The crowd was bubbling with excitement for this weeks incredible IronCupcake:Milwaukee BEER challenge. Our biggest event to date, with hundreds of judges, 2 dozen bakers and whole lotta cupcakin' goin' on. We raised money for the Wisconsin Brewer's Guild - which supports independent local brewers; as well as monies for the Red Cross Haitian relief efforts. This city is so awesome.



Kidd O'Shea/WISN12 news and Charles Bensen/TMJ4 were both filming the event, and the Wisconsin Gazette was also on hand. A HUGE night.



Our partner for the night was BLATZ LIQUOR, along with Lucy Saunders of beercook.com. Beer is NOT a strange bedfellow for cupcakes, in fact I heard many comments that these were some of the best and most unique cupcakes we have seen! Joe Woelfle of Blatz Liquor was on-hand to make his PARNTER'S PICK and he could not help but fall for Melissa's Cremé Brulée Cupcake. Her creation was a vanilla cake soaked in a beer caramel sauce that used Southern Tier's Creme Brulée Stout. It was topped with a rich vanilla cream cheese frosting and a vanilla hard candy.



It was no suprise that Joe loved Melissa's cupcake, as our Celebrity Judge, Michelle Garcia of Bleeding Heart Bakery, had the same appreciation for it. She was so impressed with the complexity of flavors and it's excellent presentation. Thanks so much to Michelle for bringing her family up to Milwaukee and sharing your creativity with all of us here in Milwaukee. So, double whammy, Melissa won the CELEBRITY JUDGES CHOICE as well! Melissa was a first time IronCupcaker, and I suspect we will be seeing a lot more of her.



Another first time IronCupcaker, Mary Beth, came in from out of no where and scooped up the popular pick for BEST TASTE. Using one of my personal favorites, Blue Moon, she presented a Chocolate Cupcake with Orange-Blue Moon Ganache. Welcome to Mary Beth as well. I love that IronCupcake keeps bringing in new bakers and judges every month. Congratulations.



Before I blog about our Presentation prize, I feel the need to highlight another first time team. The pair of David and Jeremy. These guys jumped in late in the game, I believe that they felt that it would be just a fun joke to participate. But I know for a fact that they are now hooked and have already signed up for the upcoming Bacon challenge. What they created was so hysterically aawesome and inherent of the core purpose of IronCupcake, creativity and having fun. These two have NEVER made a cupcake before. What they came up with was the White Trash Cupcake - a potato and Pabst Blue Ribbon cupcake with a ketchup tabasco frosting, topped with a sugared potato chip. The dressed the part, they ACTED the part (see TMJ4's report). They cracked everyone up. I see future presentation winners in the making.



Speaking of PRESENTATION, lets get to the point. Our incredibly talented friend, Erin, has once again knocked everyone's socks off with her Duff Beer/Seymour Butz Cupcake. A lemon cupcake soaked in Mike's Hard Lemonade. It was then topped with raspberry Lambic Belgium Framboise Beer buttercream. It was garnished with a donut dipped in chocolate and sprinkles. An ode to The Simpsons, complete with Duff Beer pyramid and a loafing Homer sprawled out on the couch in his underwear. Incredible detail Erin. Seriously.

As always, we were blessed with the talents of Jim Conway and his incredible photography. A slide show of the event can be viewed below. Thank You Jim! xoxox