Cupcrazed, a cupcake and dessert bar, is quickly becoming one of Fort Mill’s biggest attractions. Open for not even 2 years, owner Heather McDonnell along with her sister-in-law Debbie, have already made two appearances on the Food Network. In September of 2011, they were the winners of “Cupcake Wars” and the cupcakes they made for the show, Shrimp creole and Sweet Tea, generated a great deal of interest. Read about that episode here including a dramatic kitchen fire started by Debbie while frying okra.
Just tonight the first episode of “Cupcake Champions” aired with Heather and Debbie competing against 3 other winners of “Cupcake Wars”. The format for this show is the same as for “Cupcake Wars” with 3 elimination rounds. Winner of the show gets to bake cupcakes for The VIP Party for the Broadway Show Spiderman. In the first round, the bakers had to produce a cupcake using the ingredients apricot, pumpkin, molasses, currants, kale, and oats. The Cupcrazed Girls decided on an Apricot Cupcake with a Molasses pecan pie filling containing currants and a kale oat struesel, all topped by a pumpkin cream cheese frosting.
I would never be able to go on a show like this as I get nervous just watching other people do it. The first round started out rough with Heather accidentally using powdered sugar instead of flour. With just 20 minutes left on the clock, they had to start a second batter from scratch. The finished cupcake didn’t look like it turned out very well and the judges gave it harsh reviews, but somehow they squeaked through to round 2 with Heather in disbelief stating, “I couldn’t have done anything else wrong”.
For the second elimination round, the three remaining bakers were asked to create 3 cupcakes representing the enemies of Spiderman. One Cupcake had to personify The Green Goblin, but the remaining two Spiderman enemies were up to the bakers. Heather and Debbie decided on 1) A Matcha Green Cupcake with raspberries topped by a tiny piano for The Green Goblin, 2) A Brown Sugar Honey Cupcake with Chai Tea Buttercream Frosting and Honey Bee Pollen for Swarm, and 3) A Red Velvet Pomegranate Cupcake with Blood Orange Pomegranate Frosting topped with Chocolate Bloody Red Swirls for Carnage.
I had high hopes for these cupcakes but unfortunately in Heather’s words “They looked like a disaster” and Heather didn’t make it through to Round 3. But for those of us that have had the fortune of frequenting Cupcrazed, we know that Heather is always a winner. She created a thriving business in one of the worst economies ever. She has succeeded at what 99.9% of people would have failed doing. Day after day Cupcrazed bakes up cupcakes that are not only delicious, but completely unique just like Heather and Debbie.
For more on Cupcrazed visit Cupcrazed.com
Twitter