Call for Amateur Bakers! Cupcake War Added to this Year's Sacramento Chef Challenge

Call for Amateur Bakers! Cupcake War Added to this Year's Sacramento Chef Challenge
Calling all Sacramento area amateur bakers! Are you ready for a sweet challenge?

This year's Cake War at the 10th Annual Sacramento Chef Challenge is Battle Cupcakes, and we're looking for three amateur contestants to duke it out against three cupcake pros!

But to join the battle, we want to see what you've got! Why are your cupcakes the best? Show and tell us by making a 3-5 minute video and uploading it to YouTube!

Want to submit a video, but don't know where to begin? Here are a few examples of videos we are looking for:



(My own audition for Food Network's Cupcake Wars)











Please note, this is an audition for the Cake War at the Sacramento Chef Challenge and NOT the Food Network Cupcake Wars program.

If you have links to other photos or a Facebook page that shows off your work, please send the links to me at cakegrrl 2007 at gmail dot com.

You must be 21 or older to compete. Video submissions will be accepted now through April 1st. At that time, we will upload our ten favorite videos to the Sacramento Chef Challenge website and ask the public to choose their favorite!

Three of the ten finalists will be selected to compete at the Sacramento Chef Challenge.  Finalists will be notified by June 1st.

Fine print:
1. You must be available on June 23rd for most of the day (to set up) and the evening (to compete). 

2. You must be able to prep and provide all your own ingredients (though you will be able to prepare your frostings on site).

3. There will be one secret ingredient you must use in your cupcakes.
4. There will be a theme for your display.
5. You will need an assistant, please make sure they will also be available on the day of the competition, and that they appear in your video.
6. You must make enough mini samples for the audience to try (about 200), so they can vote on their favorite.
7. You must be able to construct/buy & build your cupcake stand that will reflect the theme of the competition (this will be the same theme for the Chef's Challenge to be announced in the near future).


Along with your video submission, please send an email to cakegrrl 2007 at gmail dot com with the answers to these questions.
1. Name:
2. Age:
3. Phone Number:
4. Location (Where do you live in the area?):
5. Why do you want to be a contestant?
6. When did you start baking?
7. What is your level of training? (Did you go to culinary school?)
8. What sets your cupcakes apart from the rest?
9. Do you have a specialty cupcake?
10. Have you ever won any awards/contests for your baking? If so, please list them:
11. Please list 3 adjectives that best describe you.
12. Are you competitive?
13. How do you handle stressful situations?
14. Who is your partner/assistant you would bring to the competition?
15. Are you available for most of the day and evening on June 23rd, 2012?


Competition will be held during the Sacramento Chef Challenge on June 23rd from 4-9pm at the INALLIANCE Sacramento Campus, 6950 21st Ave, Sacramento, CA 95820.


For more information, please feel free to call Jessica Bean at (916) 381-1300 or email me at cakegrrl 2007 at gmail dot com.


To buy tickets to the event, please click here. All tickets include:
• the Chef Challenge
• Gourmet food sampling from local restaurants, caterers & specialty food shops
• Five free beer/wine tastes from regional breweries & wineries (additional tastes may be purchased for $1 each)
• Cake War presented by Cakegrrl.com
• Live Music


About the Sacramento Chef Challenge:
Professional chefs compete head to head in a live culinary competition and you decide who wins! Challengers have three hours to prepare and serve a specialty menu based on a surprise theme. Guests will have the opportunity to sample each item and determine “whose cuisines reigns supreme!”


As chefs battle for culinary glory, guests sample from over 100 restaurants, wineries and breweries while enjoying live music, raffle and silent auction!




About INALLIANCE
The Sacramento Chef Challenge is a benefit for INALLIANCE, a nonprofit that provides support for people with developmental disabilities.


All proceeds from our event go to enhancing the vital programs INALLIANCE provides the community. Learn more at www.inallianceinc.com

Cake War! (at the Celebrity Chef Challenge)

The Celebrity Chef Challenge is the annual benefit for INALLIANCE, a local nonprofit that provides supported employment and work and life skills training to people with developmental disabilities.

The “CAKE WAR” is a competition within the Celebrity Chef Challenge event that features four cake makers in a three hour battle to see whose creation takes the cake!

The 2011 CAKE WAR participants will be:
Sheryle Burnett-Ah Po & LaShawn Allen of Buttercream Dreams

David Benton of Sugar Sweet Pastries

and Kristin Platzer of the Institute of Technology



THE RULES:
Participants will be given a theme to follow. The 2011 theme is Culinary Arts/Cooking.

Cake layers, fillings, and frostings will be baked and made in advance and assembled onsite during the Celebrity Chef Challenge “Cake War” competition.

