SF Food Wars: Mini Cupcake Clash

When I booked my trip to San Francisco last month, I expected to visit a few cupcake shops during my stay. Imagine my surprise when I found out that my trip was going to coincide with SF Food Wars: Mini Cupcake Clash!

SF Food wars explains this event best: "The Mini Cupcake Clash will pin 20 home and professional baking masterminds against each other as they present their miniature morsels of one-bite goodness." 170 people purchased tickets ($10 each) to gain entrance into the event and got to sample all of the mini cupcakes. Sounds like a win-win situation for the bakers and eaters.



The Mini Cupcake Clash took place at the Stable Cafe in San Francisco on October 18, 2009. The guests lined the streets as 1:00pm approached. Lucky for me and my husband, we got to bypass the line with our press passes.




The event turned out to be a pretty big deal. There were fancy cameras everywhere and even a TV crew!




Twenty-two bakers were able to present their cupcakes for our tasting pleasure. After we tasted all of them, we got to vote for our favorite. Pictures of all of the delicious cupcakes will be posted here, but I would like to show the winners off first. There were a few different categories, but let's start with the People's Choice. I think People's Choice is the most important award because it is the favorite of the general population. The winner of the People's Choice award was:

Team #11: Hella Fat "My Grandma's Bananas"

Next was the People's Choice Honorable Mention. The award went to:

Team #5: Double the Yum! "It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!"

The next category was Photog's Choice. At first I thought this was a silly category because it doesn't matter how a cupcake looks as long as it tastes good. Right? Then, as I thought about it, I realized that no one will even pick up a cupcake if it doesn't look good. Pretty important I guess. The winner was:

Team #21: Cinnaholic Sweets "Blueberry Dragon Fruit Chocolate Ganache Cakes"

And now onto the judges picks, the big winners of the event. There were three judges: Tamara Palmer from SFoodie, Jen Musty of Batter Bakery, and Steve Gdula of Gobba Gobba Hey.

Judges 1st Place

Team #21: Cinnaholic Sweets "Blueberry Dragon Fruit Chocolate Ganache Cakes"

Sound familiar? Yes, They also won the Photog's Choice award. Their cupcakes were beautiful and great-tasting. They had the complete package, a perfect cupcake.

Judges 2nd Place

Team #11: Hella Fat "My Grandma's Bananas"

This team also was chosen for the People's Choice award. They must be doing something right with their cupcakes!

Judges 3rd Place

Team #8: Mission Minis "Cinnamon Horchata"

To check out more coverage of this event, look here, here, here, and here.

I will be posting more about this event over the next few days. Check back often to see the other cupcakes and to see if my favorite cupcake won!