At the end of September, I participated in a wonderful event called Capital Cupcake Camp. It’s styled after tech camps, and the idea is that lots of bakers (pro and amateur alike) and cupcake fans come together to show off their baking skills, try different flavours, and perhaps learn a little from each other. This year, I hear the event raised over $6000 for the Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa and the City of Ottawa program Women Alive. For more information, you can check out the original event listing at http://cupcakecamp.eventbrite.com/. The first image here is of my entry “Chocolate Chili Charge” (recipe coming soon) and my friend Katy‘s prizewinning “Brown Butter Pumpkin Spice”.

One of the biggest challenges of this event was transporting cupcakes. Katy (oh so intelligent) found some useful large cardboard boxes to bring our cupcakes in.. otherwise I would have had to use some old tupperware rectangular containers that aren’t tall enough for a decorated cupcake. When we arrived, I got a serious case of display-case envy looking around at some of the other bakers. I didn’t get a picture of my favourite one, but I did manage to find it at Home Hardware the next week – a collapsible container that can hold 24 cupcakes or a cake, with a removable stand. I’m very excited to use it!

We arrived fairly early to City Hall, and set up with amateur baker numbers 3 and 4. Our immediate neighbours hinted that the quality was bound to be pretty high, and those that followed after were of similar calibre. Not your typical cupcakes! Pictured below you can see the gorgeous gum paste autumn themed cupcakes on our left, and the imaginative coconut lime cupcakes by one of the rare male bakers on our right.

Wandering around a little, I found dozens of different flavours, no two exactly alike. You’d think that with 100+ bakers there might be some duplicates, but everyone had their own style. The closest I found to my own were some classy red velvet chocolate chili cupcakes with toasted marshmallow icing. I’ve never tried a red velvet cupcake, but they seem very popular these days.

Katy’s cupcake had a bit more competition, with about 4 other pumpkin-inspired flavours. We had a mini competition between hers and one other, but it was hard to declare a winner – both were amazing.

Those competing for best decorated really blew me away. I took lots of pictures (until my battery ran out), and asked a few of the bakers for some tips. Tamara (the autumn gum paste gal) talked about painting the leaves with sparkly powder available from baking supply stores like Artistic Cake Design. Jenny Burgesse of Geek Sweets had found chocolate molds for little skulls at Bulk Barn and painted them with gold sparkles. The folks at Pasticceria Gelateria Italianna (pictured above with the witch backdrop) gave me steps to follow to recreate their chocolate swirls: 1) spread tempered chocolate on parchment paper 2) use a cake comb to separate into long strips 3) roll the parchment paper and let it set 3) remove parchment paper carefully. Here are a few of my favourite designs..

I was happily surprised to see 4-cupcake boxes available as a fundraiser as I’d completely forgotten to provide a method to take home my loot and I wasn’t in the mood to eat many cupcakes after being up to my elbows in icing sugar the day before. It was really hard to limit my selection to four out of all the options, but I was very happy with the ones I chose. In reading order, they are “Death by Chocolate”, nanaimo bar (so clever!), gingerbread with spiced icing, and something amazing that combined aspects of angel food cake, peanut butter, chocolate, and amaretto.

Katy unfortunately had to leave before the judging was over, so when her cupcake won “Best Savoury” I called her to let her know I had her prize t-shirt. It took a bit of convincing to make her believe she won, but it sounded like it made her day. I don’t envy the judges, though, the competition was high and they all looked a little green by the end of it all.

All in all I had a wonderful time, and I hope to see Capital Cupcake Camp 3.0 next year. I already have a bunch of ideas floating around my head. I have also since made connections on twitter and following a bunch of the bakers I discovered, so I’m getting updates of their latest creations and recipes, exactly what I wanted to get out of it!

There were a few things I thought could’ve been improved.. I don’t know if it’s at all possible, but it would probably help to get a couple of groups of judges for different categories next time so that they’re not quite so overwhelmed and everything goes a little faster. All the cupcakes were long gone by the time the winners were announced. I might suggest also that bakers be encouraged to bring at least 24 cupcakes and optionally 12 or so extra just in case. Instead of tickets for four cupcakes, perhaps each taster could get a card with four spaces for bakers to write down their cupcake flavour and/or website as they give them out.. this would prevent reuse of tickets as well as allow bakers to advertise. This could even be done with standardized stickers that each baker is given by the organizers. Some complained that flavours ran out at different rates – maybe bakers could put out twelve at a time and wait for an hour between batches. What about providing standing tables so people could put down their drink and cupcakes and eat a little bit more leisurely?

There are lots of ways we could improve for next year, but truly I’d say the event was a great success. Big thanks to all the volunteers for making it happen, and to the sponsors for making it possible and providing milk to wash down the rich desserts.

Did you attend? What did you think, and how do you think it could be improved?

Here are a few posts by volunteers and bakers at Capital Cupcake Camp 2010.

The organizers:

• Kaitlin of HeartfulMouthful (mentions the winners!)
  
• Don of foodiePrints
• Katharine of girlabout Otown
• MediaStyle

A judge:

• The Twisted Chef (some seriously amazing recipes on this blog)
  

Others:

• Ming Wu Photography, a volunteer and friend of mine
• Vanilla Bean Baker, before and after, with pics of almost every cupcake
• Tracii Reardon, The Village Cake Lady
• Jenny Burgesse of Geek Sweets, with icing recipe
• Karen of Apartment 613
• April of Adorn Inc.
• Hilary Makes.. great pumpkin cupcakes!

If you’re reading this and you have a recipe up for your cupcake entry, please let me know!

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