No love for Cake Love
March 2nd, 2007
Let me begin by saying that I really wanted to like Cake Love. Before eating there, I did my research and sort of fell in love with the whole Cake Love story. It describes founder Warren Brown’s climb up the ladder of higher education, all the while secretly nursing his passion for baking. However, after selling his soul to the legal profession, he gave it all up to open a fabulously successful bakery and cafe in the trendy U St. corridor.
Today, Cake Love has two more locations in the DC metro area (Silver Spring, MD and Arlington, VA) and Warren has his own show on the Food Network, called Sugar Rush. It’s the quintessential foodie Cinderella story–who doesn’t dream of quitting their day job and turning a hobby into a successful business? By the end, I had decided that Warren Brown might be my hero and/or my black, male alter ego. Then I actually walked to U St and ate one of his cupcakes.
Lee and I purchased a chocolate cupcake with amaretto frosting and a “Crunchy Feet” (pound cake baked in a brioche tin) with chocolate filling and fresh raspberries. These items are pictured above. They cost us $9.00. That is a lot for approximately four mouthfuls of food, especially when I can buy an enormous slice of cake for $2.50 at Heller’s Bakery. However, my faith in Warren still high, I reasoned that this was a small price to pay for what might be The Best Cupcake Ever.
Upon returning home, Lee and I waited the requisite 15 minutes required for the buttercream frosting to reach room temperature. (Cake Love is now opening a cupcake bar so that impatient customers no longer have eat cold, solid buttercream.) Then, we ate. It was… really disappointing.
The cupcake was a bit dry and didn’t actually taste like chocolate. The color was also suspiciously pale for chocolate cake. The amaretto frosting was dense and, try as I might, I couldn’t taste a drop of amaretto flavor. I actually picked out little individual pieces of frosting and cake to see if the flavors together were masking each other, but no. It just didn’t taste like much of anything. Kind of sweet and bland. The Crunchy Foot was better–the cake was soft and moist, but the high point was definately the raspberries. I guess Warren is really good at picking out ripe, beautiful fruit? Hmm. More like The Most Overpriced Cupcake Ever.
Cake Love
1506 U St. NW, Washington, DC
I agree. Their cupcakes are awful. Giant makes better cupcakes. Will not try anything else from there. Overrated
I’ve only experienced the Cake Love in Silver Spring, and I try to avoid the desserts that are most chock-ful of butterfat — ‘cuz I suck that way. Thus, I’ve tried their Crunchy Feet most of all, and I’ve enjoyed them consistently from the Silver Spring shop. My favorite is the gingery-peppery Sassy Crunchy Foot.
I do think it’s all overpriced, but perhaps give the Silver Spring location a try?
I too wanted to “love” Cakelove as well since cake is my favorite dessert. I paid $10 for a strawberry vanilla cupcake, vanilla cupcake, and a crunchy feet with orange frosting. I was very dissapointed. The frostings had barely any flavor and the cake tasted like something that had been sitting in the refrigerator for a few weeks. Cakes Plus in Laurel keeps their cupcakes refrigerated and they are the BEST!
As the one person commented that Giant makes better cupcakes they are right. They are better than cakelove and I won’t even buy Giant cupcakes.