VICTORY IS MINE!!!

Every year for the past 3 years, my office has a holiday baking contest. The categories that the desserts are judged on are "Best Presentation", "Most Creative" and "Best Overall", with the prizes being gift cards in the amount of $25, $25 and $50 respectively. Now, if you know anything about me, you should know that I'm a wee bit competitive. And by a "wee bit," I mean VERY. Blame it on my only child status, blame it on my astrological sign (Aries, fire sign!), or just blame it on good, old fashioned stubbornness, but I LOVE to win contests! (And I don't enter that many, so a lot rides on the ones I do enter!)

The first year, I made red velvet cake balls, and back then cake balls were more or less still a novel concept. I had made them a few times for friends, and everyone loved them, so I was sure I would win something. Alas, there was no cake ball love for me.

Last year I made these awesome Oreo cupcakes that I worked very hard on... they were from-scratch chocolate cupcakes topped with Oreo buttercream frosting, and the cupcake even had half a freaking Oreo at the bottom! (That was for you, Andrea :)) Yet again, my creation was overlooked.

I was getting frustrated... yes, I know, it's only a stupid work contest... it's not like my whole professional future was riding on the outcome of this baking contest. However... I consider myself a pretty experienced, although amateur, baker. Many people at my office know I bake, in fact, my co-workers are often my guinea pigs for my culinary experiments. So I felt kind of like a failure when my baked goods did not come out on top. :(

However, that all changed this year! I decided to make Spicy Chocolate (Mini) Cupcakes after making them a couple times and getting rave reviews. They were also fairly easy to make, and having worked hard the last two years, I decided to make something a bit simpler. I got the frosting recipe from Cupcake Rehab. It is a chocolate frosting, with cinamon, chili powder and cayenne pepper(I did not use the coffee in the recipe, however)



The cake is my tried and true Darn Good Chocolate Cake (I promise more cupcake recipes are coming soon!) I use it so much because it is THAT good, and I needed something I knew would be liked. So many minis!!!



Here they are on display! I actually won for "best presentation," however I was told it was a toss up between that and "most original", so I'll take it! (But please note the awesome red plate that made the judges lean toward "best presentation" LOL!)



Here's a picture of my prize, a $25 American Express gift card that I can use wherever I like! Truthfully, it will probably be used to buy more cupcake supplies, but maybe I'll use it for something crazy like clothes :)



Okay, here's another type of cake for ya! Last week I also made the spicy chocolate frosting at the request of a co-worker, but I knew I would be making the chocolate cupcake this week, so I made a cinnamon vanilla cupcake. I had been wanting to try to make a cinnamon vanilla cupcake for awhile, I had tried to make them before, but they came out hard as rocks. Then I tried a professionally baked cinnamon vanilla cupcake that was very dry. I knew that there had to be a moist cinnamon vanilla cupcake recipe out there, and I found it here
I believe this recipe is from The Cake Mix Doctor. Awesome!

So, needless to say, I am having a great holiday week, and I think Santa may have more in store for me ;) I hope everybody has a very Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays!

Peace, Love and Cupcakes,
Amanda