A sneak peek at one of tomorrow's two episodes of cupcake reality TV show DC Cupcakes on TLC, featuring the sisters who run Georgetown Cupcake. I will have my interview with them up ASAP!
The show has done well in the ratings. From TV by the Numbers:
Debut of TLC’s DC Cupcakes(Fri, July 16, 10 and 10:30 p.m. ET/PT) both delivered 1.1M total viewers (P2+), ranking in the top 10 among all ad-supported cable in W18-34, beating the CW for the hour in all key Women demos: W25-54 (375k), W18-49 (417k), W18-34(249k).
Reviews have been mixed (note: I haven't seen it yet, as I don't have cable). The Washington Post wasn't too enthralled:
"D.C. Cupcakes" has no problem making it all look terribly exhausting, because it is. Decked out in pink aprons (which match the pink boxes in which customers spirit away the precious, precious cupcakes), the sisters direct the chaos at the display cases, where employees deal with the masses, and back in the kitchen, where their irritable head baker, Andres Melendez, tries to keep up with demand. Melendez serves as a sort of masculine counterbalance to the femininity of Georgetown Cupcake, and he is quick to show his displeasure when things get frantic.
Ovens simmer and cocoa powder streaks faces, but "D.C. Cupcakes" is marred by the cardinal sin of reality TV: Its subjects are all too aware of the conventions, pantomiming reality in the service of reality. The sisters and their employees aren't much better at pretending and narrating than those poor dullards seen shopping for real estate on HGTV. Everything they say sounds like the second or third time they've said it, obeying cues from the producers. It would be less boring to just stare at actual cupcakes for a half hour.
Now this is interesting - the calorie count in their cupcakes! From the Larry King Live blog:
LKL Blog: What is the secret of a good cupcake?
Sophie: I think for us it’s the fact that we bake them fresh every day, throughout the day. So when people come in, they’re getting cupcakes literally just out of the oven. The other thing for us is the ingredients.
Katherine: We use premium ingredients. The cocoa that we use in our shop is from France, it’s very good. Varun Vanilla, from Madagascar. Everything is fresh.
Sophie: When you use fresh ingredients and really let your ingredients shine, that makes a huge difference. The other thing is, baking is very precise, it’s all about technique. And we really care about what we do. We pay attention to process and take our time. We bake them in small batches to preserve the taste. We also decorate them so they look special too.
LKL Blog: I’m on a diet, so how many calories are really in your cupcakes?
Katherine: The Washington Post did a caloric analysis of the chocolate gnash cupcake, and it’s 196 calories.
Sophie: That one won best cupcake in Washington D.C. Granted, that one has very little icing, but it’s a good cupcake, and if you’re going to splurge and have a desert, 196 calories isn’t so bad. We don’t have breakdowns on the other flavors, but I would say each one is within about 30% of that. We frost them individually, so they vary, but they’re probably around 250 calories each. But we don’t try to make them huge.
The show has done well in the ratings. From TV by the Numbers:
Debut of TLC’s DC Cupcakes(Fri, July 16, 10 and 10:30 p.m. ET/PT) both delivered 1.1M total viewers (P2+), ranking in the top 10 among all ad-supported cable in W18-34, beating the CW for the hour in all key Women demos: W25-54 (375k), W18-49 (417k), W18-34(249k).
Reviews have been mixed (note: I haven't seen it yet, as I don't have cable). The Washington Post wasn't too enthralled:
"D.C. Cupcakes" has no problem making it all look terribly exhausting, because it is. Decked out in pink aprons (which match the pink boxes in which customers spirit away the precious, precious cupcakes), the sisters direct the chaos at the display cases, where employees deal with the masses, and back in the kitchen, where their irritable head baker, Andres Melendez, tries to keep up with demand. Melendez serves as a sort of masculine counterbalance to the femininity of Georgetown Cupcake, and he is quick to show his displeasure when things get frantic.
Ovens simmer and cocoa powder streaks faces, but "D.C. Cupcakes" is marred by the cardinal sin of reality TV: Its subjects are all too aware of the conventions, pantomiming reality in the service of reality. The sisters and their employees aren't much better at pretending and narrating than those poor dullards seen shopping for real estate on HGTV. Everything they say sounds like the second or third time they've said it, obeying cues from the producers. It would be less boring to just stare at actual cupcakes for a half hour.
Now this is interesting - the calorie count in their cupcakes! From the Larry King Live blog:
LKL Blog: What is the secret of a good cupcake?
Sophie: I think for us it’s the fact that we bake them fresh every day, throughout the day. So when people come in, they’re getting cupcakes literally just out of the oven. The other thing for us is the ingredients.
Katherine: We use premium ingredients. The cocoa that we use in our shop is from France, it’s very good. Varun Vanilla, from Madagascar. Everything is fresh.
Sophie: When you use fresh ingredients and really let your ingredients shine, that makes a huge difference. The other thing is, baking is very precise, it’s all about technique. And we really care about what we do. We pay attention to process and take our time. We bake them in small batches to preserve the taste. We also decorate them so they look special too.
LKL Blog: I’m on a diet, so how many calories are really in your cupcakes?
Katherine: The Washington Post did a caloric analysis of the chocolate gnash cupcake, and it’s 196 calories.
Sophie: That one won best cupcake in Washington D.C. Granted, that one has very little icing, but it’s a good cupcake, and if you’re going to splurge and have a desert, 196 calories isn’t so bad. We don’t have breakdowns on the other flavors, but I would say each one is within about 30% of that. We frost them individually, so they vary, but they’re probably around 250 calories each. But we don’t try to make them huge.
Comments
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/recipes/2008/11/05/chocolate-squared-cupcakes/
the cupcakes are dipped in chocolate ganache, which makes them lower calorie than those with buttercream