Random Letters to the Public

So after trying to contact my Groupon vendor Bonafide Cupcakes on multiple occasions for some cupcakes (if you cannot tell I lurves cupcakes), I have decided to wave my cupcake white flag and ask for a refund from Groupon. I purchased my Groupons (2 dozen) in April and was hoping to use it rather quickly or even now, but to no success. I have been calling Bonafide Cupcakes on their phone number for the past 2 weeks straight and nobody picks up the phone. WTF!

So awhile back in the end of May, Groupon sent me this:
"Thank you for purchasing the BonaFide Cupcakes Groupon! Due to the great response, BonaFide Cupcakes will be remodeling their kitchen between May 24th and June 7th to accommodate the large number of incoming orders and will not be able to take new orders during this time. They will be able to take orders again after this time up until the expiration of April 23, 2011."

It is now July and their website is non-existent. The home page just has a list of cupcake flavors, THAT APPARENTLY I CANNOT GET. And a phone number, THAT APPARENTLY I CANNOT GET A HOLD OF. It is probably up to tease the poor Grouponers on their dissatisfaction that there are no cupcakes! I must say their flavors look nommy, but how can I confirm their nomminess, IF THERE ARE NO CUPCAKES? How disappointing! =(

What finally made me decide to request a refund was after reading the Groupon discussion board about Bonafide Cupcakes. And I found out that not only after their "remodeling of their kitchen and their upgrade of their website" Bonafide Cupcakes have been MIA, not answering phones and/or missing deliveries that were confirmed. (HOW DID THOSE PEOPLE GET A HOLD OF ANYONE ANYWAYS?) I understand that the demand was quite overwhelming for the company, but they should of at least put a cap on how many Groupons to give out or figured out a sustainable distribution and/or order system PRIOR to their Groupon release! What happened to making business plans? I'm a fan of them, use them!

When the Groupon closed there were about 2800 Groupons purchased. But when I return to the Bonafide Cupcake Groupon site now, it states 2100. So hey, 700 of us were smart enough to ask for refunds - I think the 2100 so do the same.

NO CUPCAKES = CUPCAKE FAIL!

So another Groupon cupcake ad came into my inbox. And no, it was not a delivery cupcake place that fell off the face of the earth after the Groupon buying time was over. (I STILL HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO ORDER MY CUPCKAKES FROM BONAFIDE CUPCAKES, BTW!) I was hesitant at first to purchase this Groupon since I haven't been able to redeem my last one, but since it was close to work I decided to take a leap of faith on Frosting A Cupcakery (A Boutique Bakeshop & Coffeehouse) located in Chevy Chase, MD. So my first impressions, was frustrating - the first time I went to redeem my cupcakes I went on July 4th, where their website stated that their hours were from 10 AM - 6 PM. So I drive to the bakeshop desperate for some cupcake goodness to share with my friends on July 4th. I drive up. BAD NEWS, they were closed. CRAP! How depressing! My next visit was more successful (since I got freaking cupcakes!), but the whole parking situation was quite odd, I had to choose to either enter the open parking lot area behind the cupcakery or go into the depths of a parking garage, I took a dare and went to the open parking behind the building, thinking there would be some convenient trail for people to go through to get to the other side. No such luck! So I walked around the building and then some to get to the cupcake place on the corner. I'm okay with walking for my cupcakes, as I could very use the exercise and circulation in my legs, but it was a bit aggravating on a day that was humid and rainy (and umbrella-less). =(
I walk into Frosting and it was a really cute shop. Not in a cute, GTC or Herrow (it is really Hello, but I'm adding my Asian spin) Cupcake baby pink all over the place way, but it was more masculine with their modern brown, blue and cream decor. It was like a MR. GTC or a MR. Herrow Cupcake store. It felt like more like what my living room would look like. I guess they took their cues from a Starbucks and GTC together, pretty savvy! (Sorry no photos of the store! I left my iPhone and camera at work!)

