Meet Candace Nelson and get free cupcakes at Sprinkles Georgetown tomorrow!

Tomorrow, March 22nd, you can celebrate the anniversary of Sprinkles Cupcakes in Georgetown, Washington, DC, with a free cupcake all day, from 9 am to 9 pm (1 per customer) and from 4-5 you can meet Sprinkles' co-founder and Cupcake Wars judge Candace Nelson! Below are their Irish cream and lemon coconut cupcakes, which I got yesterday at their bakery in Manhattan. Follow @sprinkles on Twitter and Sprinkles Georgetown on Facebook and visit sprinkles.com for more information.

Vegan cupcake success secrets with Sticky Fingers Bakery owner and Cupcake Wars winner Doran Petersan

Vegan baker, owner of Sticky Fingers Bakery and Cupcake Wars winner Doran Petersan talks to Portfolio about her business's success, and the rise of the cupcake:

To what do you attribute your success?

You can make your shop as pretty as you want, and ambiance is important. People could come in and feel comfortable, but unless you have good food, nobody’s gonna come back. So it’s the food that keeps bringing people in. The best compliment is when someone comes in not knowing we’re a vegan bakery and, after eating, they still have no idea it’s a vegan item. There’s no preconceived notion that vegan is not gonna be good. The minute you tell someone that’s not vegan that they are eating a vegan product, they are looking for something to be different. I’m not here to tell people what they should eat; I’m here showing them what we can do and then letting them make the choice.

Cupcakes are a luxury: Has the economy hurt your business?

They are luxury items, but they are considered acceptable and affordable luxury items. You're talking about a cookie or a cupcake that costs $2 or $3. We’re not talking about jewelry or shoes. Where we feel it is our largest orders—our catering, our wedding cakes—that’s where people try to cut back. But as far as our retail, we see more of the lesser expensive items being sold, but our daily retail sales have grown.

Has the cupcake wave started to wane?

It has not weakened at all. It is huge. After six years of cupcakes, they are getting hotter and hotter. We’re not just a cupcakery; we look at other people and the amount of product they are putting out, and I am flabbergasted. A lot of times if you have a fad it runs out in two or three years, but it’s not. People are absolutely in love with these things. We can’t keep them on the shelves. If it’s a fad, I’m not concerned because we have a full-service bakery, and when it’s the next thing you just ride the wave. I’m confident we can do anything as a vegan alternative to a non-vegan item. Whatever it is, you figure it out.

Visit Sticky Fingers at stickyfingersbakery.com on Facebook and be sure to check out her new cookbook, Sticky Fingers' Sweets: 100 Super-Secret Vegan Recipes.




from the Sticky Fingers' Cupcake Wars viewing party

Thin Mint crunch cupcake comes to Georgetown Cupcake in March! Plus our take on mint cookies and creme, chocolate², pumpkin spicea nd banana chocolate

I stopped by Georgetown Cupcake in SoHo on Saturday with a friend and co-owner Sophie LaMontagne told me that Thin Mint Crunch is coming back in March, so Thursday I plan to be there early to try it. I also told her that I couldn't wait on the extremely long line when I was in Washington, DC last year and she reminded me you can order ahead at georgetowncupcake.com and skip the line! Also, the other day I was there on a weekdayand they told me that their free cupcake specials via GTownCupcake on Twitter (and Facebook, each day they announce a special flavor they're giving away in a limited quantity for free) tend to last until around 1 pm on weekdays. Obviously, the earlier you arrive, the better your chance for a freebie, but a heads up.

Below is a review and photo from blogger Never Turn Down a Cupcake:

This Girl Scout cookie-based flavor is a chocolate cake with crushed Thin Mint cookies baked inside, topped with a chocolate ganache and decorated with fondant Girl Scout decorations.

Even though I'm not a fan of mint chocolate, this was really rich and tasted mostly of chocolate which I liked, haha. The little bits of cookie inside were interesting and added a nice texture to both the cake and the frosting.

And these are the cupcakes we tried: the mint cookies & creme, for sale on Saturdays, which is so so good in my and my friend's opinion (it tastes like mint chocolate chip ice cream!) and the chocolate², which is "Valrhona chocolate cupcake with a whipped Callebaut chocolate frosting topped with a fondant flower," was rich and wonderful. I ate half of it and felt like I'd gotten more than my share of very rich, thick chocolate frosting. I recommend them both!





And while I'm catching up on my blogging, I also tried pumpkin spice and banana chocolate. Both were very good. The pumpkin spice's official description is "Pumpkin spice cupcake with a maple-infused cream cheese frosting topped with a fondant maple leaf" and I can tell you that the maple frosting was unique and very good. I wasn't sure if I'd like it but it had this kick to it that made it amazing. The banana frosting was good too, though I liked the pumpkin spice better.

