Hello Washington D.C.

We were able to get to two cupcake places during our visit to D.C. The first is a vegan bakery called Sticky Fingers. We had breakfast there with Billy's friend Chris. He didn't realize when he suggested the place that he would get roped into a picture with the cupcakes...

I, actually, did not have a cupcake there because I had just finished some delicious french toast. Billy took one for the team and got a chocolate with raspberry icing cupcake. He said he never would have realized it was vegan (no dairy, butter, eggs, or other animal products), but it could never compare to a good buttercream icing. He gives it 3 sprinkles.

The next day we stopped at Hello Cupcake. They had very creative names like "24 Carrot" and "You Tart!". We got a peanut butter blossom and a strawberry lemonade. Peanut butter blossom was good, but not as good as Mary's homemade peanut butter chocolate in Richmond. I give it 4 sprinkles. Strawberry lemonade was light and refreshing, also getting 4 stars.

We tried to get to Georgetown Cupcake, the place we were told we had to get to. Apparently everyone else was told this too. The line was out the door and to the corner. We also could not get a place to park. This is the second time I've attempted to go to Georgetown to no avail. Get a parking garage if you can't get a metro line!

Colonial Cupcakes

We drove to Fredericksburg to see a battlefield, but to also visit Colonial Cupcakes. It was in an old building that was still set up like a house. There was even a guy working in Colonial costume.

I got a s'mores cupcake. There was no icing. Instead it had a marshmallow and piece of Hershey's chocolate with a drizzle of chocolate syrup. It was fair, I give it 3 sprinkles. Billy got blueberry pancake. He swore the icing left a butter flavor like he was really eating pancakes. I was impressed with the creativity of it. We gave that one 4 1/2 sprinkles. My brother-in-law, aka, FBI Special Agent Glenn, got raspberry chocolate and gave it 4 1/2 sprinkles. Oh, and the battlefield was pretty cool to see too.

Richmond's Close Call

Mary's killer cupcake.

This past week, my brother-in-law graduated from the FBI academy. We drove to D.C. to celebrate, but made a pit stop along the way in Richmond, VA. My best friend for much of grade school now lives there with her husband and 4 kids. I lost touch with her years ago, but we reconnected through Facebook. She is an awesome person that I never meant to lose touch with, so I am very happy to have her back as a friend. She also makes killer cupcakes.

We actually did try to stop by a cupcake bakery called Carytown Cupcakes, but they decided to close the week I was in town. Word didn't get to them that a VICR (Very Important Cupcake Reviewer) was headed their way. Luckily, when we got to Mary's, she had made cupcakes- my Richmond experience wouldn't go cupcakeless! The cake part was chocolate and the icing was peanut butter. You can't go wrong with that. Her kids talked about eating these the moment I walked in the door. They each ate all of the cupcake, not just the frosting. Billy ate two of them. I'm giving them 5 sprinkles!

My guest taste testers... Annelise, Jonas and Celia (L to R)

Chance of Showers and Cupcakes

I had my baby shower last week at home in Cincinnati. The dessert was cupcakes from Firecracker Bakery. There were chocolate, white and carrot with buttercream icing and pink roses. This was a nice surprise to have cupcakes instead of cake, however the best surprise was having my fellow Cupcake Courtesan, Courtney there. She flew all the way from Salt Lake City to surprise me for my shower. We were able to taste test the cupcakes together. It was easily agreed upon that the carrot was the most flavorful and moist. The icing by itself wasn't special, but complemented the carrot cake nicely. We'll give it 3 1/2 sprinkles.