The win meant a lot to me because raspberry happens to be my favorite fruit, and the cupcake I made is my personal favorite cake/buttercream/filling combination. Okay, my favorite homemade cake.. I still love funfetti just as much :)
It's no secret that my favorite thing is chocolate and raspberry. I don't know when I discovered this, but I do know I fell in love with Brad our first Valentine's day together when he presented me with an entire pound of See's chocolate raspberry truffles and buttercreams. I ate the entire thing on my own. Suddenly I knew what people meant.. love hurts.
The cake I used for this challenge is a modified chocolate cake recipe I found deep in the interwebs, perfected after several fails in California, and one in the land of enchantment (high altitude). Willful, please do email me for what I believe is the final edition of that chocolate cake. The buttercream is your basic swiss meringue with my own special method of adding raspberry. First I need to add that, yes, swiss meringue is wonderful, but no, it's not always the best choice or more sophisticated. I find it to be a great topping for certain cupcakes but definitely not all. This cupcake, however, cries for it. I think the raspberry takes to it so well because the lack of sweetness in the buttercream allows that special tang we all know and love about raspberries to really shine through. The final component I used was a raspberry filling. The raspberry filling I use is just plain amazing, in my biased opinion. It's basic as can be, but also my secret weapon so I cannot share the recipe, just know it is the punchiest of all punches and will knock you out. Willful probably has the recipe though.. roomies share everything! Except lime green holey tongas...
Anyway, I never attempted this combo in a cupcake before, only in cakes. I tested out my plan on Deema's birthday and it came out so well, I decided not to change anything for Iron Cupcake. I think what really helped was my executive decision to use the raspberry filling in a way most people don't in this competition. Instead of coring out the already miniature cupcake and filling it, I skipped that. Why? Because these cupcakes are shared between four people (blasphemy!) and reducing the amount of cake by that much can really put you in a bad situation when it comes judging time. A lot of judges focus on the cake flavor and if it's not there.. good luck. So instead, I made a dam of buttercream around the edge of the cupcake and filled it with a pool of raspberry filling, then piped more buttercream on top to cover the pool. I toped each one with 1/2 of a raspberry and piped a little green leaf next to it.
At Leland, JoAnna and I had to come up with a name for my little squirts, and it was not easy.
Me: I wanted to name them "Devil's Lady" but they're too cute for that
JoAnna: Yeah they're so tea-cakey
Me: Yeah, I was thinking, "summer at grandma's"
JoAnna: that sounds like torture
Me: HAHA. Okay, "if the devil had a baby..."
JoAnna: What's your obsession with the devil!?! oh, god.. because it's devil's food..
Me: (defeated) oh.. yeah (hysterically laughing) that's embarrassing!
JoAnna: Tea with the Queen?
Me: What does that have to do with berries?
JoAnna: Oh! Queen of Hearts, because the middle is raspberry!
Me: Done.
There were 15 contestants and only a couple of stand outs. I liked one that was peanut butter and jelly; even though the use of berries was questionable, it was still pretty good. I also really liked a strawberry margarita cupcake that was super cute with big sugar crystals sprinkled on top to look like salt. Two people made mini cheesecakes, which I didn't really understand because I was under the impression we were making cupcakes. They were both delicious, but also a stretch. My friends and I joked that for the next competition (alcohol), whoever it is that likes to push the envelope would probably make a jello shot. HA!
Winner announcements came and 3rd place went to a cheesecake maker, second place & most creative to the fabooo strawberry margarita, and first place to me! The announcer got my first name out and suddenly I felt a breeze as loud guttural screams were flying in my direction from the mouths of Brooke, Nicole, and JoAnna. I was in such shock I didn't know what to do.. so I made my way up to the front and accepted my prize shyly. Amid the claps and continued screaming from my fan club, I heard a booming voice yell, "WHICH CUPCAKE!!!!!! WHICH CUPCAAAAAKKE!!" and I said, "#1, #1... number ONE!" As loud as I could, which apparently didn't translate well. It must have appeared I was cheering myself on, when I was really just shouting the actual number of my cupcake, which was the first of fifteen contestants. I get a good chuckle thinking about this. I'm the last person on the planet to toot my own horn, although I think I'm beginning to get a bit better at it in my old age ;)
So there you have it! I WON! So crazy!
Thanks for reading!!!!
Raspberry Pools:
Crazy Piper:
Queens of my Heart!
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You rock!!!!!! Congratulations on winning 1st place! Number one all the way!
ReplyDeleteI do know the secret of the filling . . . the ingredients anyway. As I recall though, I messed up the proportions when I tried to make it and it turned into raspberry soup! I definitely need that cupcake recipe. I'll make giant sinkhole cupcakes and fill them with the raspberry soup!