Washington Post’s Cupcake Wars: Economic Crisis Edition

September 30, 2008 at 1:02 pm · Filed under DC ·Tagged alexandria, baked and wired, baking, cupcake wars, cupcakes, DC, dessert, georgetown, lavender moon bakery, washington post

Lavender Moon Cupcakes Try To Give You A Heart Attack.

In the midst of the economic crisis, it’s good to know that we can still count on The Washington Posts’ Cupcake Wars to distract us from the tanking economy.

For those of you haven’t been following the C-Wars obsessively, the Post is in the midst of a series of taste-tests of cupcakes from DC-area bakeries. I was especially excited for this round of reviews, because I had actually tried the cupcakes from one of the bakeries: the new Lavender Moon Bakery out in Alexandria (a coworker brought some in for us a couple of weeks ago, which was very sweet of her). The other cupcakes the Post taste-tested were from Baked and Wired, in Georgetown.

The Post tasters thought Lavender Moon’s cupcakes were simply “too much”—too rich, too heavy on the frosting, and too difficult to eat. Post testers were not impressed with the cupcake’s flavors, comparing the flavor of the coconut cupcake to “suntan lotion.” Testers liked the chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting the best. Sadly, this week’s reviews also didn’t contain “overall” ratings for the bakeries, so I have no idea how Lavender Moon stacked up to the other bakers ratings-wise.

I thought their review was pretty spot on. The cupcakes I had were very, very heavy—the cupcakes were difficult to finish because they were so rich and heavy. The chocolate frosting tasted more like fudge than frosting, which really overwhelmed the cake. It’s like the pastry chef wanted to make a rich and decadent desert, but didn’t consider how the overall package tasted. I think this could have been partially remedied with just a little less frosting (seriously people—frosting is one of those areas where less is often more) and a slightly lighter cake.

In a first for the Cupcake Wars, Post testers gave rave reviews to Baked and Wired, praising the “mostly moist” cake and the “not-too-sweet” frosting. Their favorite was the peanut butter cupcake, likening it to a Snickers bar (the testers meant that in the best way possible). Given that these testers have been pretty tough on DC’s cupcakes, it made me want to go down to Georgetown and check them out.

And I bet I’m not alone in my desire to slink off into various bakeries and sample cupcake after cupcake this week. Given everything that’s been happening in the economy lately, I wonder if the timing of the Cupcake Wars isn’t especially serendipitous. After all that’s happened this week, I bet the Congress could really use some cupcake-fueled comfort. Or, at the very least, cupcakes could keep them awake through their late-night bailout negotiating sessions.

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