Baked and Wired - Amazing Cupcakes Sharing the Throne with Gtown Cupcake!

This weekend, Mr. J and I came to a startling revelation. Gasp, we think we may have found a CUPCAKE PLACE that we love EVEN MORE than Georgetown Cupcake. I know, it's shocking. I've spoken here about my love for Georgetown Cupcake, with its little bites of stylish, tasteful (both to the mouth and the eyes), and sinfully rich heaven. I've talked about how I've waited over half an hour in line, outside, in the cold, just to buy 6 cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcake. I've babbled about how this was my go-to place for cupcakes in DC.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I think Georgetown Cupcake is in for some competition. Enter, Baked and Wired. No, Baked and Wired isn't a new place (although it did expand its space back in early 2008)... I had heard about it, in fact, heard rave reviews from one of my most avid cupcake loving friends. This was her most favorite cupcake place in DC. And this weekend, I finally discovered why.

Baked and Wired, from the moment that you walk in, has a completely different feel from Georgetown Cupcake, which is located just a few blocks away. Here, they have an area with tables, specifically inviting guests to stay a little while, plug in your computer, tap into the internet, or sit with friends and catch up on the latest, or get comfy with a book, a coffee, and one of their chocolate satin cupcakes (one...or two...or perhaps three...).

There was no long line winding out the entrance (and may I say, no people looking at you wondering why you are in this thirty-person deep line waiting for cupcakes). Instead, there were warm and friendly faces waiting to take your cupcake (or other baked good) order. Like Georgetown Cupcake, there, sitting in front of you, is an array of sweet treats waiting for your selection. At first, I only saw two or three types of cupcakes (the "Perfectly Bitchin'" chocolate peanut butter cupcake quickly made it on our list)...and then I looked up and laying before us was an impressive spread of cupcakes.

The cupcakes looked quite sizable compared to a lot of the other new cupcake stores that have popped up around DC. You surely got your $3.50 worth when you bought one of these cupcakes. These were soft and fluffy cupcakes, covered in a mouthwateringly thick slab of buttercream. At first glance, these cupcakes looked similar to Cakelove cupcakes. Don't be fooled. When we got these cupcakes home and bit into them, they tasted ... amazing. They are wonderfully moist, almost a cross between a muffin and a cake. The icing wasn't "buttery" or "greasy" (as Cakelove's cupcakes were described at our cupcake party weeks before)... instead, the icing bursted with sugary flavor. If you don't like sugar, these are not for you. They were much more sugary (but in a delightful way) than Georgetown Cupcake.

We resisted the urge to buy too many. Originally, we were just going to get two, one for each of us. This quickly doubled into four: strawberry (strawberry icing on a vanilla cake with chunks of fresh strawberries baked into the cake), the aforementioned Perfectly Bitchin' (peanut butter icing with chocolate cake), and for comparison's sake with other cupcakes, the vanilla&vanilla and what should be called the "Death by Chocolate" (they had a witty name to go along with it, but my sugar coma has knocked that out of my brain).

After a bite of the strawberry cupcake, Mr. J immediately proclaimed Baked and Wired his new favorite cupcake place, dethroning Georgetown Cupcake. But I'll be honest, I can't knock Georgetown Cupcake off its throne... but instead, I've found a place to share its throne. GC and BW, they represent the best of cupcakes in DC, but they are different from each other, and they offer two different experiences to the cupcake devoted. GC is more about refined, beautiful looking cupcakes with inventive flavors. BW is more about just simply delicious and sugary delights that focus on more the taste of the cake and the icing themselves with a "made from scratch" appeal. And really, having two fabulous cupcake places so near each other? That could never be a bad thing.

The next time I'm craving a cupcake, I will be venturing back to Baked and Wired, mainly because there are still so many flavors left to be tried! Plus, I admit, there is something so inviting about the place, that next time, I want to just spend an entire Sunday afternoon there. Perhaps with their wireless internet, I'll be writing my next blog entry there.

Baked and Wired

1052 Thomas Jefferson St. NW

Washington, DC 20007

(Between 30th and 31st Sts and M and K Sts)

202-333-2500