You Can't Have Your Cake and Eat it Too!

The Truth about the Winning Snowman Cupcake

at Cupcake Conference 2010.

I attended the Seussalicious Cupcake Conference in Salt Lake City at the beautiful Grand America hotel this past month.   It was an amazing conference for a group of Twitter/Bloggers who love cupcakes.  It was great to meet faces of blogs I've read or people I've tweeted with.  (Like meeting @LivingtheScream who realized I was her mom's neighbor and Emily Hill from "Is this Really My Life", see her post on #CupcakeConf). I also loved all the raffle giveaways and swag from different cupcake companies (and more listed on this site) and I can't wait to book the Fotofly session for my newborn.  See more #cupcakeconf pics on my flickr stream to the right.

The head chef at the Grand America gave us tips about making cupcakes (my favorite was that their buttercream frosting had egg whites to help give it that meringue fluffiness, and that they always use real butter for everything).  (Update Sept. 3, Grand America just posted their frosting recipe.)

They also had a cupcake decorating contest.  They gave all the attendees a cupcake, bowls of pretty pastel frosting, a variety of tips and sprinkle elements then let everyone start designing.  I created it just to have fun, not thinking I had a chance because after all, there were real bakers in the group and I loved all the other colorful designs.  When the pastry chef picked my cupcake as the winner I was surprisingly shocked.  I won a fun cupcake decorating kit from Orson Gygi (the kitchen supply store).

Seussalicious Cupcake designed by Grand America's Pastry Chef.

Ok, I have to confess. I was so excited I could not bring myself to eat it that night. #1 - it had too much frosting to eat it and #2 - I tried to take pictures of the cupcake but you couldn't really see the details and I wanted to show it to my mom who was at home tending the new baby, so..... do you want to know what happened to this prize winning cupcake?  I put it in the small groove of my dashboard for the ride home and while I was rounding the corner of the 1-80 spaghetti bowl the snowman flew across the dashboard and splattered into the windshield.  Oh man!  I was not happy. I was only minutes from home and had saved it all night just to show my mom.  I think I needed that to happen to help humble my winning ego.  When I walked in the door I thanked her for watching the kids and told her I won the contest. She asked if I brought the cupcake home to show her and I said, "I already ate it," too embarassed to tell her what really happened.

I can't wait for the next cupcake conference (which is currently being planned).  But just remember what I learned: You better eat a good cupcake as soon as you get the chance because if you hold onto it, it might splatter on the windshield. Or in other words: You can't have your cake and eat it too.

(I apologize for lying mom.) This is the cake I made for my mom "The Cookie Monster" back in May.