So I grabbed my eight cupcakes and headed back. And made my long humid and drizzly walk to my car, splashing gravel-ly water that pooled into the ridges of my flip flops and made it an even more interesting stroll. As I weaved in the parking lot I was being stalked by multiple luxury cars. (What no valet?) I get back to work, and it is TIME FOR SOME CUPCAKE BIS-NASTY! Or shall I say, cupcake BIS-NOMMY?
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The Om Nom Nom Rating Chronicles (on a scale from 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest!) Ratings are averaged between Team Seangie and Stevie the Wonder Intern (Yes, Team Seangie has hired an intern to eat cupcakes with us...FYI, we will be taking intern applications for next summer starting in Feb 2011)
FLUFFER NUTTER: vanilla bottom filled with marshmallow with peanut butter buttercream and topped with a honey drizzle.
TADA Factor: 4.5
Flavh Flav Creativity: 5.0
Frosting: 5.0
Cake: 3.5
NOTE: This was the reason for me getting to the store on this day. UM. FLUFFER NUTTER? Nuff said! First observations, was the cake was more crumbly than other cupcakeries, the frosting was piled high on top of the cake (you practically have to unhinge your mouth to eat from top to bottom) and the cupcake were a bit more petite than other cupcakeries (but as they were priced at $2.75 I didn't feel robbed like other cupcakeries around town). Anywho, the frosting was AMAZEBALLS, and being the non PB slut of Team Seangie, I was really impressed! And most of all it TASTED LIKE NUTTER BUTTER!

JOE 'n DOUGH: coffee cake doughut bottom with mocha fudge buttercream top with a choco covered coffee bean
TADA Factor: 4.5
Creativity: 4.75
Frosting: 4.0
Cake:4.75
NOTES: Okay, this cupcake had me at doughnut-tyness goodness. The cake was the texture of a beignet but still was a touch cake like and had a sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar on top. AND the buttercream was awesome! Even Sean, the non-Mocha buttercream slut enjoyed this combo! The thing that both of us commented on, was the fact that the buttercream at Frosting was amazing, light, not grainy, not too sweet and tasted like what it was advertised. Hey Frosting -color us impressed.

CREMA DI CIOCCOLATO: Gluten-free, flourless choco bottom with cream cheese and fudge top
TADA Factor: 4.0
Flavah Flav Creativity: 3.75
Frosting: 3.25
Cake: 4.0
NOTES: Sean lurved this cupcake. Me, not so much. It was flourless, gluten free, and "moistfull." (I know this a not a real word, but it really should be nominated next for Webster's dictionary) I mean the only thing I am allergic to is penicillin, so why am I to suffer? But I'm happy people that are allergic to OG cupcake ingredients can have a cupcake. Kudos to frosting.

CAMPFIRE: graham cracker bottom with milk choco ganache & marshmallow top (pictured above on the front left)
TADA Factor: 4.0
Flavah Flav Creativity:4.75
Frosting: 3.25
Cake: 3.75
NOTES: This would of got a higher rating if this cupcake was put together better. The choco dallop needed to be bigger and the marshmallow could of used a touch of a little blow torch action. I must say that this single cupcake it is the most appealing looking cupcake we have ever set our eyes on, so I think we were a bit disappointed in the taste. More choco please!!!! And some toasty blow torch action please! Then talk to us again!

FRENCHIE:(or what I want to call FREEDOMIE-yeah I'm taking a page out of the freedom fries book)  french toast bottom - oops I mean freedom toast bottom with maple buttercream top
TADA Factor: 3.0
Flavah Flav Creativity: 4.0
Frosting: 3.75
Cake: 4.25
NOTES: It's mapley, it's frenchie, AND IT SURE TASTES LIKE FREEDOM! YUM!

