They said rain or shine but apparently lightning puts a damper on things. Could you imagine 55 teams walking a track in a lightning storm with umbrellas? Not really ok.
DEVASTATING is that after 4 months of researching and contacting cupcakeries around the state of Texas the whole event is postponed. Um...I have dozens of dozens of cupcakes...they will expire. Quickly.
It did not take long to decide what to do. We still needed to choose a State cupcake. The rest we will find a way to sell off this weekend.
My mom graciously offered her home for the judging. Spectators got to drink wine. Thank you Jesus!
My local "celebrity" judges were not there except for Jackie Mims Hopkins, local children's book author and cancer survivor. We rounded up judges from my team mates husbands, Bryon Morgan, Jason Mailand, Robert Wren and also another one of mom's friends and a Book Diva,Ms. Bobbie McDonald. The mini-judges, Drew and Gabe still did their job as well. Surprisingly Drew fell out about half way threw but Gabe stayed with it until the end. (Can we say "growth spurt?")
We proceeded with the judging, following the criteria. The gave a score on the scale of 1-5 for Bite-ability, Frosting, Cake, Presentation, Ease of Access, and Texas-ness. We had 5 flavors a-miss from our final count of 25. Some coud not make it due to the weather. One poor contestant had an accident this week and was unable to make her cakes!
Out of the 20 tasted the winner ended up being Berry Pecan from Sugar Queen Bakery in Lake Dallas, TX. What's amazing is that this was the last cake tasted. The judges eyes were watering, pallor was placid, stomachs rolling over and THEN they tasted Berry Pecan, their last cake. It was still deemed amazingly delicious by everyone. The candied pecan on top really topped it off. The presentation on all of the cakes from Sugar Queens were extraordinary! All four of the cakes offered from this bakery were exceptional but Berry Pecan, by far, met the requirements for presentation, taste, Texas-ness. I am so thrilled for them as they fought the weather all the way from Dallas!
In second place came Chocolate Mousse from Forest Cafe and Bakery on 242 in The Woodlands, TX. Honorable mention goes to Snickerdoodle, also from Sugar Queens and Texas Turtle from Frost Bake Shoppe in The Woodlands, TX. Murmurs erupted regarding Lori Ketcherside's Sweet Tea. A very original flavor! The best Red Velvet, and also a high scorer, was from Hudon Oaks, TX Ultimate Cupcake. INCREDIBLE!!! Those were definitely the top 5 (not neccasirly in that order) from the bake-off.
We still have scads of cakes! We will be selling them at our children's swim meets, soccer games and hopefully the Ashlane YMCA tomorrow. The silver lining of all of this: All 55 teams have longer to raise money for cancer. We will still sell our cupcakes for cancer research. We will walk at the newly assigned date. My team will make their Betty Crocker, Duncan Hines, box mix cupcakes and sell them at the new date along with the coffee. And tonight I got cupcakes and WINE instead of coffee!
P.S. No one was made happier then Drew. Even though he had to quit and bow out with the tasting he was so happy to have a State Cupcake named. He is who I did the bake-off for.
To my team: THANK YOU!! You were all so amazing. The creativity and hard work.... I can not tell you enough how proud I am of you and how much I love you. I chose you because if I had to battle this God awful disease you would be the people I would lean on. I chose well. Love you all! And thanks Mom for your support, encouragement and house. Loves.
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