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

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

Sweethaus Cupcake Cafe: Charlottesville, VA

Sweethaus Cupcake Cafe
Cute Mini's $1.00
Regular $2.50
Gluten-Free $2.75


First things first. Their logo is the cutest thing ever and there website; so check it out!!! The cafe is adorable!!! The theme throughout...lets just say I'm redesigning my place (this is ChocolateGanache speaking. CarrotCake might have to take away the pink). It is so adorable and perfect. CarrotCake found this gem and we were in the area after our Ashlawn 5k Run, so a refill we needed and what better than cupcakes. 
We found the building to be under construction, however it had a retro vibe. We were not sure to say the least, but the closer we got we saw the vision these owners have and what a fantastic find. You are greeted by a poster, 50's style, of a little girl holding a cupcake. This one picture reminded us of childhood days that focused around laugher and cupcakes. It was a step back in time for us. Thank you Sweet Haus!



As we stepped in we could smell the sweetness. Now, don't let the remodeling stop you from going. The cupcake chefs were so nice and we felt welcomed by them. It has that small town happy feeling and we love that around cupcakes. There are so many fantastic things as you look around. But one design really caught our eye. It was the gum drop chandelier. Yes... I know. How cool is that? You can also sit and watch them make frosting and the cupcakes. I can go on and on. But, now to the yummy part: 

What is fantastic about this one is the cute mini cupcakes. ChocolateGanache loves mini size things. Not this time around, CarrotCake took the cake on this one (get it...ok I'll stop). It's a good idea for a party or if, like us cupcake tasters, you want a variety of yumminess. There where so many choices that the lovely chefs picked out their top favors for us. The selections devoured were: marble cake and chocolate cake, pistachio cake, strawberry cake, lemon cake, red velvet,  and chocolate coconut cake. AND one regular size gluten-free chocolate walnut chocolate frosting cupcake. Yumm! Here is a quick take on what we thought on the mini's:


Marble cake and chocolate cake - really good balance of flavor (not too sweet good chocolate and vanilla taste); moist and tender texture.

Pistachio cake - good pistachio flavor with smooth lightly sweet frosting with pistachios mixed in for crunch; cake texture was moist but a bit chewy.

Strawberry cake - fresh strawberry flavor frosting that was slightly sweet; vanilla cake had a good moist and tender texture and vanilla taste.

Lemon cake - same as strawberry just lemon flavor. This was like good-old lemonade, tart and sweet. Love it!

Red velvet - good cream cheese frosting; good cake flavor but the cake texture was moist but an odd crumbly texture… the crumbs weren't fine enough for a velvet cake also.

Chocolate coconut cake - beautiful with the coconut flakes on the deep chocolate frosting and cake; frosting and cake as good as the chocolate cake mentioned above.

The gluten-free was so good, I'm having day-dreams about it. So fluffy, chocolaty (which is a must for happy people), and the frosting was soft and buttery....sorry I forgot I was writing, thought I was going to have a bite : ) 
The walnuts had a toasted taste to it, which really brought out the flavor. That was my favorite part. Sadly CarrotCake only had crumb of it. 

WOW we had a lot of cakes at this one…I hear a round two, three... ok we might be coming monthly.

Gluten Free: Yes (they told us that they have a separate cooking and prep area for them. These cupcakes also have there own chef who is a celiac herself)

Sugar Free: Not Available

Vegan: Not Available

Cupcake Atmosphere: 5 out of 5 (This one wins the award for "Best Atmosphere for a Cupcakery," congrats)

Flavor Selection: 5 out of 5 (We thought they covered a good amount of flavors)

Customer Service: 5 out of 5 (Happiest cupcake chefs yet. They just looked so happy working around cupcakes)

Overall Quality: 5 out of 5 (Can't wait to see the cafe finished)