Welcome

Let us introduce ourselves:

We are ChocolateGanache and CarrotCake, both sisters who love sweets and are willing to try every cupcake until we find the best one. In a world of cupcakeries it has been a challenge! After trying many different cupcakes from bakeries and telling friends about what we found; CarrotCake thought it would be a good idea to make a blog, so we could tell others about what we devoured and let them share their thoughts too.

Leave us comments and let us know where we should go next. Enjoy!

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July 21, 2013

Buzz Bakery: Arlington, VA



Buzz Bakery
Regular $3.25
Gluten-Free $2.75
Have you ever been to a place were your sweetest dreams comes true? 
You wake up and "hold your breath...Make a wish...Count to three..." 

Next you find yourself standing in a bakery and the words straight from Willy Wonka enter your mind..."Come with me and you'll be in a world of pure imagination. Take a look and you'll see into your imagination. We'll begin with a spoon, tasting the buttercream of their creation. What we'll see will defy temptations." 

Ok, we changed the words a little, but who can blame us. This is our childhood dream treats on steroids. How can we not walk into this bakery and not get "buzzy" thinking about cupcakes filled with cookie dough and grown-up pop tarts and such. It's bliss (now thats a nice name for a cupcake shop. It's now copyrighted, lol).

Picking which cupcake to try was "the" hardest selection we had . So we picked the following for this tasty stop: 
Gluten-free Chocolate on Chocolate Cupcake


The Gluten free chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting. The cake itself was very moist and had a great chocolate taste. A better grade of chocolate than we have tasted in the past. Very impressed to see gluten free getting better and better out there. The frosting was just as divine as the cake. It was frothy and very smooth. Having three more of these would have been bliss. The colorful sprinkles on top is the prefect touch. I love sprinkles!

The COOKIE MONSTER, has a chocolate chip cookie cake with raw (yes, you heard me-yummy moment) cookie dough core covered  with an Oreo italian buttercream topped perfectly with a oatmeal cream pie. This speaks for itself. This is the one both of us were dying to try after seeing this Bakery on TV and they talked and showed this dream of a cupcake. If only TV's were are scratch and taste. Life would be more complete. 
inside Cookie Monster cupcake
We have never heard of Italian buttercream before, so we looked up the recipe and thought you would enjoy making this too: 
1/2 cup of cold water
2 1/4 cups of caster sugar
1 cup of egg whites (about 6 egg whites) 
1 1/2 pound of soft unsalted butter
1 tsp of vanilla extract

9:30 Club Cupcake










The 9:30 CLUB, which is devil's food cake with vanilla buttercream filling and dipped with delicious chocolate glaze. This design looks a lot like another cake we are all so familiar with. This is by far the replacement of that other cake. This is a must try. It is moist and smooth. I personally could eat a bowl of the glaze. It's my favorite kind of glaze. But good thing we brought Mom along on this trip. This was her pick and it was gone in seconds.
White Rabbit Cupcake

The WHITE RABBIT, is a parsnip cake with a yummy cream cheese buttercream topped with toasted coconut and a carrot (how cute is that? A wink to the people who know us). Another "must try" on our list for this Bakery. The design is cute, and the taste wasn't too strong, but still carried the favor throughout. The cream cheese buttercream was a little to tart, but CarrotCake enjoyed every moment of it.

Over all, this was a dream to visit and we hope that Buzz Bakery continues to amaze it's tasters with the most imaginative cupcakes. Until our next visit we dream with sweets and cupcakes dancing in our heads. 








Gluten Free: Yes ( Chocolate and Vanilla offered daily)
Sugar Free: Not Available
Vegan: Not Available

Cupcake Atmosphere: 4 out of 5 (Classic and cute)
Flavor Selection: 5 out of 5 (Must imaginative cupcakes)
Customer Service: 4 out of 5 (Happy staff and willing to help. Loved that they asked if the gluten free need to be in a separate box)

Overall Quality: 4 out of 5

July 6, 2013

Second Bite - Cake Love: Tysons Corner Mall, VA

Cake Love: Tysons Corner Mall
Regular: $3.35 each

Like any guilty pleasure (or bad boyfriend), it is hard to just give it up, because there was something that drew you in the first time and just keeps drawing you in again and again... For us at Cupcake Correspondents it is Cake Love, and our undying hope that one day it'll return to that guilty pleasure we once knew and loved.

Toffee Crunch Cupcake
In this Second Bite Edition of Cupcake Correspondents we rediscovered Cake Love, but we forsook our old flame at the Fair Oaks Mall and ran off with its' cousin at the Tysons Corner Mall. All part of the same Cake Love family of confections, yet the Tysons Corner Mall Cake Love restored our faith in cupcake redemption. Alas! The Toffee Crunch Cupcake and Vanilla Cupcake with Strawberry Buttercream were a step in the right yummy direction!

We haven't been shy in our disappointment in the dry and flavorless cakes that have been coming out of the Fair Oaks Mall location, but the two cupcakes we had at Tysons were moist and flavorful. We will say that the Cake Love bakers should pay closer attention when filling the cupcake molds so as not to splash the cake batter over the sides of the cupcake pan, because it makes for an irregularly shaped cupcake top...  but enough about that...

Vanilla Cupcake with Strawberry Buttercream

The Toffee Crunch Cupcake was a moist yet dense chocolate cake topped with vanilla buttercream frosting, caramel drizzle, and sprinkled with toffee chunks. The vanilla buttercream was on point with a light and smooth texture, and a perfectly sweet vanilla taste. The toffee chunks gave it a pleasant crunchy texture on top too.

The Vanilla Cupcake with Strawberry Buttercream frosting was a perfect summertime treat! They worked fresh strawberries into the vanilla buttercream, which reminded us of a classic summertime pairing of strawberries and cream... YUM! The vanilla cake was good and moist, but like the chocolate cake it was denser than other cupcakeries' cupcakes... all about what you prefer.

Way to go Cake Love! We look forward to seeing more improvement, and will be willing to volunteer our tastebuds for many more Second Bites!

Overall Quality (updated): 2.5 3.5 out of 5