ICM: Wisconsin Eye Candy

Beer, Baseball, Fish Fry and Ed Gein?

Well, sure. Why wouldn't that be the best way to immortalize the icons of Wisconsin in cupcakes? It was a gorgeous day at the Discovery World Pilot House as Boswell Books helped to send off IronCupcake:Milwaukee with a bang.

Karen Tack & Alan Richardson were there along with the folks from Boswell Books. Signing and selling the newest book, Cupcakes, Cookies and Pie, Oh My!

Plus, as an added treat, they brought an amazing array of their creations showing off all of the sweetness that ANY baker can achieve. Not just the pros!

EVERYONE had a chance to pose in the always awesome Shutterbox photo booth complements of Shutterbox Milwaukee. Being that it was Valentine weekend, I bet there was a lot of smooching going on behind the velvet curtain! Even our friends from Chicago, Michelle and Vinny Garcia from Bleeding Heart Bakery took the booth for a spin! You can check out all of the strips on the Shutterbox site. Enjoy! Other special guests of the day included a visit from Rachael of Cupcakes Take the Cake and she got the word out about her upcoming Cupcake Cruise in August. Thanks for coming, Rach!


We also had an incredible autographed celebrity cookbook auction that brought in more that raised $$ for Pablove Foundation and sent a bunch of our attendees home with a one-of-a-kind collectible for a reasonable price. Thank you so much to everyone who bid so generously and an even bigger THANKS to the chefs and other donors who contributed to this effort. Every penny of the auction will be added to the IronCupcake donation to Pablove to total well over a thousand dollars from just this one event!

One icon of the IronCupcake era has become our one and only Dear Ruthie (shown with Karen and Alan at the top of the post). Once again, she was the Mistress of Sweet for the afternoon's indulgence. Ruthie has appeared at many IronCupcakes over the years, and we can not thank her enough for classing up the joint!

Our baker's were challenged with creating cupcakes and a display that paid homage to the icons or legend of WI; while utilizing the easy decorating techniques of Karen and Alan using simple, everyday ingredients. So many great ideas were presented. Lots of love for:

Wisconsin's weather,

nature & beauty...


our boozy past & present.

Salutes to our love of sports,

tributes to television,

literary and

artistic giants,

landmark destinations,

serial killers (notice the phyllo dough "skin") and

favorite local foods were highlighted as well.

As always, the local businesses of Milwaukee jumped at the chance to support IronCupcake and donated generously so that a bunch of our attendees could go home with awesome prizes. Among the giveaways were gift cards from Water Buffalo, AJBombers and Swig; gift certificates for treats from Miss Julia's Bakeshop and Milwaukee Cupcake Company; an original illustration from Stunami, two huge spice collections complements of The Spice House, the Cake Wrecks book complements of Cakes by Erin Salerno, private party from Goldi's Shoe Parlor, tour tickets from Milwaukee Food Tours and a one night stay in the Pink Room at the Intercontinental Hotel. Also, great thanks to CCI in Hartland for donating the printing and random numbering of our ballots.

With so many great choices, it was a massive undertaking for the audience to choose it's favorite. But, like a room full of good Wisconsinites should, it was one of the several beer-based cuppies that took home the Popular Choice. Congrats to Kelly (#11 Cute as a Cupcake). She presented two cuppies: the first, a (local) Rum Chata Cake with a hint of Guinness Beer, topped with a decadent Rum Chata frosting and chocolate shavings. The other, also a stronger Guinness cake with Guinness Buttercream and shavings as well. Kelly was also a winner at last years Cupcake Clash. Looks like she came to defend her crown and did not disappoint!

Karen and Alan were blown away by the creative ideas that our bakers presented, but it was a hands down winner for them when they saw Jenny's (#28 Lucky Luna XIII) Friday Fish Fry salute. She won the Judge's Choice by creating brandied red velvet cake with a black strap cream cheese frosting and an "old fashioned sweet" chopped cherry garnish and a butterscotch truffle pop. The realistic decorative plate would never make you believe it was all cakes and sweets and not fish plate from the nearest church cafeteria! Well done, Jenny!

We have lots and lots and LOTS of photos from the event, be sure to check out the slide show above and see if you can find you and your favorites! Thank you to my best friend, Bob, for stepping in at the last minute to take on the photo duties. Awesome job!

Also, many thanks, to Fred and Too Much Metal for One Hand. His wit and text voting and tshirts made IronCupcake all the more "rad". Last, but not least the gang at C2Graphics and ALL OF THE VOLUNTEERS over the years; you made this all possible.

It has been a fantastic run Milwaukee. Thank you for all of the smiles, laughs, tummy aches, charity, and tooth aches. IronCupcake has brought me the most joy and best experiences of my life. I am not sad to see it end, its is always best to go out on top and we definitely made that happen. None of it would have been possible without YOU. Keep it sweet and keep on bakin'.