Chocolate Pink Cupcake Contest

On Sunday afternoon Chocolate Pink Café hosted its First Annual Chocolate Pink Cupcake Contest.  Members of the Atlanta Food Bloggers Alliance had the awesome pleasure of participating as judges.  I’m so happy to be a part of this supportive group of local food bloggers – – membership definitely has some pretty SWEET benefits.

The staff at Chocolate Pink Café did a great job of creating an inviting space for us in their upstairs Event Room.  The table display was beautiful and the natural light allowed us to take some pretty good pictures.  Here are the cupcakes we sampled:

Can you imagine how amazing it must have been to be surrounded by all of this goodness on a Sunday afternoon?

How about sipping coffee served in these pretty vessels adorned in the cafe’s signature colors.

One of the really nice bonuses during this event was an appearance by Chef Balbierer of Chocolate Pink.  He spoke to us about his cupcakes and the cupcake industry.  He said that one the things he favors in baking cupcakes is their uniqueness and size which I can totally appreciate.  I also admire the fact that everything is made from scratch – even the garnishes.  The smallest details really do make a huge difference don’t you think?

Now on to the judging…

The cupcakes were served in two sets of four.  On the first plate were:

1. Chocolate Nutella – The chocolate cake with hazelnut filling and crushed hazelnut garnish reminded me of a very familiar hazelnut candy.

2. Pumpkin Maple with Bacon –This pumpkin spice cake was paired with a light and fluffy maple buttercream and an applewood smoked bacon garnish.  The sweet/salty combination was more subtle than expected on this but nice all the same.

3. Sweet Potato with Brown Butter – The spice cake was moist and accented with tiny little pieces of sweet potato… a nice touch I think. The brown butter topping was amazing and when paired with the spice cake, had me channeling sweet potato pie.

4. Chocolate Fudge – After the first bite I was sold on this molten chocolate cake with its fudgy center and chocolate ganache.  It’s a chocolate lovers dream.  Well, it’s mine at least.  The creamy ganache and super moist cake literally melted in my mouth. 

The second plate held:

5. Dulce de Leche – This sticky little gem was a coconut milk cake with dulce de leche carmel.  The caramel was made by slowly heating sweetened condensed milk.  I do enjoy my caramel.

6. Cookies N Cream – I was sold on this one after finding that there were little pieces of oreo cookies crumbled into the vanilla chiffon cake and the oreo buttercream.  Not too much though.  For oreo cookie lovers who love to dunk, this cupcake is a happy marriage of that experience. 

7. Chocolate Peanut Butter – This is the comfort food of cupcakes.  If you’ve ever taken a piece of chocolate and dipped it in a jar of peanut butter, you’ll understand.  The crunchy peanut butter cake with its chocolate chunk ganache topping and airy peanut butter buttercream was delightful. 

8. Strawberry Pop Tart – What a pleasant surprise! I was admittedly a little apprehensive about this because I thought it would be too sweet but it really wasn’t.  The tender morsel of cake was spread with a thin layer of  strawberry jam then topped with a light strawberry buttercream accented with a sable cookie and nonpareils to tie it all together.  YUM. 

Before I tell you which cupcake garnered the most votes, check out some of the other offerings from the cafe.

Butter Pecan – yellow cake with, creamy butter pecan buttercream and a pecan sandie cookie.

Coconut – coconut milk poundcake with coconut sour cream filling, white chocolate buttercream and shredded coconut flakes.

Pink Champagne Raspberry – pink champagne cake, raspberry filling and raspberry buttercream.

Red Velvet – classic red velvet cake with cream cheese icing.

There are more varieties of cupcakes offered at Chocolate Pink Cafe so it’s worth checking out their website to find the confection suited best for you.

Without further delay, here are the winners of the 1st Annual Chocolate Pink Cupcake Contest:

Best Flavor
Chocolate Peanut Butter

Best Texture
Cookies and Cream

Best Presentation
Chocolate Peanut Butter

Most Unique
Pumpkin Maple with Bacon

and the Best Overall was awarded to…….

I had a great time Sunday afternoon and I learned a lot during the event.

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I’m participating in the Foodie Friday potluck party hosted weekly at Designs by Gollum and Finer Things Friday hosted by The Finer Things in Life.  Join the fun!

Update:  Chocolate Pink is now closed.  We’ll miss the chefs and their great confections.