Easter cupake cuteneess, or Peeps=fun!

Peeps. I love them! I don't tend to eat too many because one goes a long way but I like looking at them and think they make a perfect cupcake topper. See more Easter cupcakes like these at Food Network.

Cupcake Wars: Vegan Bake Off

Did you happen to catch last night's new episode of Cupcake Wars? Well just in case, let me recap for you!

Last night's episode of Cupcake Wars was the first all vegan episode! The bakeries were competing for the opportunity to serve their delicious and animal friendly treats at the Inaugural L.A. Green Festival.

The competitor's for this episode were:

New Cascadia Traditional from Portland, OR

Michy's Foods from Los Angeles, CA

Bliss Cakes by Stephanie Sparkles from Venice, CA

Two Birds Baking Co. from Huntington Beach, CA

ROUND ONE:
This round challenged the bakers with locally grown fruits and vegetables, including but not limited to: clementines, sage, lemongrass, fennel, red peppers, coconut, avocados, etc.

NCT: Chocolate cake with sweet pepper lemongrass filling, avocado icing, vegan ganache and edible sprinkles. Also, this cupcake was gluten free. The judges were unanimously underwhelmed.

MF: Fennel cake, clementine buttercream with a candied sage leaf on top. All the judges loved the bright and fresh clementine flavor of the buttercream and creative nature of the fennel cake but were not too thrilled with the sage merely being a piece of decor.

BC: Corn cake, speckled with sweet red pepper, topped with creamy sage frosting, topped with parsley to lighten up the flavor and sweet red peppers. Judges loved the surprise of the cupcake being sweet over savory but again cautioned the use of the required third ingredient as a garnish.

TBBC: Clementine fennel cupcake, vegan vanilla buttercream frosting, with balsamic glazed figs on top. The balsamic reduction overpowered all the other flavors in the cupcake.

Eliminated: Two Birds Baking Co.

ROUND TWO:
This round challenged the bakers on showcasing "living green" through their cupcakes. As we all know in this round judging is based on 50% taste and 50% presentation.

NCT: Chocolate Cupcake with Chocolate Orange Frosting and topped with chopped hazelnuts
Molasses Spice Cupcake filled with Apple Butter topped with Cinnamon Molasses Icing
Zucchini Raisin Cupcake with Ginger Nutmeg Cream Cheese Icing.
Judges: Delicate decorations but not WOW for the second round. Overall taste was delicious.

MF: Apple Cinnamon Cupcake filled with caramel, topped with Cinnamon Buttercream, Caramel Drizzle and crushed peanuts.
Gingerbread Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting topped with crushed gingerbread cookies
S'mores Cupcake filled with a marshmallow with Chocolate Ganache, toasted marshmallow and crushed graham crackers.
Judges: Mixed review on the decor. Mixed reviews on the technical aspects of cupcakes (cook times).

BC: Matcha Vanilla Raspberry Cupcake with Matcha Green Tea Frosting topped with a raspberry and mint leaf
Mayan Spice Chocolate Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing
Tangerine Poppyseed with Lavender Frosting, Coconut Cream filling and fresh tangerines and lavender flowers on top.
Judges: Decorations = LOVED. Cupcakes were a bit over baked, too much going on in the Lavender cupcake, suggested removal of the coconut cream.

Eliminated: Michy's Foods

ROUND THREE:
Create a 1000 cupcake display for the event.

NCT: Display was tree-like cupcake tiers made up of reclaimed wood done in an upwards manner making the display 360 degrees
accessible.

BC: Display was imagined off of a vertical cupcake garden. Made up of recycled wood, bamboo, fresh herb garden below, the piece can be reused after the event as a real vertical garden.

WINNER: Bliss Cakes by Stephanie Sparkles


This was a more interesting episode of Cupcake Wars. As bakers and foodies, we're always learning new methods of cooking and new things to try. This episode definitely showcased the intricacies of vegan baking and really opened me up to trying out some vegan recipes for myself!

Cupcake recipe plagiarism accusation rocks Food Network star Anne Thornton

From Fox News:

Television dessert diva Anne Thornton lost her sweet deal with the Food Network after brass discovered some of her decadent delights were reheats from cookbooks and super chefs like Martha Stewart and the Barefoot Contessa, sources said.

Thornton -- whose show, "Dessert First," launched on the foodie channel in October 2010 -- was told the popular program would not be renewed when its second season ended.

"The network was very concerned because many of her recipes were close, with only a few minor edits, to other chefs' recipes," a source close to the production said Wednesday.

Among the sweet sensations that raised eyebrows were the frosting for Thornton's German Chocolate Cupcakes, a near replica of Martha Stewart's 2009 Coconut-Pecan Frosting recipe, give or take a handful of pecans and a dollop of butter.

For the curious, here's Anne Thornton's German chocolate cupcake recipe and here's the Martha Stewart chocolate pecan frosting recipe.

Twitter postings lead to Cupprimo Cupcake Wars appearance tonight!

From Austin Business Journal comes some cool news about Austin, Texas bakery Cupprimo that is a major reminder that social media is extremely important and is in no way just about reaching your local community, but about reaching the entire world:

“Cupcake Wars” usually chooses combatants from audition tapes, but producers approached Brown after following her tweets that constantly promote Cupprimo.

“I never dreamed [Twitter] would lead to such an incredible opportunity,” Brown said. “I know people in this business who have been trying to get on ‘Cupcake Wars’ for three years.”

And if you hadn't heard, Cupcake Wars is now casting for Season 5!

You can follow those Tweets @Cupprimo on Twitter and also find them on Facebook and cupprimo.com and watch them tonight on Cupcake Wars on the Food Network. They're located at 8650 Spicewood Springs Rd Suite 105 in Austin and can be reached at cupprimo at gmail.com and 512-335-7746.

Below are some photos from their Facebook page, including fun chalk art. They have Thin Mint cupcakes! Or had them yesterday. Again, keep up with their social media to know what flavors they have each day. "It is a thin mint cupcake, chocolate mint cake, filled with a magic concoction, topped with mint buttercream and of course, that persnickety little girl scout cookie." Sorry I couldn't grab a larger size of the photo (if anyone is making Girl Scout cookies, now is the time to email us those photos! cupcakestakethecake at gmail.com with "Girl Scout cookie" in subject line).