Yo Gabba Gabba and Cupcake Wars Contest

Having a little one means I am now in the Yo Gabba Gabba world. I love this show! If you don't know this show, then you definitely don't have kids. And I feel kinda special because I know the creators.

Anyways, today Yo Gabba Gabba announced on their Facebook page that they will be on Food Network's Cupcake Wars on April 15. In honor of that, they announced a contest to win a Yo Gabba Gabba prize pack. To enter the contest, you enter a photo of your best Yo Gabba Gabba inspired cupcake. The details are explained here. Submissions must be received by 5:00pm April 6. I've seen a lot of Yo Gabba Gabba themed cakes and cupcakes, so I know many of you have photos already. I can't wait to see the winners!

Coming Up: LA Cupcake Challenge 2012

It's almost time for my favorite cupcake contest of the whole year: the LA Cupcake Challenge! I've had the privilege of judging this event the past two years and I'm excited that they asked me to come back again!

Maybe you're wondering: what IS the LA Cupcake Challenge? It's the best of the best cupcakes in Los Angeles and Orange County. Many of the competitors have been contestants on Food Network's Cupcake Wars. The winners are picked by the public and a panel of celebrity judges (oooohh, I like the sound of that). Tickets are $40 and can be purchased here. A ticket gets you a sample of each cupcake entered in the contest.

The event takes place at the Hollywood Renaissance Hotel on Saturday, February 4, 2012 from 4pm-7pm. Last year the contest happened to fall on the day before I ran the Surf City Half-Marathon. You can check out the article the Orange County Register published about attending the cupcake contest and running the next day. This year I won't be running the next day, but I will be bringing my new little munchkin with me to the event.

Who's going to spend the afternoon eating lots of cupcakes with me?

You can check out my coverage of past LA Cupcake Challenges, along with all of the cupcake contests I've judged here.

Celebrate Mom and Win Cupcakes

In honor of Mother's Day, Cupcake Chic in Orem, Utah is holding a contest to win a year's worth of cupcakes. Who wouldn't love that?! This contest celebrates the mom in your life, so to enter you need to upload a photo of your mom on Cupcake Chic Utah's Facebook page. This is the perfect contest for Cupcake Chic since they are a mother-daughter owned business.

Basic rules:
-Must be Utah or Salt Lake County resident (darn!)
-The photo with the most "likes" wins
-Contest ends midnight May 5
-Winner announced May 6
-Grand prize: one dozen cupcakes a month for a year

I wish I could win because I love Cupcake Chic's cupcakes. Good luck Utah friends!

Scharffen Berger Chocolate Adventure Contest Winners

At the end of last year I reported on Scharffen Berger Chocolate's Adventure Contest. Entrants submitted an original recipe using Scharffen Berger chocolate and an "adventure" ingredient for a chance to win $20,000 in prizes.

The winners have been announced and the best part is that they published the winning recipes! Interesting to note that all of the winning cupcakes used stout beer. Maybe that tells you something about the judges.

GRAND PRIZE

You Make Me Wanna "Stout" Cupcakes
Elaine Barbee
Adventure ingredient: stout beer

SECOND PLACE
Spicy Dulce de Leche and Chocolate Cream Stout Cucpakes with Chili Ganache and Candied Serrano Chiles
Jennifer Daskevich
Adventure Ingredients: Stout beer, buttermilk, sweetened condensed milk, chili pepper

THIRD PLACE
Beer Bellies (Cocoa-Stout Cupcakes with Beer-Malt Frosting and spicy Pretzel Crumbles
Jennifer Burke
Adventure Ingredients: Stout beer, coconut butter, sweetened condensed milk, chili pepper, Meyer lemon

Cupcake Marathon

Also posted on Cupcakes Take the Cake

Cupcakes and triathlons. That pretty much sums up my life. So when a friend pointed me in the direction of Cook Train Eat Race, I knew I had found my people.

I wish I had found them about two weeks ago because that's when their Cupcake Marathon started. What's a cupcake marathon? Participants are given two weeks to run the distance of a full or half marathon. You must submit proof showing the miles and times (Garmin, treadmill, etc). When you enter, are you emailed three recipes from a cookbook. The winner of each category gets a ton of great stuff, including free cupcakes! Yum!

