Cupcake Smackdown!

Every once in a while, being a food blogger gives me access to some pretty wonderful opportunities that I would not have otherwise had. One of those manifested for me today, when I got to be a judge for Austin's first Cupcake Smackdown! The Smackdown, organized by the tireless Jennie Chen, featured blind taste competitions in storefront, catering, and amateur categories; a "cutest cupcake" contest; and cupcake-eating contests for both humans and dogs.

I got there a little early and got to peek behind the scenes a bit at the veritable hive of cupcake activity. There were more cupcakes than I'd ever seen before in one place. Cupcakes...EVERYWHERE!





Before too long, there were people and dogs everywhere, too. This event got a TON of buzz, and it seemed as if all of Austin came out to join the fun.


Photo by Dawn Mitchell


Vendors were on hand to ensure that nobody went cupcake-less.
Photo by Dawn Mitchell




Soon, the much-anticipated judging began. I was one of five judges sampling cupcakes submitted by caterers. We judged seven cupcakes in each of three different categories - vanilla, chocolate, and baker's choice - for a total of twenty-one cupcakes.


A table full of tastings

I have to admit, the judging was much more difficult than I expected. We rated each cupcake on texture and taste for both cake and frosting separately, then gave a fifth rating for the cupcake overall. For me to judge the cakes that way, that meant I took at least three bites from each of twenty-one cupcakes - usually more, as I often had to go back and re-sample them to better enable me to compare cupcakes to one another. I'm here to tell you, that's a lot of cupcake eatin'...but somehow, somehow, I muddled through.


Yours truly, discussing the finer points of judging
with Kristin Owen from Do512.
Photo by Jack Newton


Marshall Wright of EatThisLens, doing the dirty work.

By the time we were finished, I was, well, finished. Eating cupcakes, that is. I couldn't even think about eating another bite. But I wasn't too spent to wander around and snap some photos of the pretty little things.


These beauts were from Wicked Cakes.


These crazy creations from Cowgirl Cupcakes featured a french toast cupcake with candied bacon on top.
Yes, bacon.


I'm not sure what flavor this one was, but it sure was cute!

I hung around for a while longer and watched half of the cupcake pupcake eating contest for dogs, too. In this portion of the event, the dogs were timed to see how quickly they could eat three cupcakes. Most of the pups took between 40 seconds to two minutes to eat theirs, but this champion scarfed his down in eleven seconds and kept looking for more.


And I thought I was an enthusiastic eater...

What a wonderful way to celebrate these totally tasty treats. Huge kudos to Jennie for pulling off a first class event!

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go slip off into a diabetic coma. Till next year!
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Updated 8/2/09 - For those of you who are eager to taste the best cupcakes in Austin, Jennie's blog has been updated with the list of winners.

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Brazilians Eat Cupcakes...Right?

Yesterday, I attended a really fantastic Brazilian churrasco hosted by my friend Phillip. Phillip's annual meat-shindig is a must-attend; nowhere else are you ever going to find a better piece of beef.

Phillip doling out a portion of the 20 lbs of meat he purchased for the event.

One of the reasons the meat at Phillip's churrascos is so good is that he always uses a lot of picanha, which is a cut of meat not often found in the United States. Phillip procures his beefy goodness at Ana Brasil, which I understand is one of the few places locally where it can be purchased. It's utterly juicy, incredibly tender, ever-so-slightly gamier than most cuts of beef, and just melt-in-your-mouth delicious. Here, see for yourself.


Sorry, vegetarians.

In addition to the meat centerpiece, there are also always lots of other Brazilian treats available at these churrascos. Wonderfully sauteed couve (Brazilian collard greens); gallons of feijão (Brazilian black beans), and delightfully rich brigadeiro. And, of course, no Brazilian party would be complete without lots and lots of caipirinha, a delicious and rather dangerous drink made from a Brazilian alcohol called cachaça.


After a serving of this, you can justify another pound of meat.
And another caipirinha.

As for me, I needed an excuse to use my new cupcake caddy, so I strayed from the theme and brought a version of these cupcakes made with French vanilla cake, chocolate filling, and caramel buttercream icing topped with chocolate chips. When Phillip heard I was bringing cupcakes, he told me he looked them up in his dictionary and the proper word for them was "queques," but despite checking several Portugese-English and Spanish-English dictionaries online, I can't collaborate this. In fact, the only thing I found online that translated "queque" for me was this.

Phillip?



Well, whatever it is that queque actually means, suffice it to say that I like it.

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Easy Chocolate Mint Filled Cupcakes

It's 10 p.m. A tweet comes across your computer with photos of cupcakes your friend just made. A massive craving sets in. What do you do?

You make cupcakes, of course!

But since it's 10 p.m., you need to allow yourself some shortcuts. Or maybe you're just naturally a shortcut kind of gal (or guy). That's cool. Nothing wrong with that at all.

But maybe you also want something that tastes homemade, and maybe kind of non-standard and interesting. Maybe you need these Chocolate Mint Cupcakes.

Oh yes, you do.

* * *

Easy Chocolate Mint Filled Cupcakes

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package chocolate cake mix (I used Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge)
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup Andes mint chips + extras for garnish
• 1 tsp mint extract
• any additional ingredients required to make the cake mix as instructed on the box

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), or to the temperature recommended on the cake mix package.

2. Prepare chocolate cake mix according to package directions, but do not bake.

3. In separate bowl cream together cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and mint extract until well blended, then stir in Andes chips.

4. Line cupcake tins with cupcake papers. Fill 1/4 full with chocolate cake batter. Add 1 Tbsp cream cheese mixture to the center, then top with more cake batter, filling to about 2/3 full.

5. Bake according to package directions for cupcakes. Cool and frost with mint buttercream frosting (recipe below) and sprinkle with Andes bits.

Makes about 2 dozen cupcakes.

* * *

Mint buttercream frosting*

*(you'll need at least double this recipe if you want to pipe the frosting as opposed to spreading it with a knife)

• 1/2 cup butter (no substitutes), softened
• 2+ cups confectioners' sugar (the recipe I used called for 4 cups; I used just over two and I thought it tasted great)
• 1 teaspoon mint extract
• 1/4 cup milk

In a mixing bowl, cream butter. Beat in sugar and mint. Add milk until frosting reaches desired consistency (I only ended up using about 1/8 cup of milk in mine).



Not too sweet, and delightfully refreshing out of the refrigerator on a hot summer day.

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