Random Letters to the Public

One weekend I did a impromptu cupcake tour over state lines in Virginia and had some major pleasant surprises and some major sad panda disappointments!  But that is expected in the cupcakery world, yes?  I sure think so.  Here are the Virignia Cupcaking Adventures of Deanna and Angie.  So is that Deangie?  Or Anganna?  You decide.

***First Stop ***   
SWEET BITES MOBILE CAFE

The Sweet Bites Truck = mobile cupcake nommy-ness

OMG!  As Samuel Jackson would scream "It's cupcakes on a truck!" (technically it is more than cupcakes but you know that is MY main focus)  To secure their foot in the latest food craze, mobile food truck-dom - Sweet Bites brings their heavenly treats to a street corner for you to come to.  So that is what my friend and I did, we went to an Arts & Crafts Fest and then saw it was a huge bonus with the announcement that the Sweet Bites truck was going to be there.  Let's just say we saw the big pink truck first and bought our cupcakes BEFORE going into the A&C Fest.  The lady in the truck was super friendly and we took about 5 minutes figuring out what we want from the dozen of yummy goodies and their 9 cupcake flavors to choose from.  We ended up settling for Red Velvet (natch, that is our control flavor) and Pina Colada.
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Sweet Bite's Red Velvet and Pina Colada

The Om Nom Nom Rating Chronicles (on a scale from 1 to 5, with 5 being the nommy-est!)
RED VELVET: Shame on you if you don't know what this is by now.
TADA Factor: 3.0
Flavah Flav Creativity: 2.5
Frosting: 2.5
Cake: 3.5
NOTES: The frosting was really whipped and fluffy, something that you would not expect on you red velvet cupcake since we both were expecting a nice cream cheese punch.  The cake was super moist and tasty, but we have had better.  You know we compared it to Mecca, aka GTC.
PINA COLADA: Pineapple and coconut cake with Malibu rum cream cheese frosting
TADA Factor: 3.0
Flavah Flav Creativity: 3.5
Frosting: 4.0
Cake: 4.5
Notes: AMAZEBALLS!  Now this is what I was looking for.  Team Deangie or Anganna were super psyched over this cupcake.  Not only did it deliver, it was good to see that someone was able to bake a fine cupcake with pineapple and coconut IN the cake rather than plopping it into their frosting.  We loved  this cupcake and was about to go buy another, but we were being good since we knew we were headed to more cupcake-ness in the next couple of hours.
OVERALL:  Color me impressed.  I would like to stalk this truck on a regular basis, I only wish it didn't stay downtown so much.  Show me and my friends some NW DC love please!  =)  Van Ness in particular!
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***Next Stop***
BAKE SHOP
This was our next stop, deeper into Arlington in Clarendon.  This nugget of a place I discovered when I was condo shopping, and this is the cupcakery across from the building I have been looking at.  Super excited and scared that there was a cupcakery across the street from the condo building, I didn't know what to think - excitement for cupcakes being so close?  or scared that I would probably hand over my home owners association fee on a monthly basis to a cupcake shop?  Ah, it is mos def like that time Jesse Spano took those caffiene pills, "I'm soooo excited, I'm soooo excited.....I'm...so...scared..."  Let's just say, after we went - I left really, really scared and then missed my performance as part of the Hot Sundaes singing group with Kelly and Lisa.  Buttscratchers!

A Sunny, Sunny Day for a Bake Shop adventure

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These Om Nom Nom Chronicles for the Bake Shop were pretty much the same for all three flavors we chose: Strawberry Shortcake, Toffee and Red Velvet.  Let's just say, my friend and I had one bite of each and decided to use our caloric intake at the chocolate shop next door.
TADA Factor: 2.0
Flavah Flav Creativity: 2.5
Frosting: 2.5
Cake: 1.5
NOTES: How disappointing!  This is an all time low for cupcake rating in my Om Nom Nom Rating Chronicles.  The cake crumbled all over our clothes right as we bit into the cupcakes or if we inhaled too hard it would go up your nose (you know that beignet demise.)  As we both hoped it was only the fate of the toffee cupcake that we sampled first (which I drooled over in the display) it was in fact the fate of all the cupcakes.  We did have hope for the frosting, but it didn't do anything for us. And in the end just a major disappointment for Deanna and I, good location - meh cupcakes.  We ended up just one biting each cupcake and throwing the rest away.  How sad, to waste cupcakes - that is mos def not a Deanna and Angie thing, but we had to - they sucked! So much for a cupcakery neighbor, but let's just say it would all go to the chocolate store next door!
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Cupcakes Actually Plate 'o Cupcakes

***Last Stop***
CUPCAKES ACTUALLY
Here is the far, far away.  Fairfax Corner.  Desperate to get the last cupcake fiasco behind us, it was time to find some more cupcakes and cross out fingers that they were nommy.  The advise of these cupcakes came from my friend Anna which she claimed were da bomb shiznit.  Alright, let's give it a whirl.  Let's just say, Cupcakes Actually did not disappoint and even on full tums-tums Deanna and I were able to make room and to scarf them down.  As we checked out the landscape of cupcakes Deanna and I settled on Simply Red (Red Velvet) and Cherries Jubilee.

Cupcake Actually Simply Red - NOMMY!

SIMPLY RED: luscious red velvet cake, iced with our signature cream cheese frosting.
TADA Factor: 3.5
Flavah Flav Creativity: 2.5
Frosting: 4.0
Cake: 4.0
NOTES: Not your momma's Red Velvet cake!  It was so good to meet another red velvet cupcake with proper cream cheese frosting.  The frosting was still pretty whipped, but really smooth and tasted perfect with the nommy moist and properly color red velvet cake.  In addition, the cake had the touch of choco goodness that some of DMV cupcakeries have missed often.  Let's just say our eye widened at first bite of this cupcake. NOMMY! I also like to say that this cupcake is good contender in my world of red velvet cupcakes as it could be considered a close second to GTC's red velvet cupcake.  And best of all, the heart that adorn the top was chocolate!  No cheesey fondant or hard necco wafer candy and nice smooth piece of red choco!  Double rainbows!

JUBILEE in my mouth! (that's what SHE said!)

CHERRIES JUBILEE: vanilla cupcake with chunks of cherries, topped with a dab of whipped buttercream.
TADA Factor: 3.5
Flavah Flav Creativity: 4.0
Frosting: 3.5
Cake: 4.5
NOTES: Um. NOMMY!  Cake was AMAZEBALLS!  It was the perfect amount of tart cherries that were countered by the subtle lightly sweetened and fluffy buttercream.  This cupcake brought smiles to our faces and was the perfect finale to our Virginia Cupcake Tour.

Cupcakes Actually we'll be back!!!!