Wednesday, August 27, 2008

30 cupcakes for a lucky 30 year old

Okay, So 30 cupcakes for one lucky 30 year old.... who is my cousin Jared. To help him celebrate his 30th birthday in style, Betsy and Lisa organized a cupcake tasting competition... and it was honestly the coolest thing I have ever seen done for someone's birthday. Betsy, Lisa, and I hit all of the cupcake stores in Orange County, including Sprinkles, Wonderland, Sweet Loraines, Bristol Farms, Black Forest Bakery, and French's Bakery. We got the same flavors from each of the places and then a couple of the "special flavors" as well. Jared then took his time sampling and rating each of the 30 cupcakes.... and the final verdict... guess who has the best cupcakes? Scroll down to the bottom of this post for the answer.

The 30th cupcake---yummy!

All 30 cupcakes together... don't they look amazing?

The scoring sheet.... this is where the true numbers came out.

Jeff & Lisa who hosted an amazing dinner for us first followed by the testing.

Don't you want a taste?

Sarah Bell in love with the frosting... I think she ended up eating three of these!

The red velvet line up.

Jared with his birthday signs! The house was decorated with streamers to celebrate the special occasion.

Another line up.... don't they just look scrumptious?
Jared when the cupcakes first came out... look how surprised he is!  Did I mention that the planning was top secret?  He thought he was just coming over for dinner..... lucky guy.
The aftermath... after Jared tried each one, we would try each one... and look at the mess we left... we could barely eat half of each cupcake...they were all so good!
Jared's not so sure about this lemon one.... I don't think it got a very high vote.
Debbie & Russ... it was like being an adult in a candy store with all of these cupcakes.... we were SO SO SO EXCITED at first and then by the end... we were  SO SO SO sick! !   
Russ fell asleep in a sugar daze... while we all chatted away.

And for the final answer.... it was BRISTOL FARMS that had the best cupcakes. They won the oreo cookie, german chocolate, raspberry, and white chocolate flavors, easily putting them over Sweet Lorraines and Sprinkles.... The best red velvet cupcake--that would be Sprinkles. And Sweet Lorraines won the best over all cupcake--their candy apple flavor--which one for the cake texture and flavor, icing texture and flavor, design, and originality--it definitely took the cake.

5 comments:

Hizzeather said...

I'm totally going to steal this idea!

ps...is this the guy I was supposed to set up? He's cute...he looks just like your dad! Tell him to get on Facebook and I'll start hooking him up! :)

Betsy Hite Reddoch said...

Great pictures, Debbie! Last night was so much fun! Of course the cupcakes were great, but hanging out with everyone was the best - a pleasure that I hope to repeat frequently :)

Also, super fun blog you've got here. I'll have to send you that blog publisher link when I find it...

amelia said...

This is the best bday idea ever! I've done "fry tasting" parties, but never heard of a "cupcake tasting" party! If only SLC had some noteworthy cupcake places like LA...

* said...

I went into Bristol Farms in the Corona Del Mar Shopping Centre for cupcakes. The line into Sprinkles was out the door.

The strawberry is to die for. My next favorite was the coconut and the peanut butter and jelly cupcake.

Happy Birthday!

Becca said...

Oh, man, I totally wish we could have been there!! We definitely miss hanging out with all the cousins.