Iron Cupcake: Chocolate

This past Monday was the Iron Cupcake SF Challenge.. theme: chocolate. As I mentioned before, I was a little nervous because this would be my first challenge as a baker and I wasn't sure how to stand out with such a common ingredient. People literally put chocolate with anything, but I thought I could count on a few standards showing up at the challenge: chocolate w/ raspberry, chocolate explosions (just every kind of chocolate packed into one cupcake) and chocolate with caramel. Which is why I felt like I was very clever when I came up with the idea to do a Chocolate Malt cupcake, fashioned after a chocolate malt milkshake. As it turned out, I was the only one with chocolate and malt, but literally there was nobody with a berry flavor, and very few, if any, with caramel. There was just a lot of choco choco choco cupcakes and some random combinations like chocolate w/ marzipan and one person even did red velvet.
Back to my idea.. I tested it once before executing the final and was disappointed with the lack of malt flavor. It wasn't showing up anywhere in the cake, and the frosting had only the slightest hint. As luck would have it, a Cook's Illustrated mag showed up at my house with a recipe for "the best chocolate cupcake" and accompanying frosting. The frosting had a few varieties.. and one of them was malt! I didn't have time to test again before the challenge (wedding cake excitement) but decided to go with their recipe, which was essentially a swiss meringue buttercream with malt added at the end. Honestly I would have come up with this myself because I love swiss meringue, so it was a little annoying CI stole my thunder.
Everything went as planned. The cake came out perfect, the frosting came out as good as can be with a stronger malt flavor (but still not very punchy), and I even located a stabilized whip cream recipe in a new cake book I purchased but hadn't expected would be delivered before the competition. I topped the cupcakes with half a maraschino cherry to finish off the milkshake theme. They came out really nice!!:
I knew they were good but had hesitations about them standing out at the actual competition. Would people buy the milkshake theme?? So I decided to name them "My Milkshake Brings all the Boys to the Yard" and printed out a picture of Kelis sitting in a milkshake cup. It was super cute.
I ended up getting to the competition later than I wanted, and my cupcake ended up being second to last in order (14/15). I wasn't too worried because the last time, I tasted in reverse order because it was easier to cut the tiny cupcakes on the tray that way. Although after making some keen observations I noticed I was one of the few people who actually do that :D I heard people making comments about the display and idea and they all seemed positive, so that helped me feel more secure in my position.
As tasting began... and brace yourselves here because I'm going to get catty... I knew I had a real chance at placing. There were a lot of chocolate DISASTERS. I won't point fingers. I easily picked out my top competition and a few others I could have lost to depending on what other people like most about chocolate (things like sweetness and texture). As usual, tallying took eons, so my friends left for dinner wishing me luck, and I nervously waited outside with Jodie Froster and her fan club. Finally the moment came.. the announcer read in a super slow and slightly stage-frighty voice, "number 14....." then Jodie shouted excitedly, "THAT'S YOU!!!!" and the announcer finally said, "Colleen.." I was in total shock and only managed to give my best, "heuurrrrhh?" as I walked to the "stage." I was so so in shock I didn't know how to act.. how do Oscar winners accept awards with such grace!? Here I am winning 3rd place and acting like Girl, Interrupted!! What's wrong with me! Of course it didn't help that by this time, the majority of my fans had left, so it was just me and a bunch of strangers taking my photo!! Ha! When I got over my stage fright, I felt like some kind of d-list celebrity!! And I say that in the absolute BEST way possible! I still don't believe I won! Here is my prize package:

I'm also happy about who placed ahead of me. 2nd place went to a boston cream pie type creation that was super delicious and labor intensive, and 1st place went to a woman who made her own chocolate liners/molds and placed a super chocolatey cupcake inside. Actually, it was more like a brownie but I guess that didn't bother anybody! She really put a lot of work into it.
I learned a lot from this experience and cannot wait to do it again! I'm hesitant on the next ingredient, which is herbs, but I might have a few ideas I'm running through in my head :)
For now, I'm very much enjoying being an award wiener!! Yay me!! This has been an awesome baking week :) :) :)