Cupcake Camp OC: The Winners

Judging cupcake competitions is like a dream to me! It's so much fun to get to eat a lot of the things I love -- cupcakes. At the beginning, I am generous with the amount of each cupcake that I taste. By the end, I'm eating a small sliver of each one.

At Cupcake Camp OC, I judged the cupcakes in the professional category. Two other women also judged the category with me: Priscilla from She's Cookin' and Tiffini from Yummy Cupcakes.

But the competition started off with the amateur category. I was surprised at how well decorated the amateur cupcakes were. On the whole, I thought the amateur cupcakes were decorated better than the professional ones. I didn't get to taste any of them since I was on cupcake overload from judging the professional cateogry. Here are the winners:

Most Unique/Exotic Flavor or Ingredient
Sue Ann Molina - Ube (purple yam) and Macapuno (coconut) cupcake

Most Orange County Inspired
Stacie Chan, Hannah Wollmann, and Sadia Naqvi - In N Out Burger cupcake

Most Childhood Inspired
Elaine Heisinger - Peanut Butter and Jelly cupcake

Picking my favorite cupcakes is always a hard task. Do I pick my favorite based on which one I could eat every day for the rest of my life or do I pick one that is very unique or do I pick the most classic one? Luckily, we had three categories to help me separate my favorites.

The ones that won were definitely my favorites, but most of the cupcakes were just ok. I would have expected a lot more, since it was the professional category, but there were a lot that disappointed me. BUT I'd rather focus on which cupcakes excelled. Here they are:

Most Unique/Exotic Flavor or Ingredient
Winner: Sugar Tart Desserterie - Chicken & Waffles Cupcake

Wow, what a cool idea! I've never tried a cupcake with these two flavors together, but it was definitely a winner (think Roscoe's). The cupcake was a maple cake with pieces of chicken in the cake. My only suggestion would be smaller pieces of chicken.

Photo: Saturday Night Foodies

Most Orange County Inspired
Winner: Meringue Bake Shop - Orange Crush

I am not a citrus fruit cupcake kind of girl, but this cupcake blew me away! The cake was made with Orange Crush soda and was topped with a swirled creamsicle buttercream frosting.

Most Childhood Inspired
Winner: My Delight Cupcakery - Chocolate Sundae Surprise cupcake

Everything about this cupcake screamed perfect! Chocolate cupcake with caramel filling, topped with vanilla American buttercream frosting (my fav!), chocolate ganache, a cherry, and sprinkles. I think I need to review their shop soon.

Judging was finished and our table was total cupcake carnage. Despite having the feeling that I wouldn't be able to eat another cupcake for a long time, I was craving cupcakes again about an hour later. That's just how I am.