Cupcake Challenge 2009: Photo gallery

It was sweet, semisweet and occasionally bittersweet at yesterday's sold-out Nesquik Cupcake Challenge. Nearly 450 cupcake lovers — mostly women — descended on the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel to devour dozens of delectable, brightly colored mini-cupcakes.

Instead of trying to taste all 34 cupcakes in one sitting, the smarter among us (or the weaker, depending on your perception) came armed with bakery boxes and left with dozens of uneaten cupcakes. The sugar rush proved too much for some. Fortunately, the Quik Bunny was on hand for moral support and photo ops.

Ultimately, it was all about riotous flavor pairings and unexpected finds, though many a cupcake was undone by frosting that was too sweet and overpowered the cake. But the white chocolate macadamia cupcake from Two Parts Sugar managed to melt the arteries of this die-hard white chocolate hater. The chocolate bread pudding cupcake from Boho was moist and not too sweet with a dense consistency closer to … well, bread pudding than a cupcake. Other standouts included Delilah's chocolate cupcake with orange and Jack Daniel's frosting; Melli Belli's herbaceous lavender cupcake; Polkatots' dulce de leche cupcake; Layer's blood orange mango creamsicle cupcake; Southern Girl's sweet potato pie cupcake; Sugar Jones' gelato-inspired Casanova's Kiss cupcake (a combo of chocolate, hazelnut and pistachio); Oinkster's peanut butter and jelly cupcake; and Miss Priss' Pineapple Goes Coconut cupcake.

Winners will be announced Tuesday. For many of the small bakeries and caterers who participated, the opportunity to show off their skills to potential clients is just as important. The two titans of the cupcake scene, Crumbs and Sprinkles, were nowhere to be seen — and that was mostly by design. "I've never invited Sprinkles, and Crumbs never wants to compete," says organizer Dan Silberstein. "It'd be like Anheuser-Busch in a beer competition. They have nothing to gain because if they win, then it's like, of course, they're supposed to win. If not, then they lost to some no-name competitor."

[Dozens of gorgeous cupcake pictures after the jump.]

-- Elina Shatkin

Photos: Rob Takata / For The Times

Comments

[nathalie]

LOVE this post!!

[amourra]

dulce de leche sounds yummy...did anyone happen to try it? how was it?

[Carimenia]

Those Sweet Potato cupcakes are the BOMB!!! They just explode with that old sweet taste of Sweet Potato Pie! Just like grandma use to make em! Those Southern Girls must know a little sumptin!

[mattatouille]

omg this photo set is EVIL.