A Post-Grad's Attempt at a Healthy, Joyful, and Blissfully Sweet Life

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Ready, Set...EAT!

let me begin my blog post with this ad:


Rhode Island Food Fights hosts events all year long, each with a different food theme.  They ask bakeries in the surrounding areas to set up a booth and hand out samples of their baked good to people who paid admission to the event.  With your ticket ($10), you get an all-you-can-eat access to so many different bakeries, plus coffee and milk, and then you vote for the best bakery.

with the theme of the event being cupcakes, you know there was no way i was going to miss this.  i called my best friend kayla, and she was more than down too so we anxiously awaited the day thousands (try 10,000) cupcakes would be ours for the inhaling.

march 10 was actually daylight savings day, so we lost an hour that previous night.  i was more than ok to loose an hour if it meant it would make me one hour closer to the cupcakes.  as luke said, "the universe must have known."

kayla and i had no clue what to expect out of this event.  i was a little nervous i would die of happiness once i saw all the cupcakes and never get to try any of them, but thankfully that did not happen.

when we walked in, we saw this:


and about 2.3 seconds after i snapped this picture, i dove head first into the table.

the event was in a huge room with tables lined along the perimeter.  we were there right when the doors opened, which was good because things soon got hectic.  to say the room got congested would be a gross understatement.  i'm surprised i left with all my limbs.


there were so many people and it got very overwhelming.  there was lots of pushing and shoving to get to the cupcakes.

a little overwhelmed about all the people!
the cupcakes themselves, however, were incredible.  it was SO MUCH FUN to go up to a table, grab a sample, and stuff it into my face.  in the beginning kayla and i each took a cupcake from the a table and ate the whole thing, but we quickly changed our game plan.  with so many cupcakes to try, we didn't want to fill up too soon!


but fill up we did.  the cupcakes were mini, but man were they filling.  we actually had to take a few breaks and sit down to recover! our bodies were going into shock from all the sugar and we soon looked like this:

SO MUCH SUGAR!!!!!
our favorite place we came across was "Patticakes" because they had the most unique and intriguing cupcakes we've ever seen! for instance, they had a chocolate peanut butter cupcake, but it was served in an egg shell and you were given a little spoon to scoop the cupcake out with:



 the cupcake was chocolate cake on the botton, a layer of peanut butter frosting, peanut butter, then a rich chocolate ganache and wow was it delicious.

they also had a champagne cupcake kayla loved:

with a cookie champagne bottle on top, how cute!?!
a delicious salted caramel cupcake with a shot of caramel you could squirt onto the top:

how fun are those!?
and a s'mores one that was divine.  what is especially impressive about this cupcake is that everything, from the graham cracker to the marshmello is all homemade.  inside was a marshmello filling as well!


we tried so many cupcakes...some were good:


a chocolate coconut cupcake with an almond joy candy bar on top! sooooo gooooood
and some were not:


a caramel late cupcake that was just gross. 
another highlight from the day was getting to see Aimee from Aimee's Bakin'! She and I went to high school together and she went on to graduate from Johnson and Wales as a pastry chef! she now has her own buisness and i got to try some of her delicious cupcakes finally!! I highly recommend her if you are looking for a good baked good!

Hi Aimee!!
eventually the inevitable happened: we got full.  i am a little disappointed in my body for not being able to consume dozens of cupcakes in one sitting.  not yet ready to admit defeat, we took a break and just took pictures of the cupcakes until we felt prepared to eat them:

a cannoli cupcake that tasted JUST like a real cannoli. 
i had also brought a little container with me, so as the cupcakes turned into a nauseating taunt, i just put them in my tupperware to eat at a later date.  mind you, mine fit seven but there were people there with sheet cake boxes that were piling them in.  needless to say, about two hours after the event opened, the booths were cleared out even though the event still had two hours to go.



my parting token which i enjoyed all last week
 as we were leaving, we were handed free flour!

kayla is super excited about the flour
and we saw Cupcake Charlie's van!


i have eaten at this bakery before and they have a slogan i live my life by:


clearly.

by the end we were stuffed to the brim with cupcakes and decided that as fun as the event was, it would be better to just grab a tupper ware (or sheet cake box...) and fill it with cupcakes to take home and eat leisurely.  as it turns out, too much a good thing can lead to a stomach ache!

when i got home, all i wanted was a salad.  luckily i had one already waiting for me in the fridge, and so as i tried to figure out exactly how many spinach leaves i could fit into my mouth without suffocating, i told my mom about the day.  i actually think i literally had leaves hanging out my mouth as i talked to her.  only a mother's love is so deep that she didn't judge me.

all that embarrassing stuff being said, the day was so fun.  when are you ever brought into a room and told "go eat as much as you want of your favorite food!"?!? i felt very lucky to have been there and able to try everyone's work.  it's nice to know your passion is shared with others!

notice my thumb.  things got messy that day...
all last week i loved getting to eat the cupcakes i took home, and it definitely inspired me to make more of my own! maybe i will have a booth at the next Great Cupcake Championship...

also, i've heard whisper about a Great Ice Cream Championship...kayla, you ready?!?