Sugar pieces and cake/cereal pieces to be frosted or covered in fondant can be pre-made. (Any long lead items that need to be dried can be premade, but carving, shaping, covering and decorating need to be done during the competition)

Participants will have 3 hours to complete their design. Station Set-up is from noon-5:15pm. The actual competition will begin at exactly 5:30pm and end at 8:30pm.

Scoring:
There will be a total of 100 points possible.
50% of score will be on taste:
Cake Flavor 20 pts
Cake Texture 10 pts
Originality 10 pts
Icing/filling flavor 10 pts

50% of the score will depend on appearance and design:
Wow factor (is there a special element on the cake such as lights/mechanics or something unique that a typical cake would not have) 15 pts
Cake height/complexity of structure (there is no minimum height requirements): 15 pts
Neatness of decoration: the cake board, piping, handwork 10 pts
Faithfulness to the theme 10 pts

Participants will be judged by Local Food Critic and Baking Diva, Kristy DeVaney of Cakegrrl.com (hey, that's me!!) and Greg Sabin food writer for Edible Sacramento and Inside Publications. Winners will be announced at the event Awards Ceremony between 9:00pm and 9:30pm.

The 9th Annual Celebrity Chef Challenge is at California Automobile Museum from 5:30-9:30pm. You can purchase tickets with your credit card by clicking here (FYI, there is a $2 convenience fee). To avoid that fee, you have plenty of time to pay by check by sending your money here: 

InAlliance, Attention: Celebrity Chef Challenge, 6950 21st Ave., Sacramento, CA 95820. For more information on tickets or ways to pay, click here.

All proceeds from the Celebrity Chef Challenge go towards enhancing the vital programs INALLIANCE provides the community. www.INALLIANCEINC.com

2011 Celebrity Chef Challenger: "Hail to the Chef" Evan Elsberry

The 9th Annual Celebrity Chef Challenge is coming soon!! Are you ready to find out "Who's Cuisine Reigns Supreme???" 

This week's interview is with Chef Evan Elsberry of Evan's Kitchen in East Sacramento.

Cakegrrl: What made you want to become a chef?

Chef Elsberry: I really love the creative process

CG: Where did you receive your training?

Chef Elsberry: 30 years in too many restaurants to list. CG: I will: The Family Room, Andiamo!, Limelight Cafe, Clarion Hotel, the Delta King and America Live, to name a few.

CG: What is a typical day like for you at the restaurant or your place of work?

Chef Elsberry: There are no typical days.

CG: What are/who are your primary cooking influences?

Chef Elsberry: Jaques Peppin and Jean Pierre Brehier.

CG: What are your favorite and least favorite foods to prepare?

Chef Elsberry: My favorites are anything that is sauteed. My least favorite things are anything that has to be baked.

CG: 

Please tell me about your most overwhelming moment in the kitchen.

Chef Elsberry: 

A pressure broaster exploded and a giant fire ball just missed my head!

CG: What is your "can't live without" kitchen tool and why?

Chef Elsberry: 

My apron. For some reason I have to have one on to function properly.

CG: If you had a different career choice, what would it be?

Chef Elsberry: An artist or a writer.

CG: Best meal ever?

Chef Elsberry: Wild boar.

CG: Tell me why are you going to win the Celebrity Chef Event 2011?!?!? :)

Chef Elsberry: a.) My food tastes THE BEST. and b.) I need the publicity for the generated future business.


Well, here's some publicity for Chef Evan: If you missed him on St. Patrick's Day this year on the news, here he is with making Shepard's Pie.

In addition to TV appearances, Evan has been recognized nationally. Last year, Evan's Kitchen and Catering won the 2010 Planners' Choice Award presented by Portland, Maine-based Eventective, the Web's largest database of special-event venues and service providers in the United States and Canada. Award winners were chosen on various criteria, including the number of times a caterer's Eventective listing was viewed. Evan's Kitchen was among three California establishments to crack the top 20.

The 9th Annual Celebrity Chef Challenge is at California Automobile Museum from 5:30-9:30pm. You can purchase tickets with your credit card by clicking here (FYI, there is a $2 convenience fee). To avoid that fee, you have plenty of time to pay by check by sending your money here: 

InAlliance, Attention: Celebrity Chef Challenge, 6950 21st Ave., Sacramento, CA 95820. For more information on tickets or ways to pay, click here.

The Celebrity Chef Challenge is the annual benefit for INALLIANCE, a nonprofit organization that provides support programs for people with developmental disabilities in the greater Sacramento area. 

All proceeds from the Celebrity Chef Challenge go towards enhancing the vital programs INALLIANCE provides the community. www.INALLIANCEINC.com 

Discount for Celebrity Chef Challenge Tickets!

