Iron Cupcake.. passing the torch

Ha just reading the blog title makes me laugh. It is mostly a joke. Mostly. ;)

I went to Iron Cupcake this past week after failing to place the month before. Last month, the theme was breakfast, and I did a coffee and donuts cupcake. It was a vanilla cake dipped in butter, then cinnamon sugar, topped with a coffee buttercream and an all cake "donut" dipped in chocolate glaze with pretty colored sprinkles on top (not a real donut.. this is a cupcake competition, after all). I was one of 5 people with the EXACT SAME IDEA. Hahaha. I had no chance, though I firmly believe mine tasted the best out of the five (it certainly didn't look the best though). I was kind of sad but surprised at how much I didn't care and how fun it was to just hang out and try cupcakes. A lot of them were god awful, and I'm not naming any names.. except to say a couple of those awfuls won. I think they had fan clubs in tow.

My Grapefruit Lemon Cupcakes

So this month was the citrus challenge and I was just excited to go and kick back again. I made a grapefruit cupcake with lemon curd filling, grapefruit frosting, rimmed with coconut and topped with alternating pink and yellow giant sprinkles. The cake wasn't very grapefruity but it did taste citrusy. The rest was bomb, but I had a feeling it wasn't quite stand-out enough for Iron Cupcake. Those hipsters want off the wall flavors (think vanilla-bacon cake with tangerine frosting and jalapeno jelly filling). I can't go for that. No can do.

I really like this new top, and I look skinny with all those cupcakes, bonus.

At the competition, there was one clear winner in my mind, and she happened to be sitting at our table. She made a key lime pie cupcake that was just fantastic, complete with a graham cracker crust. And it was actually a cupcake version of key lime pie, no cheating at all. It was her first time baking in the competition and she did an amazing job. I liked it so much I voted for her, which I never do. Ha! Mom even voted for her and kept saying she was going to win 1st (gee, thanks mom! ;) )Winner announcement time came around and I fully expected not to place, but I did! 2nd! And Ms. Key Lime Pie took first, which was so well deserved and adorable. She wasn't a smug brat like I was when I won! :D tee hee.

Mine is top left. #1 Key Lime Pie is center row far right.. you can NEVER guess the winners just by looking at them:

Next month the theme is movies, and so far my favorite Willful suggestion is: Sucker Punch cupcake: a hawaiian punch cupcake with a dum dum sticking out. HILARIOUS!