PrintWhat I Learned from the Brooklyn Kitchen's 3rd Annual Cupcake Cookoff
Elvis cupcake with bacon sprinkles. Photograph by nycblondieandbrownie on Flickr
After observing a swarm of people gather in Union Pool's backyard last night for Brooklyn Kitchen's Cupcake Cookoff, this is what I learned:
1. The cupcake trend isn't over, apparently. Or in Brooklyn, liking them is so ironic that the obsession is contrarian and has come full circle (so it becomes popular again?). Last night saw 45 entries, as opposed to the 30-ish last year.
2. Winning a cupcake contest is like winning a junior high student council race. The cool girl won! And won last year too! Kate Brown took home 235 votes last night. Were there even 235 people there? How did she do that? It's like she cheated or something. Actually, she did! But in a good-for-the-world way. This year's rules allowed people to buy their victory since the buck-per-vote went to the Greenpoint Soup Kitchen.
3. Elvis cupcakes are a meta-trend. Within the mystically invincible trend that is cupcakes, there lives a flavor trend. Cupcakes that incorporate peanut butter, bananas, and sometimes bacon to honor the King of Rock-and-Roll's favorite combo. Last night, there were three Elvis entries (shove it, red velvet!) including Brown's winning one. Brownie of Blondie and Brownie made a batch back in November, but is a little bit over them. "They were kinda three months ago." (Snap!)
4. Do not use root vegetables. This is a sad one. An ambitious parsnip cupcake contestant got no love. Supporter of the underdog Zach Brooks even went up to the creator: "You're not gonna win, dude. But this is really good." The people just aren't ready for a carrot cake recipe replaced with parsnips. Sigh.
5. There are a lot of cooking contests in Brooklyn. The Chili Takedown, which spawned the recent first annual Tofu Takedown, the upcoming Curry Takedown (June 14), the ever-classic Bacon Takedown, Brooklyn Kitchen's Ramen-off, Enid's Apple Pie Bake-off, Emily Farris’ Casserole Contest. It usually involves a lot of beautiful liberal art school grads in dark denim drinking microbrews, or alcohol in some form. They may look ambivalent and too cool for school, but trust me, they all want to win this. The KitchenAid mixer or Le Creuset casserole dish prizes are great and all, as are the bite-sized samples (some people have not eaten all day in preparation!) but winning is like becoming royalty in Brooklyn's young artisanal food scene.
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5 Comments:
Yeah, we need some Queens love for the contests... I can't lug all that food so far by train and hope to make it in one piece...
feistyfoodie at 9:59AM on 05/12/09
PS Is that cupcake from Robicelli's?!
feistyfoodie at 9:59AM on 05/12/09
you know what trend is really getting old? misuse of "meta." if elvis cupcakes were a trend at all, they would be a micro-trend.
md888 at 10:18AM on 05/12/09
Haha! Nice post Erin. Good to see you too. I did NOT like the bacon cupcake pictured above, it tasted like they just used bacon for bacon without letting the awesomeness of the cupcake take part. Agree with the parsnip cupcake. It WAS good, but the idea isn't the most palpable.
And, there were not even 200 people there. I thought Confections of a Cupcake's carrot gold should have won. It was AMAZING.
I posted some more tasty pictures on my blog! http://linneacovington.com/food/2009/05/12/hello-cupcake-cupcake-contest-at-union-pool/
And of course, gave you a shout out!
Linnea Covington at 10:36AM on 05/12/09
granted, i do have a sort of moral affinity for root vegetables, but i just made yellow beet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and they were damn good. bring on the parsnips!
ephraim at 10:54AM on 05/12/09