Pastry Chicago Cupcake Competition!!

I decided to attend the cupcake competition hosted by Pastry Chicago and the French Pastry School that will take place on October 23rd, which is this coming Saturday. The winners will receive awesome prices from Kitchen Aid products, and I believe the 1st place winner will get a Kitchen Aid Mixer!! How exciting is that! So far I believe there are already 35 competitors signed up, and judging from last year's winners, it's looks like I am going up against some tough, highly skilled cupcake masters!

For this competition, I cannot reveal too much of what I have planned for my cupcake, but what I can tell you is that, I am experimenting with pumpkin seeds as my flour. That is why in my previous post I wrote about using my Kitchen Aid hand blender with the food processor attachment to turn my pumpkin seeds into a flour-like ingredient. And use the pumpkin seed flour as part of my flour mixture in my cupcake. I am hoping this will bring some kind of unique flavor and texture into my cupcake base.

One of a challenge for me would be finding time to practice my recipes since both of my roommates are also in French Pastry School, and one of them is also competing! So we have to be real cautious of each other, not to reveal our ideas or secret recipes. After school, I head towards the gym for a 2 hour work out, it's a must, since every day I consume a brick load of butter, sugar, and other fattening French pastries. When I get home and shower, it's roughly about 11PM and that's when I start my practice cupcakes.

I cannot reveal any recipes for these cupcakes yet, but if I win the competition, I will surely post up the winning recipe! On this tray of cupcakes, there are 3 different types of flavors, methods and textures. As you can clearly tell, there's an obvious difference in the color, height, and shape of the 3 rows of cupcakes. But all of them have one thing in common, they all have the pumpkin seed flour that I've made earlier incorporated into the cupcake batter.

As for the frosting for the cupcake. I'm still not sure what flavors I'm reaching for, but I do have ginger and honey on my mind. So perhaps a 'Ginger Honey Cream Cheese Frosting' ? That does sound very delicious, but we will see how the flavors bind with cream cheese as a frosting. I hope I win! I want that Kitchen Aid!!