Renaissance Hotel's Maple and Bacon Cupcake
Bacon on a cupcake. Bacon in a cupcake. Bacon was definitely a recurring theme at this year’s Los Angeles Cupcake Challenge. It’s an interesting combination, but I’ve decided that I like to keep my bacon separate from my cupcakes.
The mission of the challenge is to find the best cupcake in LA. Not too long into the event, I realized that there was a second, more important challenge for me and all the other attendees: sample 40 mini cupcakes.
40 mini cupcakes? Why, surely that can’t be too difficult. They look so small. But let me tell you, everyone in that room left with at least one box full of cupcakes that they just couldn’t eat (myself included). Want to see some of my favorite cupcakes?
Cupcakes Couture set up a beautiful display for their unique cupcakes. Strawberry Shortcake and Sunday Mimosa Cupcakes. How divine!
Two Parts Sugar was one part naughty and one part nice. I’ll take one of each, please!
Ugh, this one is so blurry. But hey, it's hard to shoot photos in front of an angry cupcake mob pushing their way towards the chocolate strawberry cupcakes!
Charmed Cupcakes brought a little Mardi Gras flavor to the party. Street lamps, masks, feathers, and all!
Their blueberry cupcakes are delicious! I love the musical note decoration on top.
Blueberry Cupcake from Charmed Cupcakes
Hansen’s Cakes makes a delicious wedding cupcake. They are super sweet and have a beautiful light texture. I do know this: if I ever get married, I want my wedding to taste like this!
Wedding Cupcakes from Hansen's Cakes
Urban Sweets Bakery presented some amazing spiced apple cupcakes! I just can’t resist apple cupcakes.
Spiced Apple Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Frosting from Urban Sweets Bakery
The voting was divided into two categories: “Best Traditional” and “Best Original”. The bakeries went to great lengths to come up with some original flavor combinations. Layers Cupcakes presented a selection of tea-infused cupcakes. I’m pretty sure that makes them healthier.
Back: Chocolate Coconut, Fall Spice from Layers Cupcakes. Front: Red Velvet from Southern Girl Desserts, Breakfast Cupcake from My Delight Cupcakery.
When you taste this many cupcakes within a few hours, it’s pretty obvious which ones outrank the others. In order to get through all 40, I had to limit myself to one bite from each cupcake. This rule was broken for a few of my favorite cupcakes, though. And which ones were my favorites? First, the contenders:
Click to Enlarge
I think that Big Man Bakes knew I was coming. He prepared red velvet and carrot cupcakes. Two of my favorite flavors. Out of all the red velvet cupcakes at the challenge, his were the best. They were not too sweet, and had a beautiful deep red color. I don’t like my red velvet cupcakes to be “radioactive” red as a result of too much artificial color.
Red Velvet and Carrot Cupcakes from Big Man Bakes
Big Man’s bakery is very appropriately named. He’s a big guy with an extraordinary talent for baking! I voted for his red velvet cupcake for Best Traditional.
My vote for Best Original went to Fairy Cakes Bakery for their Pumpkin White Chocolate cupcake. The perfect amount of spice with a touch of white chocolate. Yum!
Pumpkin White Chocolate Cupcakes from Fairy Cakes Bakery
I love that Fairy Cakes Bakery uses real ingredients, and no shortening. This is my personal baking philosophy as well. I have a huge amount of respect for any bakery that takes the time to use real ingredients, and it definitely produces a superior cupcake.
Kerena Mendez, Fairy Cakes Bakery
The results are in! And the winners are:
Best Traditional:
1st Place – Red Velvet, by Big Man Bakes
2nd Place – Sweet and Salty Vanilla, by Blue Cupcake
3rd Place – Red Velvet, by Southern Girl Desserts
Best Original:
1st Place – Breakfast Cake, by My Delight Cupcakery
2nd Place – Caramel Banana, by Jus Minis
3rd Place – Chocolate Covered Strawberry, by Two Parts Sugar
Best Overall:
1st Place – Caramel Banana, by Jus Minis
2nd Place – Breakfast Cake, by My Delight Cupcakery
3rd Place – Chocolate Covered Strawberry, by Two Parts Sugar
I attended this event as part of the Foodbuzz Foodie Correspondent Program. Thank you to Foodbuzz and Drink:Eat:Play for sponsoring me!
So, do you think you could polish off all of these cupcakes within 3 hours?
I’m not sure I’d finish, but I sure would like to give it a try and help you polish off those cupcakes….
Thank you so much for your kind words! So glad you liked our Pumpkin White Chocolate cupcakes.
Wow, so many awesome cupcakes here! I would love to try one of each please
I did finish all 40 cupcakes while I was there (though I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t difficult). I voted for the same two cupcakes, with Fairy Cakes taking best overall. I’m glad to hear my tastes were matched by a fellow foodie!!
Love the feedback!!
Belinda and 5 Star Foodie – I wish I could have sent you some cupcakes! I definitely had enough to go around.
Fairy Cakes Bakery – Thanks for bringing the cupcakes!
Rob – I am impressed that you ate them all! I finished them off the next day, with a little help. Glad to hear that we agree on the best cupcakes!
Urban Sweets – Thank you for the cupcakes!
Fairy Cakes pumpkin cupcake was also in my top three favorites. Big Man Bakes cupcakes were so moist…I loved them! Glad you had a fun time at the event too!
Bacon…hmmm sounds like something I need to try! I bet that was a delicious experience.
OMG! You got to taste 40 different cupcakes!! yum!! I’m jealous – I want some cupcakes now
Great recap! Big Man Bakes and Southern Girl Red Velvet were two of the best red velvet cupcakes I’ve ever had! I also really really liked the wedding cake cupcakes. So light and spongy, almost like angel food cake cupcakes! :p
Bacon sounded like a good idea to me. The problem is that bacon needs to be crispy and crunchy and when you put it on/in frosting it soaks up moisture and becomes soggy, chewy and soft. Didn’t work for me…
That’s definitely the problem! Soggy bacon just doesn’t work for me, either.
Why was bacon such a recurring theme? What a fun event to attend! Were all these cupcakeries located in Los Angeles? Great post and photos!
Thank you! It was so much fun! All of the cupcakeries were from the Los Angeles area and Orange County. It sounds like bacon is the hottest new cupcake ingredient, but I’m not a huge fan!
What a great event! I would love to try to eat 40 cupcakes
Thanks so much for sharing the results with us! I can’t believe how many cupcakes you all had to eat! I LURVE cupcakes, but am sure I would have had some difficulty as well, even though alllll of these cupcakes look so delicious! So good! And your photos look fantastic, even considering that there was a mob of crazed cupcake addicts in the room!
i felt so sick after eating all of those cupcakes! These were some of my favorites http://uncouthgourmands.com/2010/02/25/cupcake-challenge-who-took-the-cupcake/