my nomming rating categories based on Flavah Flav Creativity and TADA factor....and it is all because of the itty bitty Cotton Candy bits!  Take note other cupcakeries!

Next up was my Elvis cupcake, banana cake, with cream filling, a white butter cream with a smudgy of peanut butter on top and then a peanut butter chip rim.  OMG!  It was AMAZEBALLS! Granted that this cupcake has been replicated often in cupcakeries around town, but none have executed as well as Crumbs!  The cake was super moist and tasty and it just had the right ratio of peanut butter and sweetness that is didn't overwhelm my palette.  Over all I would give it a 4.5 rating in the cake, frosting, and TADA Factor in the nom nom rating chronicles.  And as for Flavah Flav creativity I would have to give it a 3.5, cause you know.....this was Elvis' flavor combo!

Overall, I am pretty happy with Crumbs, all they have to do is open one closer to me....or maybe I should just move closer to one!  =)

Crumbs, I'll be seeing you and one of your Colossal Cupcakes around soon!!!!!!