Heather Mcdonnell wins Cupcake Wars

Fort Mill’s Cupcrazed Returns to the Food Network

May 13, 2012 By Christin M Leave a Comment

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

Filed Under: Local Business Tagged With: Cupcake Wars, Cupcrazed Cakery Baxter

Cupcrazed’s Gumbo Cupcake is a Real Winner

September 13, 2011 By Christin M 1 Comment

Well, I couldn’t resist. After watching Heather McDonnell win Cupcake Wars on Sunday night and finding out that they would be serving all 4 Cupcake War flavors at Cupcrazed Cakery this week, I just had to go and get my hands on one of the Gumbo cupcakes which they have named Shrimp Creole Cupcakes. My curiosity got the best of me. I couldn’t stretch my imagination far enough to even fathom what a gumbo cupcake might taste like.

I split the cupcake and gave half to my son. I fully expected that most of it would end up in the garbage can. But – I was surprised to find that it was actually very good and really tasted like shrimp creole. I was really impressed. The cupcake part was dense, but not dry and both spicy and sweet at the same time. Kind of like cornbread, but not really. Totally unlike anything I have ever eaten before. There’s just a slight taste of shrimp and my favorite part is the kernels of sweet corn.

The cream cheese frosting I didn’t care for as much. It seemed to be lacking a little something. I didn’t get to try the infamous fried okra (that almost burnt the building down) on top – I let my son have it. But now I have an excuse to go back and get another one

They were sold out of the Sweet Tea cupcakes and Cookis and Cream. I’m not a big fan of the mixture of ingredients in Hummningbird – so I passed on those. So if you are looking to be a little adventurous this week, go try the Shrimp Creole Cupcake and support a totally awesome local business.

Cupcrazed Cakery

Filed Under: Local News, Restaurants Tagged With: Cupcake Wars, Cupcrazed Baxter, gumbo cupcake, Heather McDonnell, shrimp creole cupcake

Heather Mcdonnell wins Cupcake Wars

September 11, 2011 By Christin M 3 Comments

Our very own Heather McDonnel, owner of Cupcrazed Cakery in Baxter, has won Cupcake Wars! Cupcake Wars airs on the Food Network and involves three rounds of cupcake baking challenges. The first challenge involves four bakers and the use of a special ingredient or theme, which is always something very unusual and uncupcake-like.

The theme for tonight’s Cupcake Wars southern food and the contestants had to use either barbecue, gumbo, or fried chicken and mashed potatoes as inspiration for a cupcake. Heather, realizing she needed to take a risk in order to win, chose what she perceived to be the most difficult – the gumbo. She quickly decided to concoct a buttermilk cupcake with shrimp, corn, and peppers in the batter and a cream cheese frosting with hot sauce and scallions all topped with a piece of fried okra.

The competition really heated up when the okra, in the process of frying and left unattended, burst into flames. Debbie, Heather’s assistant and sister-in-law, panicked by the sight of the flames, carried the burning skillet over to the sink and ran water on the flames, which only made a bad situation worse – much worse! Very, very LARGE flames.

Luckily for Heather, the judges really thought she captured the essence of gumbo in her cupcake and she made it to the second round.

There was a little nail-biting in the second round when one of the 3 cupcakes Heather was making, the Sweet Tea Cupcake, failed to cook all the way through. But the judges really liked her decorating and since this round is judged 50% on presentation, she squeaked by to the final round.

In the third round, Heather kicked butt with her cupcakes and her picnic table display and as a result, won the $10,000 prize and the opportunity to make cupcakes for Jeanette McCurdy’s record release party. Yeah for Heather!

In honor of Cupcake Wars, I decided to bake up a batch of cupcakes yesterday so I could eat one while I watched the show. I dug up a recipe for Cookies and Cream Cupcakes that I clipped from a magazine God only knows how many years ago. From the looks of the font, I’d say it’s a Family Circle recipe.

Ironically, Cookies and Cream was one of the cupcake flavors Heather baked on the show. Even though these cupcakes were quite tasty, they were no match for Heather’s cupcakes. In the future, I’ll just get my cupcake fix by going to Cupcrazed.

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream
2 tablespoons milk 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 oreos, broken into pieces

Frosting

2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup reduced fat sour cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 0r 6 crushed oreos

How To Do It

Heat oven to 350. Line 12 muffin tray with liners.
In small bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt. In mixing bowl, beat butter until smooth.
Beat in sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time.
On low-speed, alternately beat in flour mixture and sour cream, beginning and ending with flour.
Add milk and vanilla and fold in cookie pieces.
Divide batter among cups and bake for 18-20 minutes. Let cool.
For frosting: beat sugar, butter, sour cream, and vanilla until good consistency.
Frost cupcakes.

Yield:12 cupcakes.