waiting for the results...

sarah and yvonne assembling cupcakes

1400 cupcakes have been filled, frosted and eaten. just waiting for the results of the cupcake challenge. the awards are for "best overall," "best original," and "best traditional." we submitted tahitian vanilla bean for "best traditional" and chocolate and salted caramel for "best original." you can view more pics on here or on my flickr page.

chocolate and salted caramel cupcakes

we had so much fun at the cupcake challenge! everyone was incredibly nice and it was great to see and taste all the mini cupcakes. the contestants went all out decorating their tables. some had giant custom cupcake towers, videos, and raffles. my favorite display was blue cupcake. it was absolutely adorable. our table was full of mini cupcakes resting on ruffled glass and white ceramic cake stands, stacks of my favorite pastry cookbooks and of course, suzanne's "sunday suppers" was tucked in there too. we made some larger versions of the cupcakes for display which proved to be a real hit with all the little kids that attended. who wants a mini cupcake when you can have a large one piled high with frosting and a cute little macaron hat?

...also nestled on our table

before we started packing up, after the competition was over yvonne, sarah and i celebrated with a little champagne. then we went to palate for an amazing dinner. octavio, jason and francois filled our bellies with foie gras, house-made pasta and more bubbly and vino. it was the perfect way to end our 14 hour day.

thank you so much for everyone who came to support us and cheered us on via twitter, facebook and text messages!