Saturday, June 22, 2013

Occasionally Cake & Lavender Moon Cupcakery

The short trip south to Alexandria might as well come with a guarantee for a good time, because that is what I have been having without exception. The Old Town is just so irresistibly charming and full of life. King Street encourages you to walk and walk and walk in order to explore all the little shops and restaurants and cafés it has lined up, and once you arrive at the water front you can't help but behave like a typical tourist, taking pictures and enjoying the entertainment of various street artists. 


Most importantly, Old Town Alexandria is a dessert-lover's paradise. I shamefully admit that my last visit was in January, when I had not started this blog yet, but of course I began to taste my way through the many bakeries and ice cream shops and was immediately hooked.

The long-awaited Alexandria Food and Wine Festival took place in the Carlyle District today, and since it failed to satisfy my sweet tooth I urged my friends to drive a little further afterwards, to have a bite and a drink by the water. And once there, I just happened to find two cupcakeries in close vicinity to one another that I could check out while the rest went shopping. They were happy, I was happy, everyone was happy. 

Occasionally Cake 

I first went to Occasionally Cake, a bakery that offers "all things cake" including innovations such as cupcake push pops (layers of cake and frosting in a plastic tube that can be pushed out with a stick), cake truffles and mini bundt cakes. Their passion, however, seems to be the design of large cakes for special occasions, photos of which can be found on their website.


The size of their cupcakes are about comparable to Georgetown Cupcake, so rather small (which is good for people like me who are planning to go someplace else afterwards and eat a second one!), and cost $3 including tax. A fair price. They are beautifully arranged on different kinds of cake stands, and this attention to detail is noteworthy because the entire store looks simply adorable. 


The dominant colors are white and pastel, and there are a lot of bows, polka dots,  and cupcake-themed decorations everywhere, many of which can be purchased (including jewellery, plant pots, and cookie jars shaped like cupcakes). The lady working behind the counter was not very outgoing or cheerful, but hey, everyone can have a bad day. Especially if the weather is so beautiful and you are forced to stay inside.  I just decided not to ask her any questions and went straight for the mojito cupcake, a combination of rum cake and mint lime buttercream.  


The verdict? It was very sweet, and even though I could not make out the rum or mint flavors, I clearly tasted a refreshing and summery lime note.  In terms of texture, the cake was more on the dense side, but the fact that there was just as much frosting as cake made up for that. The frosting was thick and kept its shape even after I had had a few bites. Now, I don't know if that is good or bad. 


All in all it reminded me a bit of the cotton candy cupcake at American Cupcake in San Francisco. What a pity that it didn't come closer to a true mojito flavor, but it was nice enough. And you know I love lots and lots of frosting! Looking at the following picture I wonder if that love should have its limits though.


Lavender Moon Cupcakery

Lavender Moon Cupcakery is located just a few steps off King Street, on S Royal Street. It looks very similar to Occasionally Cake from the outside, the main difference being the slightly more colorful signage. Once you enter, you realize that this powerful pink is practically the identity of the store. 


Walls and chairs and boxes and the staircase are painted in either pink, purple or turquoise, and the decoration is all about vintage and whim. Guests first walk through a cozy seating area - which was packed with young families when I arrived - to get to the back room where cupcakes are displayed on a small counter. There is not much else to this room but the counter and a table with informational brochures about Alexandria's attractions and events; everything is kept very simple. The prices and size of the cupcakes are about the same as at Occasionally Cake.


I had a hard time picking a flavor here. The Lavender Moon Cupcakery offers many original creations such as blood orange dreamsicle, tiramisu, or chocolate turtle. I forgot most of the names right away, because there are unfortunately no signs and the poor girl in the store had to go through each and every flavor with explanations of what the cupcakes were filled or decorated with. My brain only really registered about three of the approximately 12 different flavors of the day. And so I chose the peach & basil, one of their summer specials.


What can I say, it was de-lic-ious. I used to know a guy who called everything "superb" and I always found that a little exaggerated. I mean, how often can you call something superb before "superb" becomes the norm? Well, I never really use this word but now I will: This cupcake WAS superb! Back in January I already tried their vanilla with lemon curd filling, which turned out to be so memorable that I almost considered having that one again today. Now I got the confirmation: The Lavender Moon Cupcakery really is one of the very best cupcake places in the DMV. 


