In search of the perfect cupcake

A few years ago, while I was living in Orlando, a cupcake shop opened just around the corner from where we lived. I had heard about the cupcake trend, but this was the first place close enough to visit. I am pretty good at baking and make some delicious cakes and desserts myself. I also have a sweet tooth, so I was very excited. From the beginning, the cupcakes at Sweet by Good Golly Miss Holly were amazing. Since it was right around the corner, it was not long before I developed a cupcake habit. Sweet is still a must hit location when visiting Orlando. 

While I no longer live in Orlando, I still have a love for cupcakes and have been looking for anywhere with cupcakes that are even remotely close to as good as those from Sweet. When I was living in East Lansing, I went to every cupcake shop that I could find. I think there were four or five places in town, which is actually a large amount for such a small local. Unfortunately, none of cupcakes were very good.

Cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcake and Sprinkles

This summer, we began our quest to find a cupcake place in Richmond, but have had little success. I went to the place that everyone recommended and the cupcakes were really dry. I went to the cupcake place close to home and they were tini-tiny for the price and I tried to go to the place with the cute name, but they have terrible hours and pretty bad reviews on yelp. It was then that I started to look more closely at the reviews for the cupcake shops in the area and found an interesting pattern. People who had been to cupcake shops in major metro areas such as DC, New York or LA, rated the local shops much worse than locals. With this discovery, my hopes for a great local cupcake shop were dashed. 

The final question for me was, how does my favorite cupcake shop compare to those in larger cities? Well, the past few weeks, I have had to spend some time in Northern Virginia for work and these trips gave me a chance to visit both Georgetown Cupcake and Sprinkles Cupcakes. First I have to say that both of these are the best cupcakes I have had outside of Orlando. I got a cocoanut cupcake from Georgetown Cupcake and a black and white cupcake from sprinkles. I enjoyed the cupcake from Sprinkles Cupcakes more than the one from Georgetown Cupcake, and would go back there if I am ever in the area. It is also the only cupcake to ever come close to those from Sweet. 

I know that the cupcake trend did not start in Orlando, but I can say that Sweet by Good Golly Miss Holly cannot be beat. I guess it just gives us another reason to visit Orlando more often. 

P.S. Sorry for the terrible photo. I only had my phone with me.