Link: Cupcake Taste-Off On Kitchen Scribble

Cupcakes go head-to-head on the Kitchen Scribble blog where kat and friends tasted the established Oh What A Cake! against the new Linda's Bakery.  Bottom line: They liked them both Columbia bakeries, but they had definite opinions about cake, frosting and decorations.

Oh, What A Cake Of Cupcakes! HowChow Uses Child Labor To Taste Test Local Desserts

We're not cake people at Casa de HowChow, going more for pies and cookies, rice pudding or gelato.  To test the local bakeries, we needed to hire experts.  Luckily, RDAdoc brought in a team of tasters, and they're so young that they work for cheap.  Her first test -- Oh What a Cake! in Columbia:

A couple months ago I was at a fourth birthday party and saw the coolest cake
from Oh What a Cake!  It was a cake made up entirely of cupcakes. I thought this idea was brilliant and knew I would order my son’s cake from there this year! 

My three-year-old son loves cake, but he always gets frustrated when he tries to pick up the piece with his hands and it falls apart. There is usually crying involved, and it’s a sad situation to watch. At his 2nd birthday party, the big cake crisis came when someone took the cake away to slice it, and he didn’t understand that he was going to get a piece.  For this year's party, I didn’t want any cake drama! 

Oh, What A Cake in Columbia

The best part about profiling one bakery is that other people write to alert me about more.

Oh, What A Cake! is an established wedding and fancy cake shop on Dobbin Road in Columbia that I discovered last month after an email to HowChow. I have run errands on Dobbin for almost four years, and I had no idea that I was just blocks away from a cupcake treat on every trip.

You should check out Oh, What A Cake! even if you just grab a red velvet cupcake, as I have done now twice in the past week. I actually bought trays of cupcakes both times -- once for dinner at my house and once to carry to a friend's. They sell small cakes that go for 80 cents or $1 and larger ones with fillings for about $2.50. They're all delicious, and the selection makes them a hit with a crowd. Vanilla cake with basic frosting for the kids. Almond, lemon, red velvet and other flashy flavors for the adults. Definitely try the cream cheese frosting, which has the thick but not-too-sweet flavor that I like best.

Although the cupcakes and the cookies are great to grab, the real business at Oh, What a Cake! is wedding creations along with sheet cakes and pound cakes. This is custom work. You appear to be able to get anything you want. There are books of photos for inspiration, and you can see into the bakery's back room where the real work is done.

In the end, Oh, What A Cake is all about that pastry work. The shopping center sits on a commercial strip of Dobbin that connects McGaw Road to Oakland Mills Parkway. Not exactly a commuter route, but then Howard County's other best bakeries -- like Bonaparte Bread and Touche Touchet -- aren't placed for drive-by business either. Those places serve coffee and a broader menu, with some tables to sit. Oh, What A Cake is just takeout. Cupcakes in the car, I'm pleased to report, are oh, so delicious.

Click here for my prior post about bakeries in Howard County, which I need to update to include Oh, What A Cake!

(Update: In a comment below, the Baltimore Beer Guy points out that Oh, What A Cake is just down Dobbin Road from Frisco Grille & Cantina. A cupcake, and a stellar beer! What could be finer?)

Oh, What A Cake!
6656 Dobbin Rd # K
Columbia, MD 21045-5841
(301) 931-2253‎

NEAR: This is on Dobbin Road between Oakland Mills Parkway and McGaw Road. So it's very convenient from Rte 175 (heading south on Dobbin) or from Snowden River Parkway (going west on Oakland Mills or McGaw). This is a few blocks away from Lily's Mexican Market on Dobbin or from Bon Fresco on Oakland Mills.