Back to the Cupcakes. Well you girls certainly didn't make this easy on me! It was REALLY hard because both cupcakes were amazing! First of all I am in total awe and cannot believe you two BOTH came up with a perfectly delicious way to put BEETS, of all things, into a cupcake on your OWN!!! It was really hard. I had to recruit a fellow taste-tester (THANK YOU CAMI!!!) to sample the beety bits! We had a delicious time tasting, sampling, and tasting a little more while we discussed in depth cupcake moistness, density, flavor, complexity/ease of replicating, creativity, look, etc. and trying to decide WHICH of these aspects were most important and worthy of the win. Because I'm telling you each had their own winning points in different areas, and how do you decide what is most important in a cupcake competition? Taste, creativity, originality? And it was HARD! The worst part about it all is that I finally decided on a favorite cupcake, but the other had my favorite frosting! SO HARD!!! I'm not sure I'm cut out to judge such close competitions! Did I mention it was SO HARD?
(also, please don't judge the frosting skill, or lack there of, Cami did pretty well, but I did not do so well later on!)
Charlie certainly enjoyed them! She helped me make both the cupcakes (which is partially why it became an endeavor that took half the day. She loved the pouring and mixing, but best of all the sampling. When I wasn't looking she lined up several cupcakes and took one bite out of each! Sneaky girl! Maybe she will become a professional food critic one day? :O) So although there is a technical first place, and let me tell you it was by a hair. Both cupcakes were absolutely amazing and winners in their own way, and I'm not just saying that to be nice. I brought the cupcakes today with me to our church Super Saturday and let everyone have at them. Everyone loved both kinds and my opinions were echoed exactly over and over. Now I will announce the winner and after that explain what all went in to my decision and some of the challenges I faced in the making and judging of the cupcakes, and then you might understand what I mean by close. Because of just how close a competition this was I am also doing a second place prize of a $5 gift card to somewhere of your choice.
So the winner is....
*COMMERCIAL BREAK*
(in appropriate Food Network fasion)
Just kidding! I won't make you wait any longer!
The WINNER is...
Megan's Chocolate Beet Cupcakes
BUT...
Try as I may, and after 3 different grocery stores I could not find the Ghirardelli cocoa powder highly suggested by Cari and had to settle for the natural Nestle cocoa powder. I don't know to what degree that influenced the flavor of her cupcakes. So all that being said, I congratulate Megan, but I also want to apologize and let Cari know I recognize that I wasn't able to perfectly replicate your recipe so I will be sending you a prize as well!
CONGRATULATIONS!!! AND THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING!!!
OH! And I think I would LOVE to WATCH both of you on the real cupcake wars one day!
So, if you want to know just how much of a nerd I am you can see my spreadsheet on my judging criteria. I took this judging very seriously I would have you know! :O)
Just kidding! I won't make you wait any longer!
The WINNER is...
Megan's Chocolate Beet Cupcakes
BUT...
Try as I may, and after 3 different grocery stores I could not find the Ghirardelli cocoa powder highly suggested by Cari and had to settle for the natural Nestle cocoa powder. I don't know to what degree that influenced the flavor of her cupcakes. So all that being said, I congratulate Megan, but I also want to apologize and let Cari know I recognize that I wasn't able to perfectly replicate your recipe so I will be sending you a prize as well!
CONGRATULATIONS!!! AND THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING!!!
OH! And I think I would LOVE to WATCH both of you on the real cupcake wars one day!
So, if you want to know just how much of a nerd I am you can see my spreadsheet on my judging criteria. I took this judging very seriously I would have you know! :O)
Megan | Cari | ||
Cupcake Flavor | X | It was tough and very close, but The chocolate beet had the best flavor of the two. | |
Frosting Flavor | X | Who knew just 1 Tbs of sweetened condensed milk could work such magic! | |
Moistness | X | Nicely moist without falling apart or tasting undercooked | |
Texture | X | Good balance of density | |
Complexity | X | Very involved and many steps and ingredients, but totally from scratch | |
Creativity | X | The idea of an all natural red velvet cupcake is definitely the winner here. | |
Ease of Replicating/Likely to make again | X | Was able to recreate start to finish within 30-40 minutes | |
Appearance | X | Grab'N'Go - at a glance most likely to see and pick up to try first | |
Picture Included | X | X | I LOVE IT!!! |
Use of the Beet | X | Ingenious use of the beet trying to use as the food coloring |
6 comments:
So, my crazy husband and I are contemplating opening a bakery here in Caldwell, ID. And would love some new cupcake recipes to try. If you ever get a chance to post both of these recipes (frosting as well) that would be so awesome! If you've already posted it somewhere on your blog let me know, I may have missed it. I love these challenges you do, so fun! Maybe when my life slows down a bit I'll have time to participate again :-)
I LOVED the chocolate beet cupcake, frosting too! I didn't taste the red velvet so I can't compare them but the chocolate was amazing!! I'd love to get your dad's beet recipe! Have a fabulous trip, Tina! We'll miss you guys!!
I totally understand that mine had a lot of steps and would not be anyone's first choice to replicate. I don't know what the nestle natural cocoa powder would have done but i'm sure it did affect the flavor. Its a work in progress. I just made them today for a get together with friends and with some modifications it was 100 times more moist and the red came out better.
Hooray! I'm so excited! Now I'm going to have to try adding some sweetened condensed milk to my frosting. And FYI, you can use any pureed fruit or veggie in a cake recipe--just replace some or all of the liquid called for. The possibilities are endless :) Thanks Tina!
Look at what you inspired Tina! I'm impressed! I have to say my favorite part was the commercial break- that was definitely in the style of Food Network :)
This was a neat idea! I love your writing style too, you are so cute! Emma loves cupcake wars. I'll have to let her read this. Maybe Emma and I can do your next challenge together. We've gotten hooked on the food network!
And... we would love the recipes too! :)
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