Mary grew up in New York where the food-centric city and her family's restaurants were literally her playground. Instead of eating dirt, she ate duck blood and rotten eggs. You never know what you'll find on the sidewalks. Mary is a veteran of the spa industry who's worked on numerous celebrities such as Barbra Streisand, Patrick Ewing, Vanessa Williams, Michael Stipe and Jane Krakowski. Her writing has appeared in DC Modern Luxury, Washington Post Express, Eater, Scoutmob, Washington Flyer and Washington City Paper. She eats "normal" stuff too, like cheeseburgers. Kangaroo cheeseburgers.
Red Velvet, hands down. I love its deep red color, its ironic white chocolate flavor and sweet cream cheese frosting. It just bleeds charm and decadence.
If you had to describe yourself as a cupcake, how would you?
I don't know. Is there a booze-soaked cupcake filled with bacon bits?
What is your favorite local cupcake place?
Baked and Wired has these wonderfully messy cupcakes that you don't care if you get frosting all over your face. It's fun.
What is it about cupcakes that you like?
Portion control. I'd feel guilty if I ate an entire cake by myself. Girl Meets Food is a Media Sponsor for CupcakeCampDC 2013 -- go check it out (and thank us later!) Like them on Facebook too~
Did you notice that CupcakeCampDC was mentioned in the Washington Post recently? The article says the following, asking an attendee their opinion of Georgetown Cupcake's long lines:
Washington is among the more than 60 global cities to host a Cupcake Camp, an informal, predominantly female gathering and competition with professional and amateur bakers and dozens of consumers to taste and judge.
The city’s second annual event took place in September at Local 16 along the U Street corridor. Between bites of peanut butter, salted caramel, chocolate raspberry and red velvet cupcakes, participant Helena Rusak of Washington reflected on her visit to the juggernaut that is Georgetown Cupcake.
Lured to the tourist attraction, Rusak said her motives were vaguely voyeuristic. [...] 'Cupcakes have become totally mainstream,' says trendologist Nielsen. 'The novelty has worn off and they’ve become part of the landscape.'
Have you covered CupcakeCampDC on your blog, newspaper, or social media? If so, let us know so that we can link to you!
These cupcakes had so many elements that worked perfectly together; it was almost like eating two desserts in one! Recipe courtesy of The 5th Sense Cupcakery.
Caramel Cake with Caramel Buttercream and Cake Ball/Chocolate Toffee Garnish
1 ½ cup all purpose flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 stick of unsalted butter or margarine
1 cup of granulated sugar
2 egg yolks
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1 ½ tsp vanilla
¼ cup caramel
Bag of Heath chocolate toffee pieces
Preheat oven on 350. In a bowl mix all the dry ingredients. Sift the flour, then, add salt and baking powder. Once added take a whisk or a spoon and blend in the dry ingredients. In another bowl mix the butter and sugar until it is well blended. Add eggs one at a time, add buttermilk and flour, going back and forth and ending with flour. During the last addition of the flour add vanilla and caramel and mix for 5 min.
For the frosting mix two sticks of unsalted butter or margarine for 5 minutes. Add 2 ½ cups of powdered sugar and ¼ cup of caramel and mix together. Add caramel and chocolate toffee pieces as a garnish
To make the cake ball you can make extra cup cakes and crumble them up in a bowl, add a little bit of caramel and mix together. Take the cake and roll into balls. Once completed place cake balls in the freezer for 10-15 minutes. Take the cake calls and dip them in caramel and the chocolate toffee.
DC's second annual CupcakeCamp was held this past Saturday at Local 16. Many of you showed up and ate some delicious cupcakes, won great raffle prizes, and donated to a good cause. We gathered up your feedback/voting slips and got your entries for "Crowd Favorite" award winner and your thoughts about CupcakeCampDC.
FEEDBACK
Venue: All of you said the venue was pretty much awesome! The vibe and flow of the space was great, though some said it was too small and some said it was too big, I think it worked perfectly and the individual outliers were canceled out. I was also glad to see that we were able to bring a lot of new people to Local 16 that hadn't been there before so that we could show a new area to you!
Organization: This year was completely different in style than CupcakeCampDC 2010. I think this style worked out great compared to last year. The table situation was a bit thrown with new bakers showing up last minute and some bakers canceling the last minute, but everyone got their space in the end and I saw that many cupcakes were cleared out by the end of the event.
Charity: Last year we raised $150 for Girl Scouts of the Nation's Capital. This year we raised over $1,000 for DC Candlelighters!! Thank you all for your support and effort in changing the lives of those affected by pediatric cancer. We had a great presentation by DC Candlelighters and raised awareness for Child Cancer.
Check, Ready to be Mailed!