SKINNIMINT: choco bottom with peppermint vanilla buttercream top with choco sprinkles
TADA Factor: 4.5
Flavah Flav Creativity: 3.5
Frosting: 4.0
Cake: 4.0
NOTES: PALETTE CLEANSER FTW! So my question is, why is this called skinnimint? I get the mint part, but where does the skinni come from? Do they make these cupcakes when they are nekkid? Or do we get skinni when we eat them? Well, by the looks of what we have eaten so far, I think we could use a couple more of these cupcakes then, you know...for palette cleansing. I would like to say, that unlike my past experience with Herrow Cupcake's mint concoction this SURPASSED them by a landslide. (Insert Seangie happy yummy om nom nommy noises here)

DADDY'S JOY: choco bottom with almond coconut buttercream top (average scores come from Stevie the Wonder intern and I, since Sean left me)
TADA Factor: 3.25
Creativity: 3.75
Frosting: 4.0
Cake: 3.5
NOTES: VERY interesting! It's like they married marzipan and a coconut macaroon together and then plopped it on top of a choco cupcake. I did really like their almond buttercream that is prevalent in their cupcake menu. So I am quite excited to try another cupcake with it! Not bad!

Overall, our impressions of Frosting a cupcakery were very positive. We enjoyed their creative flavors and their execution that some of the other cupcakeries cannot touch. I will mos def be back! Especially, since in my excitement of being in the presence of cupcakes I forgot to use the two Groupons that got me to the cupcakery! I think this ranks second highest on Sean's list of stoopid things that Angie did that benefits Sean. (first was when I melted a Coldstone Choco PB ice cream birthday cake for a co-worker in the trunk of my car in February thinking it would hold up, guess who ate it?) So Frosting, I'll see you soon - I still have 2 Groupons to burn!

So being the cupcake princess that I am, I wanted to see what were the potential new cupcakes that all the local cupcakeries had to offer. And I ran across this magical sounding flavor on HERROW Cupcake (it is really called Hello, but I'm adding my cute Asian spin on things) called DREAMSICLE. Um, HERROW! After my experience with Herrow Cupcake's flavor du jour, Margarita in the month of May, I think I almost peed myself dreaming of this cupcake touching my lips. OM NOM NOMMY. So as Sean and I studied the cupcake flavors on Herrow Cupcake's menu, and we decided that we needed to go on a Thursday, well, to go get the PB (you know to give Sean his daily PB fix) and banana concoction called the Velvet Elvis!
So on the hot, hot Thursday I ventured to Dupont Circle and grabbed some cupcakes for Team Seangie and even for Stevie the Wonder Intern (because I felt guilty for teasing him my GTC cupcakes from last week) and decided to have a mini cupcake party! Okay a really big cupcake party, cause I bought 8 cupcakes. And THAT'S A PARTEEEEE! (really I swear!)

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Team Seangie (with guest Stevie the Wonder Intern, but we let he only partake in 2 of the cupcake reviews - you know he had real work to do...you know like take pictures of us eating nommy cupcakes) Om Nom Nom Rating Chronicles (on a scale from 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest)



VELVET ELVIS: Elvis Presley's favorite sandwich - peanut butter and banana - IN A CUPCAKE! Moist fluffy banana cake made with real bananas, topped with Herrow Cupcake's sweet peanut butter frosting (that's the velvet part!)
TADA Factor: 3.0
Flavah Flav Creativity: 4.25
Frosting: 4.25
Cake: 4.25
NOTES: This was surprisingly tasty to me. As the non-PB slut (you know who that is of Team Seangie) I did not think I was ready for the deliciousness. I think I'm now in love with cupcake bottoms that are more of the "bread" variety, as I have approved of GTC and Baked and Wired "bread" cupcake bottoms! OM NOM NOM. Note that Team Seangie agreed that out of the three Elvis' that are pictured with his cupcake above, this was mos def the old fat Elvis' cupcake. (one in the middle MAMA!)

