The Midas Touch cupcake, a toffee-pear cake with 12 year rum and almond creme, and the Headless Horseman, a pumpkin-walnut cupcake with Blanton’s Bourbon and cream-cheese frosting. Photograph by Anna Spiegel
Washington is saturated with cupcake shops, but PS 7’s bartender Gina Chersevani and pastry chef Lauren Whitledge have managed to make a worthy contribution: alcohol-packed sweets they call “cuptails.”
The bite-size treats look innocent enough, but Chersevani says that the flavors are packed with one and a half ounces of alcohol; eat two and it’ll have the same impact as sipping a standard vodka martini. Fall and winter flavors include the Headless Horseman, a pumpkin-spice cake dipped in Blanton’s bourbon; the Midas Touch, made with fresh pears, Amaretto cream, and a soak in El Dorado 12-year rum; and the Pilgrim’s Pride, a hazelnut-brown-butter cake doused with Wild Turkey and topped with Frangelico-spiked whipped cream. Chersevani dips each confection individually before serving, so they don’t get gooey.
The cuptails are available in the lounge and main dining room, though it’s tempting to take a dozen home for a round of D.C. Cupcakes: the Drinking Game.
Monthly Cuptails Menu
October
Headless Horseman
Pumpkin-walnut cake, Blanton’s bourbon, spiced cream-cheese frosting
November
Pilgrim’s Pride
Hazelnut/brown-butter cake, Wild Turkey rye, Frangelico whipped cream
December
CandyKANE
Chocolate-fudge cake, peppermint schnappes, candy-cane frosting
Rotating Flavors Throughout Fall and Winter
Newton’s Nip
Apple-spice cake, Auchentoshan 3 Wood scotch, Calvados whipped cream
Midas Touch
Toffee-pear cake, El Dorado 12 year rum, almond creme
Coconut Pie
Coconut cake, Bluecoat gin, meringue-marshmallow creme
Upside Down
Pineapple cake, Zacapa 23 year rum, coconut-rum creme
Rum Toddy
Pecan cake, Brugal Anejo, rum-cinnamon cream-cheese frosting
Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
