Tasters at the first annual Capital CupcakeCamp snap up the scrumptious goodies.
A recent batch of funding for a women’s fitness program in Centretown has come from an unlikely source: cupcakes.
Capital CupcakeCamp drew hundreds of people to Jack Purcell Community Centre on March 29 in support of Woman Alive/Femme active, a program that provides low-cost fitness classes for women in need.
The camp is a tasting competition and social networking event for bakers, both professional and amateur, and cupcake lovers that began last June in San Francisco. Since then, camps have popped up in Pittsburgh and Toronto.
The camp raised $2,000 for Woman Alive/Femme active. Kathryn Watcham, Woman Alive program coordinator at Jack Purcell, says it’s great to see so many people participating and showing their support.
“I’m stunned at the numbers,” she says.
The funds raised will help purchase equipment such as bathing suits, yoga mats and running shoes, materials that Watcham says some women don’t have access to. She says that Woman Alive aims to make more equipment available.
The program provides yoga, aquafit and aerobics classes at $1 per class, as well as access to a weight room and fitness equipment. Woman Alive is also a social outlet that helps women connect with other people in their community.
Ottawa’s camp was the largest so far, featuring about 100 bakers and 3,400 cupcakes.
“Ottawa seems to have this love of cupcakes that I didn’t know existed,” says Nicole LeDrew, one of the camp’s organizers.
Word of the event quickly spread over social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
“If Twitter didn’t exist, this event wouldn’t exist,” says LeDrew. “It’s kind of gone viral.”
Through Twitter, camp organizers connected with Watcham and Jack Purcell.
At the camp, volunteers served cakes to tasters, who paid a $5 admission, and to judges. Every 15 minutes, a new batch of treats was delivered to eager crowds, who descended upon them in a frenzy of fingers and frosting.
Judges determined winners in four categories: most unique, best decorated, best chocolate and best in show. The best in show category went to Red Velvet Purse, a small chocolate cupcake dressed as a purse made of red marzipan.
The camp played host to an array of different cupcakes, some frosted with icing and some topped with candies, butterflies, or animal faces.
Classics like vanilla made an appearance, but there were also combinations such as Guinness-chocolate, chocolate–red wine and French toast. There were also guacamole, black pepper with whisky glaze and meatloaf cupcakes with mashed potato icing.
“I think anything can be made into a cupcake,” says Melissa Somers, a baker who brought both s’mores and maple-bacon cupcakes to the event. “The maple-bacon one was definitely a gamble, but it’s actually really good.”
Somers runs a cupcake catering business. She says the camp is way to test unique flavours and get feedback as well as great way to network with other bakers.
“It’s fun to get together and talk business with people,” says Somers. “They’re kind of going for the same thing.”
LeDrew says she is excited with the camp’s turnout.
“This proves that cupcakes are not uncool,” she says. “People are saying, ‘Cupcakes are passé now.’ No they’re not. It’s a classic.”