Finally! The end. When I first thought up this contest, it sounded like a fun thing to do. I created special evaluation sheets for each store and each cupcake, rating frosting flavor, cupcake attractiveness, cake flavor and moistness, price and size, and even customer service and display at the store. I created a list of select cupcake stores from all over L.A. (Auntie Em’s, Buttercake, Hotcakes, Lucky Devils, Sprinkles and SusieCakes) which my friends could choose from, and told them to bring back two each of red velvet, chocolate and a wild card flavor (i.e. the most exotic, unique flavor in the store).
But I failed to take other things into consideration. For example, I didn’t even realize that it would be good to serve something salty between each category to “cleanse our palates” or to provide 
drinks other than water. And how could we possibly make it through 18 cupcakes?
After the first category, which was the red velvets, we had to take a mini break and snacked on lovely salty tortilla chips. Since the girls felt too sugared out to dive into the next category, chocolate, we tested the wild card flavors instead. After barely making it through that one, we had to take a break.
Unfortunately, Emilia had to leave for a baby shower and so wasn’t able to complete the test. The rest of us had to take a long walk. So we strolled to Starbucks down the street for some much needed bitter coffee. I felt a strange lightheadedness and had the irrational fear that this would kickstart the diabetes that runs in my family.
After an hour break, we resumed the contest. Not as enthusiastic as when we first started but ever the troopers. (Beth started drawing in happy faces in the place of numbered ratings.) For the last category our samples were smaller in proportion as I split one cupcake into six pieces instead of four pieces. However, we scribbled our notes, guessed which of our favorites would win, I tallied the results and here are the rankings.
FINAL RANKINGS:
Red Velvet:
- Sprinkles*
- SusieCakes
- Lucky Devils
- Auntie Em’s
- Buttercake
- Hotcakes
Chocolate:
- Auntie Em’s
- Lucky Devils
- Buttercake
- SusieCakes
- Sprinkles
- Hotcakes
Wild Card:
- SusieCakes’ Chocolate Mint
- Auntie Em’s Coconut
- Buttercake’s Coconut Chocolate
- Sprinkles’ Chocolate Coconut
- Lucky Devils’ Beet
- Hotcakes’ Vanilla
Voted Sexiest Cupcake: Auntie Em’s Coconut
Voted Best Everyman Chocolate Cupcake: Buttercake
BTW, special thanks to my sisters in cupcakehood (Beth, Donna D., dotsara, Emilia and Valerie). I definitely couldn’t have done this without your help and feel like we share a special bond now as we survived this grueling project.
- Oddly enough, before I tallied the scores we had taken an informal vote of which red velvets we thought were the best. SusieCakes and Auntie Em’s were a tie.