Does Shipping Cupcakes Stack Up? Plus, a Giveaway: Georgetown Cupcake Sends You a Dozen!

Thank you Georgetown Cupcake for the shipping and the cupcakes -- and the Valentine's Day giveaway. 

I'd always been suspicious about how well shipping cupcakes works, even though I'd had a reliable experience before.

It arrived in fine condition, bright pink and happy-looking, very distinctive. Once you see this box you won't forget it anytime soon (check out these amazing shots of the boxes arriving for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan during "Operation Cupcake"). When I opened the box there was a foil wrap around the cupcakes:

Inside that was a small gel-type pack of ice.

And a card, although it had no information abut the cupcakes inside. No names, flavors, ingredients, nor the name of the collection, which was a Valentine's Day special. That was kind of a bummer, not sure why it was overlooked.

The cupcakes arrived partially frozen, with sticks in them to keep them in place:

A tiny bit of movement showed but for the most part the cupcakes arrived looking great!

Flavors were:

Red velvet.

Strawberry Lava Fudge.

Chocolate squared.

(I looked them up.)

The red velvets were my favorite.





Yummy and sweet cream cheese frosting with a dense moist (but not oily or greasy) cake. My cupcake-tasting partners (in crime) felt the cupcakes had a slightly alkaline aftertaste but I didn't notice.

The strawberry lava fudge was exactly as advertised:






A lava-type cake with a sweet and gooey fudge center. The frosting is also very sugary, with a fruity strawberry taste. I thought I also might have tasted some raspberry but no one else agreed with me. *sigh*

Warning: this cupcake is messy! Gooey and drippy and best eaten with a fork or spoon. Also, the frosting had a tendency to separate. Maybe due to the fact there was so much of it?




The chocolate squared was so rich and dense and obviously made with quality ingredients.






My friend took one bite and said, "Are these made with Valrhona?" Wow. Impressive. Yes, they are.  We both agreed that the cake was just a vehicle for the frosting. So decadent. And really a grain-free taste, which I think is hard to achieve in a chocolate frosting.





I love how the cupcake wrappers were decorated on the bottom:



So cute.




The cupcakes are hard to remove from their container. It's best to remove them while they are still frozen, or you will have fingerprints all over your frosting:








As an aside, Senator Harry Reid received a similar box and regifted the treats to the press! Nice move, Senator Reid. Media people love cupcakes.



Georgetown Cupcake is home to TLC's show DC Cupcakes and they are expanding soon to NYC and Boston. Excellent shipping, quality ingredients, popular TV show, busy bakeries (4 by the end of the year) -- is there anything these women can't do?!



Anyway, Georgetown Cupcake and Cupcakes Take the Cake are giving away a dozen Valentine's Day cupcakes plus some cupcake merchandise, shipped directly to your home (USA lower 48 only due to shipping restrictions). To enter, leave an email address where CTTC can contact you below, in the comment section, on or before February 6, 2012 at 5:00 pm ET.  We will choose one winner at random and contact you via email, the gifts will be shipped from the cupcakery.



The small print:

"Georgetown Cupcake ships all of its cupcakes overnight via FedEx. Due to the FedEx shipping schedule, Georgetown Cupcake cannot ship cupcakes for arrival on Sundays or Mondays. Unfortunately, we cannot ship to P.O. Boxes, APO, or FPO addresses.We do not require signature upon receipt of any shipping order. However, due to the perishable nature of our product, it is best for someone to be present to receive the delivery.

Please be aware of any specific delivery policies at your shipping destination.Georgetown Cupcake cannot guarantee delivery if we are provided with an incorrect address, or for shipping delays resulting from inclement weather.Georgetown Cupcake will provide you with a FedEx tracking number via email once your order has shipped."

Best of luck to y'all!

;)

Cupcake and cake pop love for Valentine's Day by Ganache

This Valentine's Day cupcake spotlight is on custom dessert company Ganache in Washington, DC, via their Facebook page. They can be reached at ganacheonline at gmail.com or 240-593-8444. (The last photo isn't necessarily a Valentine's Day one but is ganache-y and looks good, so I'm including it.) Here are a few of the flavors they offer (see Facebook link above for full listing): Good Morning (Soft coffee cake infused with cinnamon with a caramel hot cocoa frosting), Cocolimon (Fresh lemon infused moist vanilla cake with a coconut lemon cream cheese frosting), Refresh (Moist white cake infused with fresh lemon zest with a raspberry cream frosting), Indulge (Rich chocolate brownie cake with a vanilla caramel frosting).