My Adventure in a Vegan Cupcake Contest

A few weeks ago as my pc was opening on my yahoo page i saw on local yahoo news there was a vegan cupcake contest...& that the next day was the last day to enter. It was being put on by a place called RPSCollective which stands for Rock Paper Sciccors.  Basically they wanted people to submit unusual vegan recipes w/ unusal ingredients. The most unusual recipe i had was a recipe for Tomato Soup Cake w/ a Cream Cheese Frosting. Its really good. Its basically a spice cake--its got a healthy dose of Allspice, some Cinnamon & Clove--Vanilla & Almond Extract....oh yea & Tomato Soup!

The Tomato Soup adds moistness & density to the cake & gives it a sweetness that is really yummy...it sounds odd but it is super delicious. Its an old Southern recipe that most people on the West Coast (I'm assuming) know little about. & I'm also assuming that people in the Deep South are more familiar with it.  Anyway it sounded so weird i just had to try it. Now i'm in love. Anyway that was one of my submissions--the other one i submitted was a Peach Cobbler Cupcake, which was a less riskier choice and probably wouldve won more people over but RPSCollective contacted me and although they told me they liked both, they were more curious about the Tomato Soup Cake and wanted me to enter that one, so i did. I decorated the cupcakes w/ melted candies shaped like tomatoes that some people thought were strawberries. lol. i liked the idea of giving people something different & taking a risk. 

I've never entered a real baking contest before. This was my first time and I had fun and I was impressed w/ many of the submissions, mainly becaue i saw many bakers thinking out of the box and using their originality. There were cupcakes made w/ Curry, Coconut & Basil Leaves, a Latte flavored cupcake, some that were made w/ Chocolate & Corn(!) and one that was Lemon & lavender that i didnt like at all but won 3rd place....go figure.   I also got to see that this was a contest the Vegan community here in Oakland came out in droves to see. I cant really say who was a vegan and who wasnt, but there were some hardcores there you can beleive that. As customers approached us, we had to tell them what we had "Hi. How are u? These are Tomato Soup Cupcakes with a Cream Cheese Frosting", I said that over and over again. I said it to one guy who clearly had his panties all in a bunch & his neck quite stiff about his "veganism". He glares at me and says "Its WHAT kind of Cream Cheese?" " i said "its a Vegan Creame Cheese" DUH...like i really have to tell you that--its a VEGAN Cupcake Contest you dumbass--which means there are no meat products involved--hence the word VEGAN.  his girlfriend whispers something to him & he snaps "Well i just hate it when people use meat terms!!" I just thought oh jeez what frickin planet am i on? I hate militants. Loser.

So anyway we were told to make at least 40 cupcakes--i made about 45 or 46. We were also instructed to cut each cupcake in 4ths and serve it to the public in that way...which i thought was kinda odd. I mean 4ths are so small that i wasnt sure if everyone would really get to truly taste them so i started handing mine out in halfs--i wanted people to remember what they ate. I figured i brought 46--double that & you've got 92. i was pretty sure that there couldnt be more than say 100 people showing up to get cupcakes. I also figured that even if i ran out of cupcakes, most i'd be out is say 10 people. I was dead wrong on a few counts. 1.) there was about 160-170 people lined up getting cupcakes, so as many as 75+ didnt even get a Tomato Soup Cupcake which shot my odds of winning down even more.  i swear it looked like that line of people was just never gonna end and  2.)  Cutting them up in 4ths was a better idea than i originally thought considering how many people showed up. I shouldve just baked more. The girl who won, had the most cupcakes. She baked like 100 or more. She was also very very prepared in that she brought knives, a cutting board, a small fruit stand type decoration, an entire set up for her cupcakes. I mean hers just looked great. She was also a past winner so she clearly knew the routine. Being prepared was one of the things i learned is important from a contest, especially where the public is the judge---know what to expect or at least have a good idea. & oh yea, invite your friends so they'll vote for you which you can bet your sweet a** many of the contestants did. Theres a strategy about these contests. I hope i dont sound like a cynical crank but I realized i was not as prepared as i couldve been.  But it was my first contest--there will be many more i assure you...i just got my feet wet today. I'm looking around for more contests to enter now-- i honestly had fun and who dosent want to win?  i know i do.