DREAMSICLE: A cool, creamy summer treat. Orange cake, vanilla bean cream filling, and orange buttercream with a sprinkling of orange sugar. This is Herrow Cupcake's July flavah of the month!
TADA Factor: 4.0
Flavah Flav Creativity: 5.0
Frosting: 4.5
Cake: 5.0
NOTES: This cupcake was an extra 50 cents! Well I'm not chitty-chitty-bang-bang (well give me some red wine and well talk again), but when I was informed there would be an extra cost for the Dreamsicle cupcake, I then inquired why it was 50 cents extra and the guy behind the counter just said that 'it was the special flavor and they cost 50 cents extra.' Well gee, that sounds like a stoopid answer. So hypothetically if you were a prostitute, could you be like the hand job with my left hand is 50 cent extra? And when clients asked why a hand job with your left hand was an extra 50 cents it would be..well, it is just the other hand and it cost 50 cents extra. See? Doesn't make sense. Maybe it would of been better if he just justified it with the Chewbacca defense. So like he should of said, "This cupcake cost extra, this is Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk. But Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now think about it; that does not make sense!" Then I think the answer would of sufficed. DONE. ANYWHO, after splitting the cupcake in half, Sean and I figured that the extra 50 cents was most likely for the little squirt of vanila bean cream filling in the middle of the cake. Okay mystery solved, thanks pesky kids. On a side note, this cupcake was AMAZEBALLS and I think that Sean and I would be able to clear a full dozen of these, that is as long as we also had the Velvet Elvis as a palette cleanser! OM NOM NOMMY!


PRINCESS: Hello Cupcake's vanilla cake with fresh strawberry buttercream frosting and a sprinkling of pink sugar.
TADA Factor: 3.0
Flava Flav Creativity: 2
Frosting: 1.75
Cake: 3
NOTE: Frosting was way TOOOO SWEET! I think it rotted my fillings out of my teeth. I didn't finish it. Sean being the trooper that he is, ate his and then ate my leftovers. And then something punched him in the face, (no not my fist) he then found out it was too sweet to. And that is where we had to end the cupcaking for the day, the Princess cupcake max'ed out our palette and it time to pass out on the floor from the sugar rush. (Also that is Peekles the Penguin checking on the Princess cupcake before it caused me to convulse on the floor!)
These Cupcakes are Frosting Heavy!!!!!!!!!
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Part Deux-Deux (aka Day 2)

So after we recovered and let Superman guard the cupcakes, it was time for the last three cupcakes on our list. I must say after eating the strawberry frosting on the Princess cupcake last, I was scared and skeptical of all the rest of the cupcakes. I was bracing myself, but as I like to tell myself a girl must do it for science. =) Let the Om Nom Nomming (or the not so Om Nom Nomming) begin!

RASPBERRY BERET: Choco cake with a sweet little cap of raspberry buttercream frosting and choco sprinkles.
TADA Factor: 3.25
Flavah Flav Creativity: 3.25
Frosting: 3.75
Cake: 3.25
NOTES: To our surprise, it was actually pretty decent. The raspberry frosting tasted like raspberry sherbet! YUM! But I must say that the frosting was a little grainy to be called buttercream IMO. Let's just say I thought it was a Prince song in my mouth...not that one about Purple Rain or Doves Cry. it was more of a 1999 jam. You know, it happened and I have already forgotten about it.

PEPPERMINT PENNY: Rich choco cake with peppermint buttercream and choco sprinkles. (aka known as a Seangie Palette cleanser)
TADA Factor: 2.75
Flavah Flav Creativity: 3.0
Frosting: 2.0
Cake: 3.5
NOTES: OH DISAPPOINTMENT. PALETTE CLEANSER FAIL. You know when something has an after-taste? Well this had a before-taste! WTF! It was a bitter creme de menthe taste that ruined the cupcake. Sean thought it was a good idea in theory, but the execution was poor. But let's just say Sean liked it better than I did! BLEHHHHH!

