Georgetown Cupcake

Georgetown Cupcake is the pretty popular girl you’d love to hate if she wasn’t so darn lovable. The last thing Georgetown Cupcake needs is another adoring fan, but I have to be honest. Critics and foodies go mad over Georgetown Cupcake and up to fifty people stand in line outside their sweltering and cramped little storefront for 30-40 minutes for one very good reason. These cupcakes are phenomenal. The quality of the ingredients is extraordinary and the craftsmanship is exacting and consistent.

There are some problems in paradise, of course. Eating a cupcake from Georgetown is divine, purchasing one is not. Apart from the obvious problems with the size of the storefront, Georgetown has had a deserved reputation for snooty employees and a “we don’t need or care about you” attitude from the owners. In recent months, the owners have sought to address both problems with some success. One of the cashier girls even smiles now. Wow.

The cakes are extraordinarily tender--tender to a fault at times. I have had several cupcakes there that had a bit of a sink hole in the middle because they were either slightly undercooked or so light of crumb that they buckled a bit under the weight of the frosting. On the upside, the frosters always fill those divots with extra frosting.

And it is the frosting here that really sets this place apart from the crowd. The chocolate ganache frostings are made only from rich, dark, high-quality chocolate and cream yielding a product that is pure, decadent and perfectly creamy. The cream cheese frosting is equally creamy and a little fluffier. The buttercreams in their many flavor variations are even rather too creamy to my taste. Personally, I prefer a higher confectioner’s sugar content in my buttercreams, but I appreciate what the chefs are aiming for here. One word of warning: without any meringue powder or shortening, these frostings are not very heat-hearty and don’t travel particularly well. Another word of warning: these cupcakes are rather small. Just one will leave you longing.

The Red Velvet cupcakes here are very popular, though their dark color and lack of tang hint to me that they are actually regular chocolate cupcakes with food coloring rather than a true red velvet cake. I suspect Red Velvet fans are actually being seduced by the cream cheese frosting because those same fans generally go crazy over the Lava Fudge and Coconut cupcakes which are likewise topped with cream cheese.

The exotic flavors which rotate through the menu are more hit and miss than the standards. They do citrus cupcakes extremely well hitting just the right notes with Lemon Blossom, Key Lime and Lemonberry. The bland Carrot Cake, overly nutty Hazelnut, and candy-like Mint Chocolate are less successful.

Heather’s Pick: White Chocolate Raspberry. The bright, sweet-tart raspberries manage to flavor the tender cake without weighing it down, and the white chocolate ganache frosting almost makes a believer in white chocolate of me. Shockingly, in a tasting of 14 cupcakes from four D.C. bakeries, all 4 of my friends and I independently chose this as our favorite. Too bad it is so seldom on the menu.

Verdict: If you don’t like these cupcakes (and you're not just saying that), I cannot help you.