Cupcake Overdose

I gave up cupcakes on January 1st until my half marathon on March 21st. Running 13.1 miles is nothing compared to giving up cupcakes for 80 days. Since then I have been on a week-long cupcake binge.

My parents kicked it off with the best birthday gift ever:


I LOVE the Cup-a Cake! Now I can have cupcakes on the go! I also tried the yummy red velvet cupcake mix:


Next, I checked out Best Buns Bread Co.'s cupcakes, which were a surprising standout in the Washington Post's 2008 Cupcake Wars:


This was by far the best high-quality cupcake for the dollar. $2.75 for a heavenly jumbo cupcake, who could want more? The whipped cream cheese and coconut icing worked well with the rich, fudgy cake.

In spite of my skepticism, some friends and I met at Georgetown Cupcake this Saturday to see if it could lived up to the hype. After waiting in the rain for 20 minutes, we finally got to the counter. Though we vowed to only get a chocolate coconut cupcake a piece, we walked out with this box:


Of course we had to try the chocolate ganache (it won the Cupcake Wars) and it is not physically possible for me to pass up a peanut butter chocolate cupcake.

It may not be the most cupcake for your dollar (the $2.75 cupcakes are petite but cute), but Georgetown Cupcake wins. It deserves its "best cupcake in DC" title. The chocolate coconut was fabulous. It was fudgier than Best Buns, and the frosting was superb and quite generous. The chocolate ganache was rich and creamy, but wasn't as impressive as the other two. The peanut butter chocolate blew my mind. The frosting was light, whipped and complimented the chocolate cake perfectly.

The rest of the weekend was a blur of cupcakes and friends, so this morning I walked to work reluctantly vowing to stop the cupcake madness before concerned family members commit me to rehab. So it figures that I walked into the Monday morning staff meeting and came face-to-face with:


My coworkers some how found out it was my birthday and one of them made dark chocolate cupcakes with marshmallow coconut frosting from scratch! These were professional-quality cupcakes. Perfect for early mornings, these were sweet but not too rich. They were pure genius.

I will stop the cupcake binge tomorrow, I swear...

Drinks at Restaurant Eve

Two years ago Restaurant Eve transformed my view of cocktails. Before this epiphany I saw cocktails as overly sweet or overly alcoholic, but never just right. So I avoided them in favor of something safer, like a nice glass of wine. When I finally took a chance on Restaurant Eve's drinks, I was blown away. Made with only hand-squeezed juices and house-made bitters and tonics, their concoctions were out of this world.

Recently the Washingtonian named Restaurant Eve's Todd Thrasher as the city's cocktail guru. This seemed like a good excuse to revisit an old favorite...

Here were the group's picks:

Eve's Temptation

My all-time favorite drink made with Granny Smith apples and Smirnoff apple vodka.

The Molly Delicious

My second favorite of the group, this mixes house-made apple cider, Makers Mark, and calvados. It tastes like Christmas

Lemony Laurel

The perfect drink for summer, this combines roasted lemons, bay leaves, Galliano, and Smirnoff citrus vodka.

If the drinks aren't motivation enough to head into Old Town, Restaurant Eve's cozy bar is the perfect place to relax after a stressful day, catch up with friends, or bring a date. Definitely check it out!

2 Amys and the search for the perfect dessert...

As long as I've lived in DC, people have raved about 2 Amys. It is the only pizzeria in the city that the Verace Pizza Napoletana Association has certified to make authentic Neapolitan pizza. DCists are obsessed with this place.

At the risk of jeopardizing my foodie street cred, I'll admit that until last weekend, I'd never been to 2 Amys.

Sometimes you need a good friend to push you. My friend Sarah and I have had a lot of quality DC pizza, but not 2 Amys. She reminded me that we didn't let a 30 minute drive deter us from Dewey's Pizza, why let Georgetown traffic keep us from 2 Amys?

