Cake Love Review

Our time in the DC area is more precious now since our jobs have taken us away from the area ( I actually enjoy the time away but miss the area's cupcakes). Today was a rare day that Tony and I were together in the DC area and what better thing to do than go sight seeing and cupcake tasting! I had read a few years ago somewhere that CakeLove won some cupcake contest beating Baked and Wired.  After tasting Baked and Wired cupcakes early on in my cupcake tasting I was skeptical. Baked and Wired cupcakes are delicious.  Tony and I arrived at the Campbell Street location around 2:00PM.  We skipped lunch to save our taste buds for serious cupcake tasting.  When we arrived at CakeLove there were about a dozen different flavors available.  Tony ordered a chocolate lemon coconut and because I read on Yelp that the salted carmel was the best, I ordered the salted caramel.  I was looking forward to sitting down in the shop with a cup of coffee and eating my cupcake.  When I looked at the coffee pots on display, I changed my mind.  The coffee looked like it hadn't been brewed since the morning and the pots looked like they hadn't been cleaned in months (a few tablesspoons of salt, a few tablespoons of lemon juice, fill pot with ice and swirl.  In a matter of seconds you have a sparkling clean coffee pot).  



Chocolate Lemon Coconut
 Salted Caramel

A bit disapointed we sat at our table and right before we opened our box of cupcakes we noticed several signs displayed around the store "eat cupcakes at room temperature". We thought the sign meant that if you took the cupcakes home and put them in the refrigerator to let them thaw first.  When we opened the box and attempted to eat the cupcakes we JUST bought, we realize that the sign really meant when you bought them "fresh" from the store.   These cupcakes were hard as a rock cold! Sort of frozen.  Who goes to a bakery and "waits" for something to thaw? We decided not to make this trip a total bust, packed up our cupcakes and headed to lunch, hoping our cupcakes will be thawed by the time we finish eating lunch.  An hour later, our cupcakes sitting at room temperature (like the sign said), they were still not thawed.  When they were thawed enough to eat, the taste and texture was disappointing.  The cupcakes were dry, I'm sure that if these cupcakes were not ever frozen or chilled, they might have been tasty.  The frosting on the chocolate coconut was not memorable and the lemon dollop on top took over the taste of the barely there coconut.  The salted caramel (I just don't get the whole salted caramel craze) was a basic vanilla cupcake with a basic vanilla butter cream with a drizzle of caramel and a few bites with a hint of salt in them.



I honestly do not like to leave negative reviews.  I think that any person who opens a cupcake shop rocks! I wish them all the luck in the world and I would love to give them as much positive exposure as possible.  However, if a cupcake shop is going to charge gourmet prices the cupcakes, the cupcake shop better deliver gourmet cupcakes. I am tired of spending good money on a "gourmet" cupcake that tastes like generic supermarket cupcakes. 

Curbside Cupcake Review

I found this mobile cupcakery from searching "cupcake" on facebook one day.   We happened to be in DC checking out CakeLove and thought how cool would it be to track down this cupcake truck! So, I checked out their latest status on facebook.  Their status said they were at Union Station on 1st. We drove in circles for over 35 minutes trying to find the pink Curbside Cupcake truck and just when we were about to give up, we saw a flash of pink driving down a road. Guess what? They were heading our way!  We pulled over for them to pass and then we followed them all the way to their next stop which was the Navy Yard.

 I was so excited that we found Curbside Cupcake that as soon as they stopped I jumped out of my car and ran to the truck order window and waited for them to open it (I don't know why I thought they would be just as excited to see me as I was to see them).  When the window finally dropped down and opened I was greeted by sourpuss 1.  He didn't even say hello! He just looked at me like are you going to order or what? I was a little taken back but I eventually spoke up and asked for a carrot cake, a pumpkin walnut (the facebook posts said they were the best) and at the last minute I ordered a red velvet cupcake.  Sourpuss 1 took my $9.00 cash (there is a minimum of a $15.00 charge for credit cards) and said I needed to go to the next window to pick up the cupcakes.  The next window was closed so I waited for the window panel to lower down and open up.  Guess who I saw behind that window? Sourpuss 2! Again, no hello, no smile, nothing.  He pulled out a paper bag and put my "gourmet" cupcakes in the brown paper bag.  I felt like I was paying for overpriced donuts by the way they were packaged.  I have visited many cupcake shops and none of them packaged their cupcakes in a brown paper bag, even at the grocery stores, they do not package cupcakes in a plain old paper bag.  However, the gentleman behind me in line ordered a half dozen cupcakes and they were packaged in a clear plastic container.  I guess I just didn't spend enough money.

Now, for the cupcake taste....one word...WOW.  We started with the carrot cupcake.  The cupcake frosting was all messed up from the paper, but this cupcake's taste and frosting flavor was perfect. The cupcake was moist and the frosting was a great tasting cream cheese frosting.  Next, was the pumpkin walnut.  Again, the cupcake was perfect.  Moist, very flavorful but the frosting on this cupcake was less desirable.  The frosting on this cupcake was a sugary buttercream.  We took the sugary mess off the cupcake and enjoyed this perfect cupcake without any frosting. It was "yum!" This cupcake would have been dreamy if the same frosting was used on it as the carrot cupcake.  Last, but certainly not least was the red velvet topped with the same sugary mess as the pumpkin walnut.  The taste and density of this red velvet cupcake is one of my favorites.  The chocolate flavor really comes out when you savor the flavor of this cupcake.  I have to say the Curbside red velvet cupcake (cupcake only) is one of my top 3 best tasting cupcakes.  Their choice of frosting on this cupcake has got to go or tone it down.  The frosting should accent a cupcake not weigh it down.