CakeDreams Takes the Win on Cupcake Wars

Business is booming at Rockville’s own since they defeated three other teams to capture first place on the Food Network’s Cupcake Wars.  “Before the show, we were definitely busy,” said Jane-Marie Kane, assistant pastry chef. “Since then, we’ve literally been crazy!”

Crazy in a good way, judging by the reaction of the customers following them on Facebook and Twitter, not to mention those who come from near and far to make their way in and out of the small storefront on West Montgomery Avenue.

“It’s our first time,” said customer Courtney Thomas, as she opened the box and took a small bite of her cupcake. “There’s so much frosting! They’re delicious!” 

“We saw them on TV,” her friend, Anna Barnes, added. “They looked quite lovely.”

Lovely indeed. The display case was filled with an array of cupcakes:  chocolate raspberry, vanilla lemon, chocolate chocolate, chocolate caramel. Each one looked as good as the next.

“We have a very unique product,” said Kane. “We’re not like most other cake or cupcake places. We use a European style buttercream, which is very different than the American style that many cupcakes and even cake places use. It’s a lot lighter and fluffier, it doesn’t have the graininess, and it’s not sweet so you can actually taste the flavor.

CakeDreams participated in Cupcake Wars so they could get their name known. “We decided to try to apply so we went online to see what we had to do,” said Kane. “We made an audition video answering some of the questions they asked. We didn’t get on season two but we did get on season three - with a different video.”

As winners of their cupcake war, CakeDreams attended the ESPY (Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly) awards, presented by ESPN  in recognition of sports-related performance during the year.  CakeDreams won the war because of their cupcakes as well as the appearance of the stand they designed to hold the 1,000 cupcakes needed to clinch the win.

“It was a lot of fun (at ESPY),” said Kane. “It’s not something that everybody gets to do and the fact that we got to do it because we are good at something made it even better.”

What’s next for CakeDreams? “Our plan for right now is to maintain quality control and invent some new stuff, “ said Kane. “We also want to try to compete again on Cupcake Wars.”