Cupcake Madness Finals: The Tasty Two

It's Cupcake Madness! Click here for the bracket and the judging sheet. Check out the contenders Red Velvet, Couture Cupcakes, Cakelove, Hello Cupcake, Baked & Wired and Georgetown Cupcake.

Two weeks after the initial cupcake crawl (we gave ourselves a bye week, to both rest up and stave off diabetes) my team reassembled for the final showdown: Baked & Wired v. Hello Cupcake.  Only one cupcakery would take home the title: CUPCAKE CHAMPION.

The rules were a little bit different for the final round.  We abandoned the "control cupcake" and let each person decide what flavor they wanted.  We explained what we were doing at both cupcakeries, and told the people behind the counter to wow us with their best cakes.  

We were wowed.

At Baked & Wired, we focused on the chocolate with peanut butter frosting, the strawberry cupcake with fresh strawberries and strawberry frosting, the chocolate silk cupcake with vanilla cupake and chocolate ganache frosting and the Karen's Birthday Cake cupcake, the cupcake that made me fall in love with Baked & Wired in the first place.  Unfortunately, we'd eaten everything before I remembered to take a picture.

At Hello Cupcake, we re-ordered the 'you tart,' and desperately wanted another velvet Elvis, but had to settle for carrot cake with vanilla frosting.  We ordered the 'princess' cupcake -- chocolate cake with raspberry frosting -- the dulce de leche cupcake, and a chocolate cupcake with white chocolate frosting.

All of these cupcakes were so good, it was really hard to pick a winner.  The cake at Baked & Wired is perfect, and the frosting is a perfect counterbalance, rich and sweet but not overwhelming.  The cupcakes at Hello Cupcake fall over with the weight of their hefty icing, and their banana and carrot cakes in particular really shine.  The cupcakes at Hello Cupcake are prettier, and more creative, while the cupcakes at Baked & Wired rely fall back on perfecting the classics.

So what did we love the best?

Baked & Wired!!

In the final head to head vote, Baked & Wired beat Hello Cupcake 8 to 2!  

So what are you waiting for?  Go eat the winning cupcakes!  

One year ago: I took a cooking class at Whole Foods.