Another Cupcake Competition

Well, I was wrong again. If you were reading the FLB back in the spring, perhaps you remember the blind cupcake tasting that I conducted to try and settle some of the bickering between the region’s most popular bakeries.

It was an important thing to do, but it was brutal. Even though each participant was only served one half of each cupcake, that still totaled six cupcakes over the course of a couple hours. And as I write these words, just like when I was planning the event, it seems like a challenging but doable amount of food.

Was I wrong. Those cupcakes almost did me in. Thank God for skim milk. It saved my life.

Like the high school kid who gets drunk on champagne at a wedding, and suffers badly at the hands of the bubbly, I vowed not to touch another cupcake ever again. And never did I think that I would be judging another cupcake competition. But I am. And you are invited.

This Thursday, October 25 there is a fundraiser for the Commission on Economic Opportunity at the Franklin Terrace Ballroom in Troy. The festivities begin at 5:30 p.m. and go through 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $30 and you can buy them here.

I’m not entirely sure how the cupcake contest will be structured. But I do know there will be both a panel of judges, and that attendees will also get to cast a vote for their favorite. What is actually exciting is that this isn’t a complete rehash of the blind tasting from the spring.

Yes, Coccadotts and Sweet Temptations are back in competition, but Fluffalicious and Bettie’s are absent. It’s gracious of Fluffalicious to bow out since they handily won in the blind tasting. And it will be interesting to see if Sweet Temptations can redeem itself.

Going up head to head with these two powerhouses of the local cupcake scene are The Cookie Factory, Sweet Sue’s, Everything Cupcake (Greenwich) and Roseanna’s Custom Cupcakes and Cakes (Queensbury).

I’m a big fan of The Cookie Factory’s donuts and fudge fancies, but I’ve never had their cupcakes. I have heard nothing but great things about Sweet Sue’s. And the bakeries in Greenwich and Queensbury have not even appeared on my radar until just right now.

So this promises to be exciting.

In addition to cupcakes, the event will also feature samples of the savory foodstuffs from the 1760 Manor Inn, The Arlington House, Broadway Brew Pub, Cabot Cheese, Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, El Mariachi, Francesca’s, Franklin Hospitality Group, Marmora Cafe, Moscatiello’s, Old Daley Inn, The Rensselaer at Hilton Garden Inn, and Carol’s Place and the Eatery.

It would be great to see some familiar faces out in the crowd. So if you happen to be free, and feel like supporting a good cause (in addition to eating some tasty food) I hope you can make it. Otherwise, you can expect to hear the results after the dust settles and I can bear to think about cupcakes long enough to write up the experience of the evening.

Wish me luck. And strength. I’m going to need it.