ever so sweet

I was able to attend a cupcake competition at Chocolate Pink Pastry Cafe last Sunday.

I recently joined the Atlanta Food Bloggers Alliance, a great support group for food bloggers like me, and a fun way to meet other bloggers.   We meet around 2 times a month and discuss ways to promote and make our blogs more enjoyable and more accessible to other readers.  I’ve met a lot of new and great people through the group and they did a great job in planning this and other events for bloggers to be inspired by.  The group is run by Mandy of Self Trained Chef.  She is very welcoming and does a good job at making everyone feel comfortable in coming together.

I’ve been to chocolate pink many times in it’s midtown location.  I love the motif of both the retail store and cafe located at the base of the store and the stunning event space available for rental that is upstairs.  Chocolate pink sells many individual tarts and assembled desserts as well as larger options of the same, molded chocolates, and of course, cupcakes.

This was the stunning display of cupcakes that the nice people at Chocolate pink were gracious enough to provide for our group.

Mandy prepared a brief history of cupcakes that was very informative.  I didn’t even know many of these facts about the mini cakes.  We learned that cupcakes originated from two theories:  they were baked in cups before tins were invented, and when preparing them, cupcakes are measured in cup measurements as compared to the normal volume that would be associated with pound cakes.

The layout of cupcakes looked amazing.

“Just try it, you might like it!” - Chef Christian encourages us to try the pumpkin cake with maple butter cream garnished with BACON!  It’s easy to see why this cupcake won Most Unique-ness. 

This is the strawberry pop tart cupcake topped with a mini sable cookie.

This is the chocolate fudge cupcake with a hint of strawberry in the molten center of the cake.

Chef Christian Balbierer himself took some time to talk to us about his background and his business.  He spoke about a typical day for he and his staff, starting around 6AM with long prep days.  With an extensive menu of everything made from scratch and most garnishes are hand cut or hand formed, it’s easy to see why they have to start so early.  He speaks passionately about his business and the work he puts out and welcomes competition, because its a challenge that pushes him to try new things.  When asked, Chef commented that the next challenges that he is trying to work on are specialty gluten free or sugar free diets, also forecasting that savory flavors will soon be incorporated in desserts in the near future.  With hopes to soon expand to several locations and offer more shipping options, its easy to see that Chocolate Pink has no intention of slowing down anytime soon. 

Chef explains that he likes making cupcakes because it is a “reminder of childhood”, and when developing flavor combinations, it can take anywhere from a week to months to get a cupcake that is suitable for sale in the store.  Chef likes to take a fresh perspective on his food, beating others to the unique punch and pushing the limits in what you would expect in a normal bakery.  In his artistic menus, he uses his 14 flavors of cupcakes as mediums for art.  He likes to experiment with different looks with various glazes and fillings as well as piping techniques and garnishes.  

Finally the tasting started.  On the first plate we had the:  strawberry pop tart, dulde de leche, cookies and cream and chocolate peanut butter.

On the second plate we had the:  sweet potato brown butter, chocolate fudge, chocolate nutella, and the pumpkin maple.

We were given score cards that rated each cupcake on a 1-5 scale in the categories of:  flavor, texture, presentation and uniqueness.  After adding everything up and tallying the votes, the winners were in!

Cookies and Cream won best texture.

Chocolate Peanut Butter won Best Flavor, Best Presentation and Best Overall.

Co-owner Michael Goodrich, Chef’s pastry assistants, and Chef Christian Balbierer stand for an applause from our group for a great afternoon.

And now its your turn to try one of these great cupcakes!  Print this coupon and bring it into Chocolate Pink for a free cupcake!