DC should really be known as the cupcake capital of the country. And M Street in Georgetown is ground zero for cupcakes delights. I previously pitted the famous Georgetown Cupcake vs. Baked & Wired, it’s less famous rival which has garnered hundreds of local devotees. After a tight battle, Georgetown Cupcake came out the winner.
But now, there’s a new player in town. In a showdown between east and west, DC and LA, the reality-TV darling and the shop that started it all, I have bravely matched Georgetown Cupcake up against Sprinkles Cupcakes. It’s a tough job, but someone had to do it.
While Sprinkles may be the most recent entrant to the DC scene, it is no newcomer to the cupcake craze. Sprinkles was one of the first cupcake specialty shops, started out of Los Angeles and now open in the nation’s capital. So I’ve taken three of Sprinkles top competitors: Key Lime, Peanut Butter Chocolate, and Dark Chocolate with sprinkles.
The challengers
Round 1 – Presentation: Both come in pretty pink boxes (coincidence?). Both look delicious. In fact, Spinkles’ dark chocolate cupcake looks eerily similar to GTCC’s Chocolate3 – we’ll call it a draw
Round 2 – Size: Sprinkles are definitely larger than GTCC
Round 3 – Ratio: GTCC sometimes errs on the side of too much frosting-to-cake ratio. However, Sprinkles has the same issue à draw
Round 4 – Cake: No contest here. Sprinkles was dry. It tasted like the cake was a day old, despite my being there early in the morning. Round goes to GTCC. Although, I have to say that the peanut butter chocolate chip cake was incredibly moist and flavorful. GTCC has nothing similar, so a point for originality there
Round 5 – Frosting: Again, the winner is clearly GTCC. While the bittersweet chocolate frosting was delicious, the key lime frosting was far too sweet, not nearly limey enough, and the milk chocolate frosting on the peanut butter chocolate chip was again too sweet.
Round 6 – Price: Comparable. Not a statistically significant difference.
And the winner is, with a clear lead, Georgetown Cupcake! Yes, it’s a reality show whore, but it still makes the best cupcakes in town.
(mad cheering in the hometown crowd)
Stay tuned folks. I’m sure another upstart will be around soon enough to challenge the reigning queen.