The 9th Annual Celebrity Chef Challenge will be held at California Automobile Museum from 5:30-9:30pm.

Here is a link to this year's great sponsors/vendors!!

The Celebrity Chef Challenge is the annual benefit for INALLIANCE, a nonprofit organization that provides support programs for people with developmental disabilities in the greater Sacramento area. 

All proceeds from the Celebrity Chef Challenge go towards enhancing the vital programs INALLIANCE provides the community. www.INALLIANCEINC.com

DISCOUNT INFO!!!

If you buy your ticket by April 29th, each ticket will be $45 (normally $50 each). The coupon code is Cakegrrl2011.

You can pay in cash at our office or mail checks to the InAlliance at office (6950 21st Ave, Sacramento, CA 95820) but make sure you provide the coupon code with your payment!!

If you want to pay by credit card, there is a $2.00 per ticket processing fee. InAlliance only accepts credit card payment through paypal. Here is the link for the discount created for cakegrrl readers!! 

2011 Celebrity Chef Challenger: Hail to the Chef, Chef Jim Turknett

The 9th Annual Celebrity Chef Challenge is coming soon!! Are you ready to find out "Who's Cuisine Reigns Supreme???" 

This week's interview is with Jim Turknett, executive chef at Vizcaya Pavilion and Mansion.

Cakegrrl: What made you want to become a chef?
Chef Turknett:  I was destined to become a chef, I started cooking at age 12 for my siblings. While in high school, I received a scholarship to go to San Francisco City College hotel and restaurant dept. I graduated in 1978 and the rest is history.

CG: Where did you receive your training?
Chef Turknett: I went (to the) San Francisco City College Culinary Program, graduated with a Chef Certificate in 1978. (I) went to work and have worked with a lot of talented people, but (I'm) mostly self taught.

CG: What is a typical day like for you at the restaurant or your place of work?

Chef Turknett: A lot of preparation for the next party.


CG: What are/who are your primary cooking influences?

Chef Turknett: I do a lot of private parties this point in my life. My influences are my clients. I like to create special menus and make them happy.

CG: What are your favorite and least favorite foods to prepare?

Chef Turknett: I like desserts, appetizers, and salads. I feel I can be more creative on these items. I don't like doing food that requires a lot of time garnishing each individual item (like canapés).

Chef Turknett (right) pictured with Chef J.P. Khoury (left)

CG: Please tell me about your most overwhelming moment in the kitchen.

Chef Turknett: Making individual soufflés for 160 people on New Years Eve. After I finished them and pulled them from the over, I sent them into the dining room. I followed the servers to watch them be served, and to my dismay the 

soufflés fell one by one.

CG: What is your "can't live without" kitchen tool and why?

Chef Turknett: My 8 inch chef's knife. I couldn't work without it.

CG: If you had a different career choice, what would it be?

Chef Turknett: I've never done anything else. I can't imagine not being in the kitchen, but maybe (I would be) a food salesperson or (do) something involving food.

CG: Best meal ever?

Chef Turknett: Le Chamenet in Lake Tahoe. It was my first experience to a great meal, and I still think about the meal 30 years later.

CG: Tell me why are you going to win the Celebrity Chef Event 2011?!?!? :)

Chef Turknett: I'm not sure I will win, but this is the 5th time for me competing, so maybe it's my time to win. I also have a lot of different types of experience.

Check out this video of Jim (when he was chef at Chanterelle) making a (savory & sweet) galette with Gwen Schoen (a former food writer at the Sacramento Bee). Happy I found this, as I have met Gwen a few times and truly miss her addition to the Food section of the paper. Enjoy!!

The 9th Annual Celebrity Chef Challenge is at California Automobile Museum from 5:30-9:30pm. You can purchase tickets with your credit card by clicking here (FYI, there is a $2 convenience fee). To avoid that fee, you have plenty of time to pay by check by sending your money here: 

InAlliance, Attention: Celebrity Chef Challenge, 6950 21st Ave., Sacramento, CA 95820. For more information on tickets or ways to pay, click here.

The Celebrity Chef Challenge is the annual benefit for INALLIANCE, a nonprofit organization that provides support programs for people with developmental disabilities in the greater Sacramento area. 

All proceeds from the Celebrity Chef Challenge go towards enhancing the vital programs INALLIANCE provides the community. www.INALLIANCEINC.com 

2011 Celebrity Chef Challenger: Hail to the Chef, Richard K. Pannell

The 9th Annual Celebrity Chef Challenge is a little over 2 months away, but that is just enough time to introduce our competitors one by one, and for you to pick a favorite to cheer on the night of April 29th at the California Automobile Museum.  I am so excited to be involved again!!