COOKIES-n-CREAM: moist vanilla cake studded with chunks of choco cream cookies topped with a cookies n cream frosting and adorable mini cookie.
TADA Factor: 4.0
Flavah Flav Creativity: 3.0
Frosting: 2.5
Cake: 4.25
NOTES: We were at first skeptical of this cupcake, but were pleasantly surprised. I must say that this cookies and cream cupcake tastes waaaaay better than GTC. The cake was awesome but the frosting could use a little less of Oreo stuff. More cookies, less stuff please!
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Life as a cupcake Om Nom Nommer

So after I went to Dim Sum, my friends and I went to the Red Velvet Cupcakery located downtown in Penn Quarter. This was my second visit to Red Velvet, but first to this specific location (the first was to their Dupont Circle locay.) So we wandered through the FTs (stands for f*&king tourists) covered street and found my cupcake mecca of FroYo and cupcakes. We entered and I discovered that this specific locay separated their FroYo and Cupcakery businesses unlike its Dupont Circle counterpart. When you first enter, all you see is the cupcakes behind a huge glass wall, and employees staring at you. No hello, nothing, they just stare at you and not even in a friendly way. They just stare. While we were checking out the flavors and examining the cupcakes, I want to say about 6 people walked IN and then OUT. I have no idea why. Could it be that they thought it was the famous Gtown cupcake place and realized it wasn't? Or was it the sign on the wall that said that each freaking cupcake was $3.25+ DC tax price tag? Or was it they were just stared at and not acknowledged? It was just odd, they would walk in and walk out as fast as they entered. I have no idea and do not blame them, in fact we probably should have before I spent $14.75 on 4 freaking cupcakes that were just okay. But then again, this is all for research. =D

So after mulling over the case of cupcakes, I sauntered over to the counter where the blank stare fell as I made my order and paid. All my friends and I got cupcakes and were all discussing the cost when we left the store. WTF did we just spend our money on? These better be good. By the time we got to the car to leave DC and go back to the suburbia of MD, I did a major boo-boo. I sat in the car and dropped my cupcakes. My initial reaction was to cry, but it was so hot, it was replaced by tears of sweat. Crap. Not only did I over pay for 4 freaking cupcakes, but they are all over the place, but still edible. (Your know some scraping here and there required and some reassembling of cupcakes.) My friends were nice and tried to convince me that things were going to be okay. But really, I just dropped my cupcakes! WANH!

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The Om Nom Nom Rating Chronicles (on a scale from 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest)
NOTE: The following pictures of intact cupcakes are from the cupcake boxes of my 2 friends (WANH!)

KEY WEST: Key lime cake with a Swiss white choco butter cream and garnished with white choco shavings.
TADA Factor: 3.0
Flavah Flav Creativity: 2.5
Frosting: 3.0
Cake: 3.0
NOTES: The frosting was really light and tasted more like" cool hwip" (pronounced ala Stewie Griffin) and I didn't taste much white choco. MEH.
CARROT CAKE: A spiced cake with shredded carrot and whole pecans topped with whipped cream cheese topping.
TADA Factor: 2.5
Flavah Flav Creativity: 2.5
Frosting: 2.5
Cake: 3.5
NOTES: The spiced cake was decent, not as good as other cupcakeries, but I could live with eating a lot of these cupcakes - that is, until I went to another cupcake shop.

SUMMERTIME: Lemon cake with whipped cream cheese topping, smothered in coconut. (aka dubbed LeCoCo by my previous review with Sean)
TADA Factor: 3.0
Flavah Flav Creativity: 2.5
Frosting: 3.0
Cake: 2.5
NOTES: MEH. A comment, the same freaking frosting. UH-GAIN. And when you think about it, the majority of the cupcakes I saw in the case was covered in this same frosting. How about some variety? Didn't score as well as it did in my last review, maybe Saturday is an off day for cupcakes. I have no idea what happened!

CAMPFIRE: Choco cake with graham cracker topping with a schmear of fudge underneath a whipped marshmallow topping that was torched for the marshmallowy torched taste.
TADA Factor: 3.5
Flavh Flav Creativity: 3.5
Frosting: 3.5
Cake: 3.0
NOTES: The frosting was great! It was airy like a marshmallow and then blow torched on top for added campy effect. Overall the fun part of dismantling it AFTER I dropped it on it's side. But it was a good solid effort.

