We entered and it was like little cupcake pods on display with the names and description of cupcakes encased to prevent drool splashing over their little cupcakes. What amazed me the most was the vast selection of cupcakes that Baked & Wired (B&W) offered. On display on the Sunday afternoon for cupcake deliciousness were about 16 cupcakes waiting for me to taste. All cupcakes were wrapped in their own little parchment paper baby swaddle, a technique that I am very familiar with, being Asian - our sponge cakes are wrapped in this same style! Some of the flavors offered were: From the Standard: Carrot Cake Moist carrot-flecked cake with and even balance of spices and crunchy pecans (no raisins here) and a whole bunch of cream cheese frosting. Vanilla on Vanilla Vanilla on vanilla. Duh. Coconut Vanilla cake and vanilla buttercream topped with lots of coconut. Red Velvet A little chocolate, a little vanilla, and lots of deep red color, topped with a heap of cream cheese frosting. Strawberry Cupcake The bestseller! Vanilla cake with fresh strawberries folded in the batter finished with a swirl of pink buttercream. To the Creative: Pretty Bitchin’ Chocolate cake with a crunchy peanut butter frosting. German Chocolate Light chocolate cake topped with a gooey concoction of coconut, toasted pecans and sugar. Elvis Impersonator AKA The Unporked Elvis Banana cupcake topped with peanut butter frosting and drizzled with chocolate. Chai Latte Vanilla cake blended with chai spices and topped with a chai spiced buttercream. Razmanian Devil Lemon cake with a raspberry jam center topped with lemon buttercream. What was the difficult part was to choose which cupcake that was lucky enough for me to adopt into my stomach. My judging partner Deanna and I ended up choosing 6 different flavors to split. (And bottles of water to cleanse the palette of course). The lucky half dozen we chose were: The Elvis Impersonator, the Strawberry, the Chai, the Vanilla Latte, our fixed standard the Red Velvet, and the Razmanian Devil. (in order from left to right beginning on the top row) ************************************************************************************************************************************ The Om Nom Nom Rating Chronicles (Measured on a 1 to 5 Om Nom Nom Scale with 5 as the highest) The Elvis Impersonator AKA the Unporked Elvis: Banana cupcake topped with peanut butter frosting and drizzled with chocolate. TADA Factor (Presentation): 4 Flavah Flav Creativity: 4 Frosting: 4 Cake: 4.5 Notes: This was the first cupcake that I tried from B&W and was really impressed. Too bad all that followed did not compare as well. The banana cupcake was more of a "banana bread" soft of taste and consistency and the peanut butter frosting was mildly sweet and was topped of in chocolate drizzle. Doesn't choco drizzle just make everything better? I not only think so, I KNOW SO. LURVES IT! Strawberry: The bestseller! Vanilla cake with fresh strawberries folded in the batter finished with a swirl of pink buttercream. TADA Factor (Presentation): 3 Flavah Flav Creativity: 3 Frosting: 2.5 Cake: 3.5 Notes: This is the bestseller? Really? I like the idea, but the frosting WAS WAY TOO SWEET! It was a big turn off for me and I only took one bite, okay maybe two more...but that was for the love of science and this blog. After tasting the frosting first I was hoping that the cake would save it. But it didn't. Dug around and didn't see much of any strawberry in the cake. Strawberry cupcake FAIL. Could not even hold a candle to GTC's strawberry on strawberry combo. Forks were down for me and my fellow cupcake reviewer Deanna. Chai: Vanilla cake blended with chai spices and topped with a chai spiced buttercream. TADA Factor (Presentation): 4 Flavah Flav Creativity: 4.5 Frosting: 4 (barely) Cake: 3.5 Notes: I was really excited to see this as a flavor. I LURVES chai! I would think though that B&W should of perhaps created more of a tea cake rather than plain vanilla cake. If more tea was infused it probably would of made it more special. The frosting, again was too sweet! But I did like the chai spicing in the frosting and on top of the frosting. And so the sugar coma begins.... Vanilla Latte: Vanilla cake with coffee infused buttercream TADA Factor (Presentation): 3.5 Flavah Flav Creativity: 3.5 Frosting: 4 Cake: 3.5 Notes: This suffered the same fate as the Chai Latte cupcake, tasty buttercream, BUT TOO SWEET! Even with the bitterness of the coffee taste that was infused into the buttercream, all I could do is pucker as I eat any spec of frosting. Same times. Red Velvet: A little chocolate, a little vanilla, and lots of deep red color, topped with a heap of cream cheese frosting. TADA Factor (Presentation): 3.5 Flavah Flav Creativity: 3.5 Frosting: 4 Cake: 3.5 Notes: MEH. Razmanian Devil: Lemon cake with a raspberry jam center topped with lemon buttercream. TADA Factor (Presentation): 4 Flavah Flav Creativity: 4 Frosting: 2.5 Cake: 3.5 Notes: Awesome flavor combination that was only ruined by waaaaaay to sweet buttercream frosting. The jam in the middle was too sweet too, it was hard to eat and I hate that I ended up throwing my half away after 3 bites. (I even was able to make my own Razmanian Devil face out of my cake piece-check it yo!) Maybe I was at B&W on an off day? Where the bakers like putting too much sugar in the frosting? Or mayhaps I was supposed to drink some bitter coffee to offset the over sweetness? As a cupcake reviewer it is important for me to try the cupcakes in the most natural state. I would like to add that the staff was super nice to us despite carrying in the recognizable box of GTC. Price wise B&W surpassed GTC prices, but their cupcakes are larger as well. BUT the big waste of money as we didn't finish most of the cupcakes. Talk about a sugar coma. B&W has other lovely looking baked goods, I would mos def go back to try other things and of course get the Elvis cupcake again.
On to the next destination of the DC Cupcake Tour: Baked & Wired, located in Georgetown, DC. A little bit off the beaten path, Baked & Wired seems to attract good foot traffic. Baked & Wired as their name points out, the sale of baked goodies and coffee house favorites.
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