Georgetown Cupcakes

Georgetown Cupcake
1209 Potomac St. N.W. Washington, D.C. 20007
Nearest Metro: Foggy Bottom

I will confess, I really didn’t want to like Georgetown Cupcake. Maybe its because the first two times I went, I waited in line for 30 minutes to still not be on the same block as the shop. Maybe because everyone in the D.C. blogosphere had already deemed them “overrated." But honestly, I didn’t want to like them because of plain old jealousy. It's not really a secret that I would love to open a cupcake shop, but that's another story!

Housed in an adorable (but very tiny) Georgetown rowhouse, the bakery is the first in D.C. to sell only cupcakes. Much like Magnolia Bakery (which I think is terrible) in New York City, lines are out the door and onto the street with tourists, students and locals waiting for a tasty treat. I guess the third time really is the charm, although I hear the staff is much speedier than in the opening weeks.

JB, PK and I decided to get half a dozen (for $15) and just share bites of all of them. There are 20 total flavors but they only serve 12 everyday. JB chose the Mocha cupcake, PK picked Hazelnut and Carrot, and I rounded out the order with Lemon Berry, Lava and Chocolate Coconut. If you look at their menu online, for some reason you will not find Carrot, and you will probably find it difficult to read as it is not really in alphabetical order. But back to the point... we actually ended up only eating five, and saving the Coconut for T. to eat later. Poor thing was at work and was really sad to be missing out. We’re so nice!

From left to right: Chocolate Coconut, Mocha, Lava
Lemon Berry, Hazelnut and Carrot

As I said before, we had read reviews of the shop and weren’t expecting much. But as I distributed the cakes to my friends I could not help but notice how soft they were to the touch. It seemed like a good sign. We all dug in, and were more then pleasantly surprised. The chocolate cakes were moist and flavorful, the carrot spicy, and the lemon tart with fresh lemon zest throughout. Most of the cakes were covered in some variation of cream cheese frosting (plain for carrot and lava, espresso cream cheese for the mocha and berry cream cheese on the lemon). All of the various cream cheese frostings were rich, thick, with just a hint of cream cheese flavor. The perfect complement to the cakes.

The only cake we didn’t enjoy was the hazelnut. While the crunchy nut topping was delicious, the cake was dry, and had a very thin layer of frosting. I don't know why these particular chocolate cakes were dry, when the three others we had were so moist and perfect. Maybe it was just a bad batch.

I think it is safe to say that if you order anything from Georgetown Cupcake and you like cream cheese frosting you will be happy with your choice. A few of the choices on the main menu weren’t for sale the day we went so I plan to go back and taste some more. But so far I would say they are definitely worth the hype.