Cupcake Challenge

What a fun weekend I had! This past Saturday, I competed in a "Cupcake Challenge" as part of the National Capital Area Cake Show. The challenge featured 50 bakers (both professional and amtuer) and almost 200 different varieties of cupcakes.

The theme for this year's challenge was "cocktail" inspired cupcakes. Here is what I made:

Grasshopper Cupcake (rich chocolate cake with creme de menthe buttercream)

Blue Hawaiian Cupcake (coconut cake with a rum buttercream frosting, graham cracker "sand" and a fondant flip flop garnish)

Shirley Temple Cupcake (lemon-lime cake with a cherry grenadine buttercream)

I'm glad I took some pictures at home before the show b/c we were so busy and didn't get to take many while there.

My neighbor, Polly, also competed in the challenge. Polly and I both love to bake and since we often get requests for baked goods we've decided to join forces and start a home baking business. This is our website, Sugar Lane Sweets*.

These were Polly's cupcakes:

Orange Blossom Cupcake (my favorite...loved these!)

Irish Cream Cupcake

Chocolate Cherry Cordial Cupcake


This event was sold out about a week before the show. When the doors opened at 7PM hundreds of people filed in to purchase cupcakes. It was crazy, busy, overwhelming and a lot of fun!



Polly working her table.


I didn't get a chance to snap any pictures of my set-up before the show. I took this picture half-way through the event. By this point, my grasshopper cupcakes were almost gone and 15 minutes later my Shirley Temple cupcakes were also sold out.

Some people had some pretty neat displays.


And there were a lot of creative and amazing cupcakes.


The Washington DC area loves cupcakes!


Look at these cute "Tartini" cupcakes.


Another great display.



* Polly's husband, CJ, built our site. If you would like to contact him about any website work, feel free to send me (mbrandao0508@gmail.com) and I will forward his info.