My first baking competition... EVER! :)
The 2011 Cupcake Battle was hosted by Castle of Cakes (owner, Sonya Washington). There were 3 rounds stretched over 2 days. Round 1 was TASTE. Round 2 was DECORATING/DISPLAY. Round 3 was a live battle using mystery decorating supplies to decorate 12 cupcakes in 30 minutes.
Round 1 and 2 were held on the first day at the Castle of Cakes bakery in Henderson, NV. We had to bake and decorate our cupcakes in their commercial kitchen. It was me and 1 other competitor (a team of 2 girls from Sweetspot Cupcakery).
My cupcake was a strawberry lemonade cupcake: a made-from-scratch lemon buttermilk cupcake, filled and topped with a made-from-scratch strawberry cream cheese icing, topped with a fresh strawberry slice.
Their cupcake was a raspberry pink lemonade cupcake: raspberry liquer and lemon "infused" cupcake with a raspberry liquer "infused" buttercream, topped with a raspberry and a lemon slice.
My cupcakes were FULL SIZE. Their's were mini-cupcakes (which I didn't know was allowed). 4 judges tasted and critiqued our cupcakes. After the tasting round, we had to decorate and display 2 dozen of the same cupcakes from round 1. What i didn't know was that round 2 allowed for different decorations on the cupcakes. So my cupcakes and display were very simple: a strawberry lemonade stand with my cupcakes displayed on it with little straws in each cupcake. My competition did a whole birthday party theme and put lots of little details on each cupcake: Bugles snacks as party hats, jolly rancher chews as presents, gumballs as balloons, and marshmallow ropes with red and yellow starburst "flames" for candles that were all displayed on wrapped birthday gifts.
On day 2, the winners for "Best Tasting Cupcake" and "Best Decorated Cupcake" were presented. I won for "Best Tasting Cupcake" and they won for "Best Decorated Cupcake".
Then it was Round 3 - the battle round - live in front of an audience. The battle started over an hour late because the host of the competition forgot to bring frosting for us to use. Someone had to run to the store to buy it. Each of us were given a mystery box to use for the battle round. Inside the box was 12 cupcakes, a jar of white frosting, a bag of pretzels, a bag of green jelly beans, 2 bags of different sprinkles, powdered sugar, a handful of starbursts, water, a tiny piece of fondant, and some piping bags and decorating tips. We had 30 minutes to decorate the 12 cupcakes using the mystery items. My competition made all her cupcakes the same, creating little faces (see bottom pic). I made mine all different. I made 2 different faces, 3 different flowers, a crown, and a few other random designs. (see 2nd to last pic). The winner of the battle round was determined by a show of hands in the audience. By the time that it came to voting, most people had left. She won but most of the audience was her family.
Overall, it was a good experience. It was my first time ever being IN and BAKING IN a commercial kitchen, first time using a stand mixer (I have a hand mixer at home), and my first time competing with my baking. I will be doing more of these. :)