Thank you everyone for coming out and we really appreciate your feedback. We read every feedback slip and heard every word you wrote.
Please stay tuned here for updates on CupcakeCampDC 2011, 2012, and other CupcakeCamp related going-ons. If you are interested in being a judge or volunteering for next year, contact us at dc.cupcakecamp@gmail.com.
AWARD RESULTS
The judge panel chose the winners for best tasting cupcakes and you, the attendees, wrote your favorite cupcakes in to vote for the crowd favorite. There were six judges and they tallied up their scores and averaged them out to determine the winners. The judges ranged from food bloggers, past bakers, and even a member of DC Candlelighters. Some of you thought that the Pro bakers and non-Pro bakers should have different award categories, but the number of Pro bakers was so small (6) that almost everyone would have won! And, last year, all winners were actually non-Pro, so you never know!
First Place: The 5th Sense Cupcakery's Caramel Cupcakes
Second Place: Shanika's Citrus Burst Cupcakes
Third Place: Megan's Chocolate Raspberry Souffle Cupcakes
All photos used in the award pictures above are courtesy of YidaL. Photos used below are from the Flickr Pool.
JUDGE FAVORITES & Runner-Ups
Monika's Salted Caramel Cupcakes (4th Place)
Dominique's St. Germain & Blackberry Cupcakes(Tied for 5th Place)
Olivia's Salted Chocolate Hazelnut (Tied for 5th Place)
Angelette's Cupcake Blvd Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes(Tied for 6th Place)
Marie's Applesauce Spice Cupcakes (Tied for 6th Place)
PHOTO POOL
There were some great shots taken at CupcakeCampDC! Please add any photos you might have to the Flickr Group and the slideshow below will be automatically updated.
Dan is an enthusiastic and dedicated amateur baker and thinks he can be a fair judge of other nonprofessional and professional bakers. Although it's a competition, he thinks it's important for the event to be fun. He has an irreverrant (but not mean) style and a potty mouth (as seen on his twitter account). Examples of his baking can be found on Flickr. He participated in CupcakeCampDC 2010 last year as a baker and won 3rd place with his strawberry cupcakes.
Tell us about yourself
I moved to the DC area from Massachusetts in 1990. All of my family (both sides) still live in the area. I now live in Arlington with my partner and our Boston Terrier, Bandit. I have an I.T. consulting business that focuses on helping small businesses run their networks and implement Open Source tools to help them manage their businesses.
Sylvie spends a lot of her time cooking food, talking about food, reading about food, writing about food, and enjoying the pleasure of eating food. She writes the blog Thrifty DC Cook and will be judging CupcakeCampDC 2011.
What is your favorite type of cupcake?
My favorite cupcake is the classic yellow cake with chocolate frosting with sprinkles (like the kind you could buy at elementary school bake sales.)
If you had to describe yourself as a cupcake, how would you?
I would never be as sweet as a cupcake so I can't answer this question.
What is your favorite local cupcake place?
My favorite local cupcake place would have to be Red Velvet cupcake though I am also a big fan of Curbside Cupcakes.
What is it about cupcakes that you like?
I like cupcakes because they are easy to eat and they make people so happy.
The t-shirt design for CupcakeCampDC 2011 has been finished! The design color is a deep indigo and is a modified version of last year's logo, with the addition of the cupcake from this year's poster and the DC Candlelighters' candle logo.
Volunteers, judges, and bakers will receive a t-shirt free of charge at the event, and additional shirts will be available for purchase (all proceeds to go to DC Candlelighters). Please look at the poll below and let us know what colors we should have the t-shirts created in!
Alejandra, a judge for CupcakeCampDC 2011, has been living and eating in DC for 7 years and blogging about recipes and the food & restaurant scene in DC for nearly two. You can read about recipes and food experiments at One Bite At a Time. She also covers the restaurant scene in Dupont/Logan/U Street for neighborhood blog Borderstan.com. Most recently, Alejandra has begun writing for Food Network's City Eats DC blog.
Tell us a little about yourself
By day, I work for a large non-profit running their blog. By night, I'm out eating or home cooking, blogging every moment of the deliciousness!
What is your favorite type of cupcake?
I'm traditional, vanilla cake with vanilla frosting gets me every time.
If you had to describe yourself as a cupcake, how would you?
Vanilla cake with dulce de leche frosting. Or maybe even a dulce center. I really love dulce.
What is your favorite local cupcake place?
Whisked!, they're at the 14th & U Farmers Market or online. Salted caramel frosting with vanilla cake...ah! Delicious!
What is it about cupcakes that you like?
I like that it's a smaller cake...to be honest. Portion control at it's best!
Girl Meets Food is a Media Sponsor for CupcakeCampDC 2013 -- go check it out (and thank us later!)