The frosting was to-die-for, just so dreamy creamy that it was similar to tasty fresh whipped cream. And there was lots of it. The cake had tiny pieces of basil baked into it and was very fluffy. I have to admit that both the peach and basil aromas were very subtle, I really had to concentrate hard in order to taste them, but the cupcake presented such a lovely balance of sweetness and freshness and homemade goodness overall that I really couldn't care less. 


The definite winner of this Alexandria cupcake battle is therefore the Lavender Moon Cupcakery. - A serious contender for the title of my favorite cupcake place together with Baked & Wired.

Brownie Points for the mojito cupcake at Occasionally Cake: 1 out of 3
Brownie Points for the peach & basil cupcake at Lavender Moon Cupcakery: 3 out of 3

Lavender Moon Cupcakery on Urbanspoon

10 comments:

  1. Hello. You took my picture without permission. Please remove it. Thank you.

    Megan
    Occasionally Cake employee

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Megan, my apologies for that. I replaced the picture.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey!
    So many people seem charmed by Alexandria, especially the Old Town area. It is quite charming. I am in Arlington now, but I'm moving to Alexandria soon. Thanks for all of your great reviews on here. It is surprising just how many dessert options there are in the DMV! I have sadly only tried a fraction of all the food options I want to try and you've shown me some I hadn't even heard of before, so thanks for that. :) I wish I had some recommendations for you since you've covered so many I've had or heard of before. I tend to do more frozen treats than baked goods myself. I do recommend Menchie's Frozen Yogurt (self-serve chain from California). Similar to the abundance of cupcake options in the area, there are quite an array of frozen dessert places and Menchie's is my favorite dating back to visits to LA a couple years ago. I'm glad it's on the east coast now. My sister also works near one of the Dolcezza locations, which she says has great gelato and sorbets if you haven't had it.
    See you in Human Capital Analytics class next week!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey Kim,

    Wow you are so lucky to be moving to Alexandria! I have never heard of Menchie's but looked it up just now and am definitely going to try and find the Alexandria location. A FroZenYo just opened around the corner from my apartment and I go there all the time (in fact, it's probably going to be the subject of my next post)... have you tried them yet? They have many unusual flavors, like cake batter and red velvet, so very similar to Menchie's. But just looking at the Menchie's website makes my mouth water. I mean: white chocolate mousse? Eggnog? Honey greek yogurt? hahaha what did you do to me?

    I have heard many great things about Dolcezza, and one of their locations is in Georgetown so I will have to go soon! Maybe after class one day!? ;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I heard there is a Menchie's location coming to DC soon, so hopefully that location will be a bit more metro accessible than the ones I've visited so far. I tried FroZenYo (Crystal City location but I've seen some in Woodley Park by the zoo, Farragut Square, Penn Quarter and yours in Rosslyn). I went before the local Menchie's locations opened in Alexandria and Arlington. I also had Sweet Frog once. There are just so many yogurt spots! I have a Menchie's preference, especially because I love samples and at Menchie's they have platters of little cups for you to handle your own sampling. No need to ask anyone for help! I tend to love the freedom of it. :P

      There is a coupon on Dolcezza's website now too. I am looking forward to trying it myself after the reviews I've heard. My sister works at Mosaic District (a shopping-dining-entertainment area) near the Dunn Loring metro stop in Fairfax, so I really should go to the location there sometime when visiting. The number of people who are always in line or outside the shop eating seems to indicate that the desserts there are good haha. But lines don't mean everything. :P

      Delete
  5. Oh yes I know the Mosaic district, it also has a lot to offer! Thanks for the tip with the Dolcezza coupon, even better ;-) Have you heard of this really popular froyo place called Mr Yogato? Look it up, people are really devoted to it. And what about Thomas Sweet? I'll go there next week, the description of how they spin your flavor of choice with the toppings of your choice sounds pretty unique.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I heard of Mr Yogato and Thomas Sweet. I have been thinking to try them sometime so maybe I will.

      Delete
  6. I am also thinking about going to this event:
    http://unionmarketdc.com/events/the-dc-scoop/
    Have you been to Union Market? Have you heard about this? Seems to be a good chance to try a lot of places, similar to the "Taste of" events in Georgetown, Arlington, etc.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I did see you have tried already from some of the vendors at DC Scoop, but there seem to be a few others there plus freebies. :P

      Delete
  7. The Menchie's near U Street Metro is finally open. Probably the most metro accessible location (and first DC location) in the area. :) If you're in that neighborhood and in need of self-serve frozen yogurt I recommend it. :) I haven't been to it yet but may check it out soon.

    ReplyDelete