Let’s go over the cupcake scene in DC again, shall we? It’s important to the story I’m about to tell you.

In the past four or five years, a half a dozen cupcakeries, spurred by the national trend of “reinvigorated” childhood desserts, have made their home in DC. These are stores that sell nothing but several flavors of cake, mixed-and-matched with buttercream, ganache, fillings, and fruit-based frostings. There may be the barest accompaniment: perhaps coffee, a handful of cookies in the case, or even a whoopee pie or three. But these stores are, make no mistake, cupcakeries. Their appeal, business model, and entire raison d’être is the cupcake. The most well-known ones are, in no order, Cakelove (U St and Silver Spring), Georgetown Cupcake (also host to a Food Network reality show), Hello Cupcake (Dupont Circle), Red Velvet (Verizon Center), and a roving Curbside Cupcakes truck.