Every once and awhile my office has a bake-off.  Last December I actually won 3rd place (and a $25 Visa gift card!) for our holiday bake-off, and for Valentine’s Day they had another competition, one I readily joined.  My creation: chocolate red wine cupcakes with cream cheese frosting!

ta daaaaaaah!

This recipe pulled together 3 separate recipes (or “techniques”, maybe), and is one of the more time-intensive baking challenges I’d taken on since the holidays.  That’s not to say it was super complicated – I mean, this is ME we’re talking about – but it definitely took patience and some planning.  And it was totally worth it.

I’d seen the recipe for a red wine bundt on G+.  I started following bakers and chefs on Google+ and it’s allowed me to see a lot of really pretty pictures that draw me into new recipes.  This one I decided to morph from a bundt into cupcakes for a SuperBowl party, and determined from there that it was a keeper.  The cake smells very distinctly of red wine which is a pretty big allure for anyone thinking at first that they’re “just” chocolate cupcakes.  They’re a bit heavy and a touch on the dry side, but nothing that can’t be fixed with a little re-jiggering of ingredients.  Everyone I’ve talked to who’s tried them has had good things to say.

Nekkid Cupcakes

Cream cheese frosting probably isn’t much of a revelation for anyone, but I decided to use the one from my new Bouchon Bakery cookbook.  It was definitely a success, but much looser than I’d anticipated; even after adding additional powdered sugar it didn’t stiffen up the way I’d hoped.  It still held its shape just fine, but as soon as it got bumped it lost its definition.  Not a big deal – it still tasted great! – but still not quite what I was expecting.

Frosting!

Finally the little pink heart accents were a trick I again picked up from G+ from My Baking Addiction.  I thought they’d be the perfect little flourish on the cupcakes for anyone using visual appeal to vote for my dessert.

Candy Hearts

While the Holiday Bake-Off last December had a finite number of judges using specific criteria (taste, visual appeal, etc), the Valentine’s Bake-Off was more of a popularity contest.  Each competitor got a number and a table, and anyone who felt like it could wander through, try the desserts and vote for their favorite.  Unfortunately I somehow missed the memo that we were supposed to supply at least 75 samples…I capped out around 50 after splitting each cupcake 4 ways.  Already at a numerical disadvantage, I ended up sounding a bit like a barker at carnival: “NINETEEN VOTE NINETEEN!  RED WINE CUPCAKES, VOTE NINETEEN IF YOU LIKE ‘EM!”

My table at the competition.

There were a LOT more people competing than in the Holiday competition, so many so that it was actually impossible to try every single dessert without injuring yourself (I tried).  I did not win, but that’s okay – there were a lot of really good desserts there (pies, cookies, turtle cakes, fudge – the list goes on!), and next time I’ll know to at least bring more of my dessert.  The winners truly deserved it, I felt, and I didn’t feel slighted in the least.  Mostly, it was a good excuse to do some fancy baking and spend a few hours at work eating baked goods and talking with co-workers.

The “people in charge” of the entire event said it was a great success, so I have no doubt they’ll be doing more baking competitions.  Until then, though, I’ll just have to practice. ^_^

Individual serving of cupcake.

Red Wine Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting & Candy Heart Accents

• Red Wine Chocolate Bundt (Recipe makes ~2 dozen cupcakes)
• Candy Heart Accents
• Cream Cheese Frosting…srsly you can find a recipe for that anywhere.  Do some Googlin’!

Mary Gezo

Formerly of both n00bcakes and !Blog, the two magically become one on Spatialdrift; expect some lazy baking and serious nerditude. Also, I love semicolons.