Cupcake War at the 10th Annual Celebrity Chef Challenge is Seeking More Contestants!!

Calling all Sacramento area amateur and semi-pro bakers! Are you ready
for a sweet challenge?

This year's Cake War at the 10th Annual Celebrity Chef Challenge is
Battle Cupcakes, and we're looking for three contestants to
battle 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!

We have received some great entries, but we are looking for more!
And this time, we're extending the video contest to include bakers who
also bake as a side business, but do not yet have a store front.

To give you an idea of who and what we are looking for, here are two
of the entries we have already received:

First, the lovely Kyle Lane of East Sacramento, and her partner in
cupcake, John Goddard!


And presenting Jennifer Urias and her cupcake companion, Michelle Duncan!



Great job ladies!!

OK, if you want to show Sacramento who makes the best cupcakes, you
have one more month to get those entries in! Then we'll all vote for
our favorites and choose the final contestants for the Cupcake War on
June 23rd!

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 show 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 May 10th. At that time, we will upload our favorite
videos to the Sacramento Chef Challenge website and ask the public to
choose their favorite!

Three of the finalists will be selected to compete at the
Sacramento Chef Challenge.  Finalists will be notified by June 10th.

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

New Audition Video for Cupcake Wars!

New audition video for Cupcake Wars! A huge thank you to Donahue Photography and thanks once again to Debbie Cunningham Photography, House Kitchen and Bar, Nugget Market, Moriah Piper of Moriah's Marvelous Cakes, and Scott Fenner.

My Audition for Cupcake Wars... and things that were edited out of my audition... ;)

In February of this year, I applied to a television show on Food Network called Cupcake Wars. I was unemployed at the time and was supplementing my income by baking treats on the side. I figured an appearance on Cupcake Wars would be just what I needed to launch my career and perhaps even buy a food truck (or at least invest the money in my baking business). I had big plans. Paint the sucker pink and drive around to all the sugar fiends in Sacramento just as addicted to buttercream as I was!

Then there was my little weight problem. By March of this year, I was tipping the scales at 150ish. (I am 5'1"). Though this is not an obese number by any means, this was heavier than I had ever been since my early twenties. The tipping point is when I got in my Smart car and the tires went flat. JUST KIDDING! It was when I couldn't FIT into anything but TWO dresses in my closet... Things had to change and fast.

I decided I should stop baking completely. I needed to break up with sugar. It was fun while it lasted. I turned down at least 40-50 people requesting cakes or wanting me to make food for their event or fundraiser. I have to tell you it was really hard for me to say no, but I just didn't want the temptation to distract me from my path--The path to looking RIDICULOUS!! (see Urban Dictionary definition #2).

I began a style of eating called Paleo, the Paleo diet encourages taking in meats, vegetables, fruits, and nuts and eating to satiety. I cut out all refined foods, and mostly anything that comes from a box.

I combined this with an exercise routine I kind of just formed myself. I call it ghetto crossfit. The exercise routine involves hard cardio for short intervals, followed by resistance training that incorporates the entire body in the movements, followed by more hard cardio. In the fitness world, this is also referred to as HIIT or high intensity interval training. I listened to several podcasts to learn as much as I could about nutrition and really, to get my head right. To get me thinking positively about myself. I really love Jillian Michaels, Latest in Paleo with Angelo Coppola, Mark Sisson's website, and more recently there is an Everyday Paleo Podcast (Sarah Fragoso and Chrissy Gower) and Being Primal TV (Dean Dwyer).

I feel like I have only just begun to live!! I can't believe I did it all over again and lost the weight and kicked the sugar! I am in the best shape of my life thanks to the Paleo diet and proper nutrition combined with the right amount of exercise at the right intensity and frequency.

So, last week, I got a call from Food Network. And when Food Network calls, you pick up! It was a casting agent from Cupcake Wars. He said he received my application from a few months ago, and they wanted to invite me to submit a video application. Wow. But I didn't really bake anymore. Hmmm... what to do? I wanted this chance to prove myself, to represent Sacramento, a city I love so much... If I was going to bake again, I wanted to do it my way. 

Everything I made for the audition was Paleo. Gluten-free, no refined sugars. All organic ingredients, down to the coconut oil and the small amount of (clarified) butter I used for fat.

I made Gluten Free Carrot Cake with Avocado and Honey Frosting, a Chocolate Cabernet Cupcake with Chocolate Date Filling and Chocolate Ganache Frosting, and a Vanilla Almond Cake with Chocolate Almond Butter Frosting. All the cakes were sweetened with honey or stevia, or even just the dates and their natural sweetness. The "flour" in the cakes was either almond or coconut or a combo of both. And they all turned out really well, as this was my first attempt at gluten-free baking without a gluten-free mix. I love that. I didn't put ANYTHING in those treats that was a chemical or had a preservative. There were no food colorings or dyes used. There were no trans fats. Just all REAL food. When you eat REAL food with real fats, it gives you genuine energy and not a sugar high. You stay fuller longer. 

I recruited someone to work with me that I had worked with before, Moriah Piper, of Moriah's Marvelous Cakes. I felt she would make a great team member if I were selected for the show.

Together we devised a few cupcakes that stuck to my organic, local theme, even though they contained sugar. People should have a choice, even though I feel really strongly about not wanting to sell a treat I would not eat myself. ;)

Here are some pictures from the audition taken by Debbie Cunningham:

  Gluten Free Carrot Cake with Avocado and Honey Frosting

Chocolate Cabernet Cake "Kettlebells" with Date Filling and Chocolate Ganache Frosting

And now the audition itself! It was shot and edited by Marsh Wildman. There is a cameo at the end by the wonderful Scott Fenner, a local chef recently profiled in the Sacramento Bee. The video was shot at House Kitchen & Bar (thank you Chris Nestor). And all of the ingredients I used to make the cupcakes came from Nugget Market in Roseville.

If you could watch this and "like" the video on You Tube, share it with your friends, leave a comment, etc... I would be so very happy!



UPDATE!! Here is the new video!!
Thank you to Donahue Photography :D