The winners will be chosen by random.org. This is a great way to get us motivated to run more. Of course I missed the registration entry, but I plan on participating in the fall.

Scharffen Berger Chocolate Contest

The Chocolate Adventure Contest: Cupcake Edition 2010

Scharffen Berger Chocolate invites you to summon your spirit of adventure for this year's contest. Create an original cupcake recipe that combines SCHARFFEN BERGER Chocolate and any of the adventure ingredients and enter for a chance to win!

There's $20,000 in prizes and the chance to fly to New York City to bake and share your cupcake from the beloved Sweet Truck. Plus--the winning recipe will appear in the Food Network Magazine. Enter here.




You can get your creative juices flowing by using the interactive cupcake builder to create your cupcake. The cupcake builder will help you get acquainted with the adventure ingredients, thanks to helpful tips from baking guru Alice Medrich.

I recently tried Scharffen Berger Chocolate for the first time and it was delicious! I had a hard time sharing it with my husband, so I hid it. Is that wrong?

Cupcake Camp OC: The Aftermath

Yesterday was Orange County's first Cupcake Camp. Wow! What a crazy and fun event! I can't wait to tell you all about it.

Duncan Hines Red Carpet Cupcake Challenge

Have you dreamed about a celebrity eating one of your cupcakes? Well, now's your chance.

Duncan Hines is the official dessert sponsor of the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards and Creative Arts Award Governors Ball. What does this mean to you? Duncan Hines is giving you the opportunity to have your cupcakes featured at this year's event! Your cupcakes will be sampled by Emmy winners, celebrities, and guests who will be in attendance at this year's Performer's Nominees Reception on August 27th.

That isn't all...you will also receive a trip for two to Los Angeles and two tickets to Fans in the Stands. What a fabulous prize! I would love for a chance to celebrity-watch.

How to Enter: Submit a photo and your recipe through duncanhines.com or through the Duncan Hines Facebook page before July 21, 2010. Visitors will vote for their favorite cupcake. The cupcake with the highest votes will enter the Top 10 phase. The winning cupcake will then be chosen by a panel of celebrity judges based on creativity, ease of preparation, and taste. The winner will be announced on August 3, 2010. Go here to view full rules.

Good luck!

Little Debbie Chocolate Cupcakes

Little Debbie is introducing their newest classic cupcake by giving away 1,000,000 of them! You can enter here!

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But the Chocolate Cupcakes aren't the top prize. The Grand Prize is a Cupcake Car (sporty smart fortwo)! No wonder my husband sent me the link to this contest (he's been wanting a smart car before they even came to the US)!

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First Prize is a year-supply of Little Debbie Chocolate Cupcakes.
Second Prize is a Garmin nuvi 205W personal travel assistant
Third Prize is a collectible scale model of a Cupcake Truck and smart fortwo Cupcake Car
Fourth Prize is an MP3 car adapter
Fifth Prize is a box of Little Debbie Chocolate Cupcakes

You can find Little Debbie on Facebook and Twitter, as well as their website.

My New BFF

Sorry Jill, but I am looking for a new BFF. And Sprinkles Cupcakes is at the top of the list. Sprinkles announced today (via Facebook) that they are hosting a contest to find their new BFF. So what do you get if you become Sprinkles' BFF?

• Roundtrip airfare to LA
• Two nights stay at Beverly Wilshire
• $500 gift card to cover meals, expenses

Now, here's the good part:

• Bakery tour of the world's first cupcake bakery in Beverly Hills with Sprinkles founder, Candace Nelson
• Free cupcakes every day during your stay (including soon-to-be-released 4MYBFF message box)
• 12 Sprinkles Cupcakes mixes (including new spice mix that will be released in the fall)
• Sprinkles cupcake tray
  

Sprinkles, if you are reading this, please note that you can save on the airfare if I win because I live in Orange County. One more thing to note, Sprinkles will be picking a winner when they have 100,000 fans on Facebook.

If I win, I will be taking Jill (my BFF-in-waiting) with me!