Overall, not that great of a cupcake experience. Or maybe I should just stick to the Dupont Circle locay. Maybe it was an off day, but then again my cupcaking style rarely changes. Off to the next cupcakery! Hopefully, a much better one and cupcakes that don't scare people away...

CUPCAKE FAIL!

So okay, you caught me, I'm posting another food review that is not cupcake based. But I do not hang my head in shame! Hey! So I live my life eating a little (or mass quantities) of everything! And Ping Pong Dim Sum was down the street of my next review...a cupcakery!

Being of Cantonese decent, dim sum to me is tradition as I grew up having "yum cha" (tea drinking) on a regular basis. Dim Sum is where I witnessed my parents fight with others on who was going to pay the check.(that's really Asian) Basically, dim sum is little plates of food being wheeled about by ladies screaming out what kind of foods they have in their cart. Once you make a signal or eye contact with the cart pusher, they stop, you choose what you want and they stamp your card to mark what you stuffed your face with. The carts come around over and over again, until you are stuffed! And even then, when the cart has come around to you 4-5 times they still are trying to get you to take their food. All the carts have different food preparations: steamed, fried, cold dishes , larger family style dishes, dessert, tofu, and veggie to name a few. By far the most popular is the steamed cart carrying items such ha gou (steamed shrimp and bamboo dumpling), shu mai (pork steamed dumpling), ha cheong fun (long rice noodle with shrimp and soy sauce) and many other fun items like chicken feet and spicy tripe. (You know fear factor items that Chinese have been eating since they were able to chew!)


I went to Ping Pong Dim Sum with two people (one friend and one new acquaintance.) First off, the name Ping Pong? I sorta was skeptical with the name. This place was located in Chinatown but across from the Verizon center. So there is SOME street cred. From further review this place is a UK based restaurant that has locations in the UK. But really PING PONG? I mean okay, it is a sport, AND Chinese people are good at it. But really? Well now that we have taken medals in the past Olympics in Gymnastics, Badminton and Swimming how about that name? Maybe it is just me. Anyways, back to the food.

We ordered our drinks, the menu is full of exotic drinks with lychee, passion fruit, ginger and more. I decided to stick with the bubble tea and was not disappointed. But then again, I'm pretty much happy with any bubble tea as long as the bubbles have the right chew texture. Thumbs up. My two fellow dinners ended up with bubble teas and some fancy liquored up drinks, which were hit or miss. Overall, the food was good. The menu was sushi like - where you pick you items and mark it off on a sheet. No cute asian people wheeling carts around. Items in steamed baskets we were told come in threes or twos, in a real Chinese dim sum, food comes in four, three, two. But for ha gou, Ping Pong gave us 3 and OG dim sum gives 4. Where's my 4th piece? JERKS! My friends and I all get the seafood sampler, which is a little taste of everything on the menu. After I ordered I looked into the open kitchen where all items are handmade, happy to see one asian guy (or was it really a latino?) and a really tall white guy. Alright. SIGH. Street cred gone. The Asian person should of been there for show, you know like some of the sushi bars around here! (HA!)

The first platter was two vegetable puffs that were handmade. Inside of the puffs were sauteed veggies stuck inside puff pastry (puff pastry is NOT very asian) coated with honey and a pumpkin seed. First thoughts were, HEY! These things are uneven! (Look at the picture!) My mom would not be happy with uneven items that were the same! I mean there have been many times where I tried to help make little asian goodies and was sent packing from the table for ruining the consistency of the shape! Oy. Puffs were okay, nothing special, perhaps a touch too sweet with the honey glaze.