The first chef spotlight is Chef Richard K. Pannell, of Table 260 Downtown Sacramento, Pannell Quizine Catering and founder of Cuisine Noir Magazine, an online publication devoted to promoting African Americans in the culinary field.

Cakegrrl: What made you want to become a chef?
Chef Pannell: I am not sure. I started cooking when I was 12 years of age in my mother’s kitchen. I then accepted a job from my brother at the restaurant he was working as a cook. He hired me as the dishwasher and started training me as a prep cook. I was so excited that I learned how to make garlic bread and homemade French fries. I was hooked at 16. From what I can tell, my first inclination of becoming a Chef was in 1980 when I talked my teacher at a local computer extension program to allow me to cater our graduation…

CG: Where did you receive your training?
Chef Pannell: I did about one month at a local culinary school by the name of Leiderwolf. I was bored so I quit, they went out of business and I just started going to the popular school of "Hard Knocks"…

CG: What is a typical day like for you at the restaurant or your place of work?

Chef Pannell: Begins at 10am…any last minute prepping. Thinking of the days special. Inventory.  Ordering. Quick lunch rush (if there is one). Returning phone calls. Cleaning. More cooking. Seeing if I got any food on my chef jacket. Why, you might ask. If my jacket or apron is too clean that means it’s a slow day. If my jacket or apron is lightly dirty that means it’s an ok day. If it is completely stained…then I have been careless and busy. If it has a spot here and a wipe there, then it means that I have been cautious and in control…that the way it is most of the time…

CG: What are/who are your primary cooking influences?

Chef Pannell: What-guest smiles and compliments.

Who-any chef or foodie who is creative and not afraid of taking food to the next level. Patrick Clark, Chef Joe Randall, Emeril Lagasse, Tyler Florence, Alton Brown, Paula Dean and many more…

CG: What are your favorite and least favorite foods to prepare?

Chef Pannell: Blackeyed Peas, Okra, Tomato Stew, anything that doesn’t look like ‘sex’ on a plate…LOL

Chipotle Lamp
Corn and Garlic Potatoes

CG: Please tell me about your most overwhelming moment in the kitchen.

Chef Pannell: When I get a rush and can’t get the food out quick enough…”We are fast, but we are not fast food!” When you have a sous chef and he/she walks out and you are stuck!
 

CG: What is your "can't live without" kitchen tool and why?

Chef Pannell: Chef knife…it does it all…even use it as a spoon…believe it or not…LOL
CG: I agree with this!

CG: If you had a different career choice, what would it be?

Chef Pannell: A producer for events…love to be behind the scene putting things, people and places together and making it work. Entertainment Producer

CG: Best meal ever?

Chef Pannell: Cheesy Spaghetti with meat sauce, garlic bread and Caesar salad, sparkling apple cider.

CG: Tell me why are you going to win the Celebrity Chef Event 2011?!?!? :)

Chef Pannell: Because of me, my creativity, eclecticness, flavor combinations and foodatude (my passion for food)!


For more information on today's featured chef, click here.


The 9th Annual Celebrity Chef Challenge is at California Automobile Museum from 5:30-9:30pm. You can purchase tickets with your credit card by clicking here (FYI, there is a $2 convenience fee). To avoid that fee, you have plenty of time to pay by check by sending your money here:

InAlliance, Attention: Celebrity Chef Challenge, 6950 21st Ave., Sacramento, CA 95820.

For more information on tickets or ways to pay, click here.

The Celebrity Chef Challenge is the annual benefit for INALLIANCE, a nonprofit organization that provides support programs for people with developmental disabilities in the greater Sacramento area.

All proceeds from the Celebrity Chef Challenge go towards enhancing the vital programs INALLIANCE provides the community. www.INALLIANCEINC.com 

California Automobile Museum "Life in the Fast Lane" Fundraiser Cake

So here's the cake I donated to the California Automobile Museum for their live auction at their annual fundraiser (which took place last Friday night). It was a 14" X 4" round on the bottom layer, peppermint red velvet with peppermint buttercream.

The top layer was a 9" x 3" round, gingerbread with lemon buttercream. I drew the logo in buttercream FREEHAND... no tracey tracey over here... ;) Since it was black and red buttercream on white fondant, I had one shot to get it right.

This is the display table with all the live auction items. My cake was auctioned for $175. A little less than I was hoping, but happy to at least get that much, so a BIG thank you to the person who bought the cake!! They were sharing with all the guests at the event and everyone got an extra dose of sugar. (Pumpkin spice ice cream had already been passed out for dessert.)

I truly love the CA Auto Museum, as I have had many good memories there, including this year's Celebrity Chef Challenge! "Like" them on Facebook here.