Cupcake Camp 2011

We came. We baked.  We conquered...the cupcakes!  My buddy Christina of All's Fare Food Blog and I participated in Boston Cupcake Camp 2011 as two of about 50 amateur bakers at the event.  Cupcake Camp is a very cool gathering of cupcake lovers in the city.  Professional and amateur bakers bring dozens of pretty frosting-topped treats to share, and anyone who wants may come in and taste 'til their tongues fall off for FREE!  The folks at the front were collecting donations for Lovin Food Rescue, and Boston Blogger/ Cupcake Camp co-organizer Beantown Baker reported more than $2,300.00 was raised for the org- awesome!

Christina and I agree that there were three basic phases of Cupcake Camp...the first was my favorite, we called it Cupcake Heaven:

Being on the amateur baking team granted us early arrival.  After a quick set-up of our own cupcakes, we got to watch as everyone else set theirs up too.  It was a huge room of baking enthusiasts and their creations.

Christina's setup was so cute and full of Boston pride:

Brand new cupcake truck "C-Cups Cupcakes" had super cute cake toppers with their logo

Christina and I spent most of our Cupcake Heaven time snapping dozens of photos.  Here she is capturing a tray of really unique (and delicious) mini cupcakes.  By the way, the people who made mini-cupcakes were really smart.  Christina and I were trying to share some of the full-size ones, and without utensils, that was tough!

So after Cupcake Heaven, came 7PM which meant the floodgates were opened.  We called this phase Cupcake Mayhem.  The place was swarmed with cupcake-cravers (awesome!)  We tasted a few of the flavors we eyed during set up.  My favorite one was the very first one I tried, and I'm so sad I didn't get a better photo, but the #1 best tasting cupcake for me was the Cookie Dough cupcake by Beantown Baker.  This is definitely going to be one of the next recipes I try out.  Beantown Baker also made Frito Cupcakes that were a huge hit, but I didn't try one.

Another one of my favs was the salted caramel & chocolate cupcake from Mix Bakery:



We tried the "Achin for Bacon" cupcake too...probably the most unique cuppie there!  I really, really wanted to like it, but the bacon bits in the cake were just too weird for me. I loved the maple frosting and the bacon brittle was really interesting too. 

I loved how many people were taking pictures everywhere throughout the entire night.  One of the biggest hits was Party Favor's design-your-own-frosting station, it was Coldstone style with mix-ins. Very cool!

So as you can imagine, the cupcake supply did not last very long during Cupcake Mayhem!  This resulted in the third and final phase of the evening, which we dubbed Cupcake Destruction.  Here's the "after" photo of Christina's area:

And the after of my area...someone even swiped my empty box!

The cupcakes were pretty much gone by the time we left around 8:30PM, but there was still a line going down the block!  Needless to say, Cupcake Camp was a huge success, and we can't wait til next year!!