Next was the fried platter. This is where our server messed up, they only came out with ONE fried platter, but came out with the extra ha gou and veggie steam buns we ordered. How unfair! We eventually were given our fried platters course, and it was a distant version of the OG dim sum fried goodies. The three fried goodies that they gave us were: Crispy prawn ball (king prawn and spring onions in shredded egg pastry), vegetable spring roll, and prawn toast (prawn on toast with coriander and garlic with sesame seeds). The veggie spring roll was nothing to write home about and the crispy prawn ball had A LOT of crispy shredded things all over the place. But I have to say their shrimp toast rocked! It was definitely a fancy approach to the regularly rustic shrimp toast. But the positioning on a melba toast and the seasoning on the shrimp was delicious! Let's just say, if shrimp toast was served in traditional dim sum, it would probably be better than the OG shrimp toast! Shhhh. Don't tell my mom I said that!

Next was the steamed platter full of the best goodies that any cart pusher would fight over in the back to push. (I always imagined that all the dim sum cart pushers would want to get the cool cart and not be stuck with the fried radish cake cart...or the eggplant/asparagus cart-so there would be endless arguments on who would push the steamed cart and they would have like dim sum MXC challenges!) In this steamed box (from top to bottom, left to right): Seafood sticky rice (sticky rice with king prawns, scallop, carrots and bamboo shoots wrapped in lotus leaf), Scallop and shitake dumpling (scallop and king prawns with shitake mushroom), Ha Gau (king prawn and bamboo in white pastry), Seafood dumpling (snow crab, prawn and scallop in a carrot pastry), Chive dumpling (king prawn and chives in green chive pastry),and Coriander dumpling (king prawn and coriander in white pastry). All in all, pretty tasty-but most of these steamed goods were things that you wouldn't often find on a dim sum cart. Nice try Ping Pong Dim Sum. I wish that Dim Sum would inherit the bubble tea idea, but would mos def stick with the OG dim sum. Twice the amount of food, twice the taste (that you don't want to cover with chili sauce) and half the price. SO FYI, Ping Pong dim sum, watch out for my new restaurant I'm planning on opening next door, Hockey Hamburgers. How do ya like that?

Alas, I am back at Georgetown Cupcake. I mean could I really resist? Never. It's cupcakes! DUR. I ended up tagging along (inviting myself) with two co-workers as one of them was on a cupcaketastic mission - buying cupcakes for a birthday! Not that I personally need an occasion to buy cupcakes, but often they are to celebrate a food baby!

With the new July flavors out, it was really hard to resist as I bought my perfect half dozen, full of flavors that I have not tried before and some that were completely new to the taste buds of my fellow cupcake reviewer Sean. After teasing the intern and showing him the cupcakes I trounced over for some cupcake sampling time. Half for Sean and half for me (the bargain is, he gets most of the Choco PB cupcakes to satisfy his Choco PB whorish ways). Personally I was excited about the Blueberry Coffeecake cupcake because it not only was burned into my retinas when I saw it, but the smell of it's sweet, sweet aroma blueberry-licious-tastic-ness kept on escaping from the box. I kept talking to the Blueberry Coffeecake cupcake too! "Please don't disappoint me, please don't disappoint me!" Sean and I decided on our order of attack and we ended up going: Strawberry (the heart), Pumpkin Spice (the maple leaf), ChocoBanana (yellow flower), Milk Choco Birthday (sprinkles), Choco PB Swirl (um duh), and the blueberry coffeecake (deformed blue flower cupcake).

Now let's get this om nom nomming started, bitches! (Photographs courtesy of me and my new lens! YEEEES!)

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The Om Nom Nom Rating Chronicles (on a scale from 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest) reviewed by Team Seangie (which means average scores)

STRAWBERRY: Classic madagasgar bourbon vanilla cupcake baked with fresh strawberries topped with fresh strawberry frosting and a fondant heart. (AWWWW.)

TADA Factor: 3.5

Flavah Flav Creativity: 2.5

Cake: 4.75

Frosting: 5

NOTES: For the record Sean gave the frosting a 5.5, which is NOT on the scale, so we decided that he can award Honorable Mentions and this cupcake's frosting won one. If you do read my blog regularly (I know you have!) you know that I am a big fan of anything strawberry at GTC. I wonder how they can make such a delicious package. It is amazing how the freshness of the strawberries really come through! OM NOM NOMMILICIOUS!

