30 Dec 2011

Crunk on in the New Year

All hail, the District of Crunk! Photo by María Helena Carey

Faith and Raychel — that’s the Crunkcakes girls to you — are first and foremost, a riot to hang out with. I tagged along with them during the November H Street Bakes at H Street Country Club and it was fun just to watch them talk, joke, and bicker like a twentysomething pair of BFFs. Faith, whose day jobs include Dangerously Delicious Pies and Rock & Roll Hotel, is the baking genius behind treats such as the Fat Elvis (mm, peanut butter and rum), the Redheaded Slut (Jägermeister in your cake, anyone?), the Irish Car Bomb (the original Crunkcake) and my absolute, all-time favorite, the amazingly authentic Tres Leches cake they’ve cheekily dubbed the Dirty Pillows (Faith learned to make it in Nicaragua, where she spent a good chunk of her childhood). The girls got started back in 2009 soon after they met while working at Rock & Roll Hotel. The first batch — a round of Irish Car Bombs — was baked for a holiday party. The naughty-and-nice treats were a hit, and soon the girls were selling them at many bars around H Street: selling them at places with a liquor license is kind of a must, as the little treats’ cups runneth over, each soaking in at least one shot within their well-baked trusses.

Make no mistake: these are some cool DC chicks. Both call the DC area their home, even though Faith grew up in many different places because her dad worked for USAID. She’s so DC she even has a DC flag tattooed on her wrist.

While I’m chatting with the girls about their lives (they lead some very rock-and-roll lifestyles and don’t get nearly enough sleep); their backgrounds (Raychel is part-Colombian, Faith loves DC but has an expatriate state of mind); whether or not people are always suggesting new cake names and concoctions (all the time, and I am no exception); and about their business hopes (which include a plan that’s now taking shape more resolutely via a site called Popularise), a couple of exceedingly preppy girls walk up to the table. They look like they’ve been shaken loose off the pages of a Brooks Brothers catalogue and eye the cupcakes with a mixture of awe and hesitation. One of them points to a fluffy, buttercream-topped concoction with a spoon sticking out of it.

“What’s this one?” she asks mildly.

“That’s the ‘Dirty Pillows’,” says Faith, matter-of-factly.

Eyes pop out. Gasps! A fit of the giggles ensue.

The girls flirt with the cupcakes a while longer but eventually they leave empty-handed. Later, a person who can only be described as a little old lady walks out with a Buttery Nipple, a huge grin on her face. Who says booze can’t be wholesome fun?

If you want to support the Crunkcakes girls with their mission of getting a mortar-and-bricks store at 1351 H Street NE, next door to Rock and Roll hotel, click on their Popularise page.

If you want to learn more about them, know where they’ll be selling next, or stalk them in any other way, you can visit their Facebook, Twitter, or their actual website.

Crunk on!

Tags: , , , ,


What's trending

Comments are closed.

Social Media Auto Publish Powered By : XYZScripts.com
Add to Flipboard Magazine.