Cupcake Wars Recap: Comedy Cupcakes

This week on Cupcake Wars, four bakers will compete to have their cupcakes served up at Variety Magazine’s third annual Power of Comedy Event. 

Jennifer Styles, PR to the stars is the guest judge and is there looking for hilariously inspired cupcakes that not only look great, but taste incredible. How a cupcake can be hilarious is unclear, but hopefully the bakers will be able to figure it out. It will definitely be fun watching them try.

Contestants:
Christina from Velvet Bake Shop
Lacy from Bliss Cupcake Cafe
Charlene from Fat Bottom Girls Cupcake Shop
Traci From C ’n C Cupcakes

Round 1: Taste

The bakers have an inspiration table full of hilarious ingredients to choose from like bananas, yucca, Boston Creme pie, parsnips and seltzer. As far as inspiration tables go, these ingredients are really approachable, but the bakers need to choose two ingredients and make a funny cupcake. Parsnips, bananas, quince and Boston Creme Pie are some of the most popular ingredients that are chosen.

Both Lacy and Christina make a spiced carrot-style cake with parsnips, so there is definite overlap in ideas among the bakers. The judges have clear opinions on which cupcakes were successfully hilarious and which were just *womp womp.* The judges loved Christina’s spiced parsnip cake with honey buttercream and quince filling, but they were less than impressed with Lacy’s attempt at a similar cake.

The fact that she used seltzer water in place of the butter and oil resulted in a gummy, off-putting texture. Lacy’s tasteless gummy cupcake gets her sent home.

Round 2: Taste and Presentation

Traci and her team are making a Dark Chocolate Cupcake with a Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting, a Pumpkin Spice Cupcake with Salted Maple Italian Buttercream and a White Cupcake with Vodka and a Coffee Liqueur Buttercream for a spin on a white Russian.

She is making several fondant decorations including a banana peel and a sparkling star in a spot light, but her fondant hand throwing the peanut butter pie is the most creative of the bunch. Charlene is whipping up a Chocolate Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting, a Vanilla Cupcake with Raspberry Buttercream and a Lemon Cake with Lavender Buttercream.

All of Charlene’s decorations center around Variety’s ‘V’  and classic comedy masks and her cake flavors are a bit uninspiring. These could impress the judges in their simplicity or completely fall flat.

For Round 2, Christina is trying to keep the success of her first cupcake going by making a few more ‘hilarious’ cakes for the judges. On her menu is a Cannoli Cupcake with Pistachio and Orange topped with a Ricotta Cream Cheese Frosting, a Banana Cupcake with Peanut Butter Frosting and Coconut Cupcake with a Spiced Rum Buttercream.

Her decorations are off to a good start with some very well made fondant Charlie Chaplin hats, banana peels and whoopee cushions but when it comes down to it, she and her mom had poor time management and none of the decorations get placed onto the cupcakes. Typically, presenting cupcakes with no frostings or decorations would ensure your sendoff from Cupcake Wars, but Christina is given an unorthodox second chance because Charlene’s cupcake recipes, while finished, were just plain bad. It can’t be easy getting sent home over someone who didn’t even finish their cupcakes, but Christina’s cupcakes were just that delicious.

Round 3: Cupcake Display

While Christina’s challenge is to finish her decorations during this round, Traci has a few major recipe tweaks to make. She struggled in Round 2 with her Italian buttercream recipe, so she swaps it out for a traditional buttercream in Round 3. For her display, she creates a multi-stage design with red velvet ropes.

The judges love the fact that the ‘Power of Comedy’ sign is prominent and the display is adaptable with three separate pieces. Christina is successful in finishing her cupcakes with frostings, fillings and decorations which is already a step up from Round 2. She has a unique display idea with a large staircase and series of rounded, tiered stages along the side, but the judges are disappointed with the execution. The front is very unadorned, with the ‘Power of Comedy’ sign somewhat small and lost in a sea of black paint.

When it comes to her cupcakes, however, the judges are thrilled. The completed cupcakes live up to their expectations of fabulous textures and flavors. In the end, the judges adore her cupcakes so much, that they once again overlook her shortcomings (in this case - her display) and name her the winner of cupcakes wars.

While Traci’s display was impressive, her reworked cupcake recipes still fell a bit short in the taste department compared to Christina’s and when it comes down to it, no one wants to serve subpar tasting cupcakes.

It just goes to show that while the judges look heavily at presentation, good taste will trump everything else. What’s the point of a gorgeous cupcake if it tastes like sandpaper? Congratulations, Christina!

And remember to visit our section of Cupcake Wars recipes today!