Before long, we were seated at the window at a surprisingly non-frou frou restaurant.

As it was Sarah's birthday, it was only proper to start the festivities with a doughnut:

Light, buttery, sugary - it was extraordinary.

Then we ordered a stuffed crust Ripieno Basillico Ricotta pizza with ricotta, fresh mozzarella, grana, pesto, tomato:

One word: fantastic.

We were on a roll, so we decided to leave the guns and take the cannoli:
Should have kept the guns. If this is certified Neapolitan cannoli, Neapolitans should stick to pizza. The pastry was light and flaky (as it should be), but the filling was bitter. (It had an acrid hint of sherbet.) We were shocked to end such an amazing meal on a sour note.

But when it comes to dessert, Sarah and I don't give up easily. So we headed over to ACKC...

Is this Heaven on Earth? Possibly.

I almost broke down and had a cupcake overdose when I saw this:
But two weeks away from making it to my half marathon cupcake-free (more on that later), I had come too far to cave. I successfully distracted myself with the second best thing, a chocolate and Reese's Pieces covered pretzel (Sarah's chocolate pie is in the background):

Both desserts made up for our cannoli trauma.

ACKC has the best hot chocolates in town and my Obama peppermint hot chocolate was the perfect compliment to dessert. (DC has not gotten over naming drinks after Obama. In this case, it really wasn't necessary to use the president's name to increase sales. The drink sells itself, who doesn't love peppermint hot chocolate?)

Bottom Line: 2 Amys is well worth battling traffic unless you are only going for a good cannoli. ACKC continues to impress die-hard chocoholics. DC needs to stop naming its drinks after Obama.

Guest Contributors - Restaurant Week Wrap Up

Several of my friends have asked if they can write about their food adventures in my blog. So I thought it might be fun to have a guest contributor column occasionally. (Guest bloggers would be especially helpful with restaurant reviews, as it is difficult for me to try every restaurant and I often pick restaurants based on friends' recommendations.)

To wrap up Restaurant Week, Moizza sent me her restaurant reviews:

Taberna del Alabardero

They have a neat wine loft and kitchen, but otherwise not impressed. The appetizer I chose was a mushroom and spinach crepe, in which both ingredients were pureed into rather bland room-temperature paste slathered all over soggy too-thick pancakes. The entree, mahi mahi served over tomato and other vegetables, was just okay. Their rice pudding was delicious though - runny, just the way I like it.

Poste

Great atmosphere for lunch and friendly service. The food is a little daring, but in a good way. My starter was a sunchoke and enoki mushroom (my favorite) soup that was fresh and delicious. I was particularly impressed with the presentation: they presented me with a clear glass bowl with seasoned mushrooms piled in the center and then poured the soup on top of the ingredients from a teapot. My entree was a "duck ham" (i.e. duck cured like ham) and brie (I think) panini. The sandwich was well-prepared and satisfying without being too filling. My only criticism was that the haricot vert side salad was rather tart. For dessert, I had an amazing date bread pudding with caramel ice cream on the side.

Firefly

This place is adorable. I'm definitely coming back, especially since they have really great food and drink specials all year. Since I filled up at Poste for lunch, I did not order the Restaurant Week menu, but I nibbled from friends' plates. The appetizers: fresh, perfect calimari that just melted in ones' mouth and an incredibly light and tasty three-cheese macaroni. For entrees, we had the bass special and roasted chicken. I should note that the entree options for restaurant week were all the entrees on the menu - this place is truly fly... Anyway, the bass, served on a bed of quinoa, was bloody unbelievable. A big, simple portion of delicious. The chicken was moist and hugely portioned as well. For dessert, I tasted a mocha parfait with a spicy kick, a pear crumble, and carrot cake a la mode. The carrot cake was my favorite. My other favorite was the sweet tea vodka (!) you could order on the rocks or straight up... My friend also had a ginger-infused vodka that was quite intriguing. So of the bunch, Firefly is my pick.