IRON cupcake competition

The Winning Entry

I have reached another pivotal moment as a food blogger and was asked to be a judge in the April installment of the Iron Cupcake competition.  Being an avid fan of the show "Iron Chef", and just loving all things food related, I jumped at the opportunity.  The Iron Cupcake competition, a franchise that began in Milwaukee, invites cupcake enthusiasts to enter their best baked treats based on a secret ingredient or theme and my favourite local cupcake shoppe, For the Love of Cake plays hosts to the Toronto competition in Liberty Village.

Judges table

The secret ingredient for this challenge was NUTS and I have to commend all the participants as they whole-heartedly embraced the theme and went nutty! The panel of judges were made up of myself, Zuzu - a cupcake connaisseur, and one of For the Love of Cake's own bakers.
While there was a blizzard outside, there were 10 competitors that entered the competition and judging was based on taste, presentation and of course how well they infused the secret ingredient.  For the Love of Cake threw in 2 entries of their own as they wanted a round number of 12 entries.
Everybody who entered put in an enormous effort and at the end of the day, it was a true delight to be apart of it. 
From the 5th runner up- it was the 'Hazelnut latte' entry

4th- Zoo scene - 11 year old entrant with the play doh elephants eating peanuts
3rd - pecan pie with spirals of maple sugar
2nd - the perfectly pistachio entry- really unique flavour and a vibrant green colour.

1st unanimously with people's choice votes as well as the judges - was the peanuts and cracker jacks entry all set up in a mock baseball 'peanut gallery'... bravo!!
Again, we all left including spectators who were also taste testers and judges for the people's choice awards, all with a little more sugar in our systems and smiles on our faces.

Genevieve with our winners

It was a brilliant way to spend a Sunday afternoon!  Thanks again to Genevieve and her team at For the Love of Cake for making this very special event possible!

Happy Spectators

** Any additional information from the judges or cupcake entries are welcome.  I must admit I was too busy enjoying the experience and didn't capture all the information I would have liked to!