Random Letters to the Public

Cake Dreams of Rockville, MD - An OM NOM NOM Review

So I drive around a lot, and I know little shortcuts here and there.  And as I was passing through one of my fave shortcuts away from Rockville Town Center, I saw out of the corner of my eye the word.....Cake....then I whipped my head back around and saw that Rockville had gotten its first Cupcakery!  (Mind you this was months ago...sometime in August or September....yeah, yeah, yeah, I know I've been a lazy bum.)  Since it was closed I'd figure I would end up there sometime soon.  So I ended up hopping in on the next Saturday to try some cupcakes.  Overall the shop follows the simple formula, kitchen in the back and little display in the front.  They probably had about a dozen flavors to choose from and I ended up determining that I would get 4 cupcakes (I GUESS I was being good.)

So here it is......time for the ratings!
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The Om Nom Nom Rating Chronicles (on a scale from 1 to 5, with 5 being the nommy-est!)

CARAMEL VANILLA: Vanilla cake, with caramel frosting and a caramel drizzle. (Please note since this was quite some time ago, I'm working on cupcake memory from months ago, so the flavor description might not be as accurate...as for the rating, these are accurate as I wrote them in my cupcake diary...and yes, I have a cupcake diary...be jealous!)
TADA Factor: 3.5
Flavah Flav Creativity: 3
Frosting: 4
Cake: 3.5
NOTES:  YUMMO!  Caramel drizzle!  I liked the brulee taste, but I wonder if that was intentional?  Cake was vanilla and moist.  But I think the cake was a bit too airy and a touch crumbly.


BANANA FUDGE: Banana cake, with fudge frosting
TADA Factor: 4
Flavah Flav Creativity: 3.5
Frosting: 4
Cake: 4.5
NOTES: Tasty, I'm always a big fan of fruit bread turned cupcake bottom,  the fudge was similar to the texture of can frosting but the combo is a sure winner!  I might try to make this at home!

RED VELVET: (you know the dealio)
TADA Factor: 3
Flavah Flav Creativity: 3
Frosting: 3
Cake: 3
NOTES:  MEH. The cake wasn't super red, which was a new sight for me and the cupcake left oily cupcake footprints everywhere I placed it down.  As my control, the cake was almost there - just needed more red and some more velvety-ness!  The cream cheese frosting was a bit too whipped and had an odd after taste!


RASPBERRY VANILLA:  Vanilla cake with raspberry frosting.
TADA Factor: 3
Flavah Flav Creativity: 2.5
Cake: 3
Frosting: 3.5
NOTES:  The raspberry in the frosting tasted really natural and was not overly sugary.



Overall, Cake Dreams was not horrible and not amazeballs.  I found the cupcakes to be a touch on the oily side and frosting sometimes a little overwhipped.  I don't think I'll be craving these cupcakes in particular, but I think these would be a good alternative if I was dying for cupcakes!

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!!!!

It's Georgetown Cupcake Time! (What? again?)  So okay, I make new excuses to head to Bethesda, but really needed to make a BIG excuse to head to GTC on a MONDAY.  Why?  Cos, it is the only day of the week that I haven't been to GTC and there were flavors that were BEGGING for me to eat and enjoy them.  I mean really?  It is truly those specific cupcake's honor to be rated in the Seangie Om Nom Nom Cupcake review! (Left to right in the picture, Cherry Cheesecake, Toffee, Ginger Peach, Cinnamon and Honey Banana) NOM!

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The Seangie Om Nom Nom Rating Chronicles (on a grade from 1 to 5, with 5 being the nommyest!)

HONEY BANANA: Fresh banana cupcake topped with vanilla cream cheese frosting and a fondant frosting.
TADA Factor: 3.0
    Flavah Flav Creativity: 3.75
    Frosting: 4.0
    Cake: 4.25
    NOTES: OMG!  The cake was AMAZEBALLS!  We can taste the   banana and honey goodness in the small little package.  Me being the lover of the bready bases with fruits and veg this rang a nice 5 alarm nommyest on my tastebuds.  Sean had to admit this cupcake was damn good!

CHERRY CHEESECAKE: Fresh cherry and mascarpone cheesecake topped with vanilla icing and a fondant flower.
TADA Factor: 3.75
Flavah Flav Creativity: 4.25
Frosting: 4.75
Cake: 5
NOTES: OMG, OMG, OMG.  I think I screamed "fuck yeah!" midbite out loud after tasting this cupcake.  It was cheesecake at it's finest.  This is what all the little cheescakes dream about when they are in cheesecake school.  Screw being a cheesecake doctor or a cheesecake famous movie actor.  They want to be put in this GTC monthly flavor! The only neg was that it was a bit messy, but in the end it doesn't matter cause Team Seangie were liking our own fingers anyways.  I mean really.  I'm so sad that August is ending soon.  I will miss you Cherry Cheesecake Cupcake!  WANH!

CINNAMON: Cinnamon cupcake topped with a cinnamon buttercream and a fondant heart.
TADA Factor: 3.0
Flavah Flav Creativity: 2.5
Frosting: 4.0
Cake: 4.5
NOTES: Cinnamon on cinnamon lurve.  The cake was amazing, it reminded me of a bundt cake with a cinnamon swirl through the cake. How creative and classic!  The buttercream topped off the cupcake VERY NICE! (Borat style! But not nekkid running around the conference room kind of VERY NICE!)




TOFFEE CRUNCH: Toffee cupcake with a toffee infused vanilla frosting topped with crushed Heath Bar.
TADA Factor: 3.25
Flavah Flav Creativity: 3.5
Frosting: 4.5
Cake: 5.0
NOTES: It is toffee on toffee on toffee manage a trois.  UM AMAZEBALLS!  Do you see in my picture there are toffee bits in the cake?  Yeah that's right, baked in toffee bits!!!!  And then more toffee in the frosting and then MORE toffee bits?  Today was a good day.  We mos def felt that feeling.  LA'CHAIM! (Okay will be my ONLY Black Eye Peas music reference on here....EVER!)









GINGER PEACH: Classic madagascar bourbon vanilla cupcake baked with fresh peaches and topped with a ginger-infused vanilla frosting and a fondant flower.
TADA Factor: 3.5
Flavah Flav Creativity: 3.75
Frosting: 4.0
Cake: 3.5
NOTES: Another month of August specialty, but did not live up as high to it's other month counterpart, Cherry Cheesecake.  I mean this sound good, but I really felt like I tasted peaches in the frosting.  I know confusing right?  I didn't taste peach in the cake and really didn't taste and ginger in the frosting.  A fail?  Not really.  I mean the cake was still decent and the frosting was really good!  Whatever it was supposed to be.....

AND ON TO THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER CUPCAKES!!!! CHARGE!!!!!!!!!!

 

BABA'S BABY: carrot bottom with vanilla cream cheese buttercream top.

CUPCAKE CONGA LINE!  HOLLA!

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

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).

Overall, another good experience at GTC. I'm proud to be addicted to their cupcakes!