PUMPKIN SPICE: pumpkin spice cupcake with a maple infused cream cheese frosting and topped with a fondant maple leaf.

TADA Factor: 3.25

Flavah Flav Creativity: 2.5

Frosting: 3.5

Cake: 4.25

NOTES: The cake is super moist! And Sean liked it and as a pumpkin spice avoider - I think this cupcake changed his 5 flavor palette outside Mexican food! I personally enjoyed the cake as it reminded me greatly of pumpkin bread. YUM! Although, I did think it was weird that 1) it was summer and I'm having pumpkin spice and 2) the pumpkin spice is not coming from my Starbucks coffee! Not bad, GTC! The maple cc frosting was interesting, but not my fave. But I gotta say, the maple leaf was cute and also an awesome way to celebrate CANADA DAY!

CHOCO BANANA: varlhona chocolate and fresh banana cupcake with a banana frosting topped with a yellow flower.

TADA Factor: 3.5

Flavah Flav Creativity: 4.25

Frosting: 4.5

Cake: 4

NOTES: The frosting was so good that Sean would lick the frosting of my finger, and in fact he did. HEY! That was MYYYY FROSTING! I really enjoyed this cupcake as I thought this flavor combo was not overwhelming, the banana frosting lived up to the name but I must say I didn't taste too much fresh banana in the cake! But it was still delicious!

MILK CHOCO BIRTHDAY: classic madagasgar bourbon vanilla cupcake topped with whipped milk chocolate frosting topped with rainbow sprinkles.

TADA Factor: 3.5

Favah Flav Creativity: 2.5

Cake: 3.25

Frosting: 3.5

NOTES: First thoughts, oooooooooo spinkles! I peeled some tasty sprinkles off to see if they had any taste. AND they did! They were all fruity tasty and super yummy, dipped in milk choco frosting of course. I think I could just eat a handful of those sprinkles! I would like to go on record that the milk choco frosting tastes exactly like whipped frosting you would find in a Duncan Hines or Pilsburry container in a grocery store. Interesting. I can't tell if that was done on purpose or not, but it will definitely keep me guessing for a long time! Overall the cupcake was good, but I think we were not as enthused as we were eating cupcakes with more personality.

PEANUT BUTTER FUDGE: (also known as Sean's cupcake vertigo-like eye patch) varlhona chocolate with creamy peanut butter core topped with a rich callebaut chocolate ganache and a peanut butter swirl.

TADA Factor: 4

Flavah Flav Creativity: 2.74

Frosting: 3.5

Cake:4.5

NOTES: Sean, the Choco PB whore. Was ready to give straight 5s based on it's Choco PB-ness. But in comparison to GTC's other Choco PB combos, I think Sean was a bit dissapointed. I only ate a quarter of it, since I was just tasting for research and I didn't really dig the ganache and the huge squirt of PB in the middle. In the end our average scores I think were lower than other Choco PB combinations that we had tried in the past. Hence, there was a lack of Choco PB cupcake rapage in this particular blog post and it has been replaced by cupcake eye-patching.

BLUEBERRY COFFEECAKE: fresh blueberry and citrus cupcake topped with a citrus-infused vanilla glaze and a blue fondant flower

TADA Factor: 4.25

Favah Flav Creativity: 5

Cake: 5

Frosting: 4

NOTES: AND NOW THE AWESOME SHIZZO! The blueberry coffeecake WAS AMAZEBALLS! Really fresh blueberry taste and the texture was like the real deal. The only two things that were lacking was the frosting, which was a simple sugar glaze that was okay and the presentation. I understand that the cupcake probably needs to be hot when it is glazed (like a KK doughnut!) But the cupcake had a divet in the middle and the candy flower looked like it was melted and plastered on there. Not GTC's prettiest cupcake, but one of GTC's yummiest cupcakes! Thumbs up!