Cupcakes! And the winner is...

    “When you look at a cupcake, you’ve got to smile”.  –Anne Byrn

  Katie here checking in on my first blog post.  Anne Byrn must be right because there were a lot of cupcakes on this adventure resulting in lots of beaming smiles.  Friday afternoon we launched ourselves into the world of flour, icing, and sprinkles with the determination of a Navy Seal and a larger pair of pants to settle the hotly debated issue of which cupcake reigns supreme in Knoxville. 

  

  The contenders: Magpies Bakery, Cities Cupcake Boutique, Gigi’s Cupcakes, and The Cup.  Because we had never heard of Magpies and had had a previous bad experience with a different mysterious bakery (you’ll have to ask us about it later) we were pleasantly surprised to find that it was a funky and cute.  What made us even more gleeful was being greeted by a friendly platter full of free mini cupcakes to sample that were delicious available right as we walked in the door.  Apparently the workers at Magpies are mind-readers because we weren’t given an option of which cupcake to buy but were handed a cute red velvet cupcake that was iced as we waited. 

  

  As we walked into Cities Cupcakes I had no idea what to expect.  What was found could not have been more opposite than Magpies.  Lilac colored walls, white tables, and a cute, all-American-looking teenage girl named Lauren and a pleasant Grandma-aged lady waited to serve us. “All right, this one’s going to be pretty predicable and normal. How much more “typical cupcakey shop” can you get?” I thought as I approached the counter.  Wrong.  It turns out that the older lady is a learned dumpster diver as is the owner of the shop.  Who knew?  Definitely not me.  Our experience got even better in the un-expectedly interesting cupcake shop when, after learning of the cupcake contest being held, the teenage girl decided to actually buy us two cupcakes out of her pocket simply because she was such a believer in Cities Cupcakes.  These people were in this thing to win.  In the end, we jaunted out of those lilac doors with a Chicago dark chocolate, Paris strawberry, and caramel cupcake almost ready to crown a winner right there and then.

  

  After our impressive customer service received from our last stop, my standards going into Gigi’s were sky high.  I’m not sure if I was still on a high from Cities but, honestly, I felt a little disappointed and miffed after we walked out.  The presentation of the cupcakes was top notch, with icing piled high ensuring a good ‘ol dose of anaphylactic shock just by looking at that much sugar but I definitely was sensing somewhat of a disinterested, weird vibe from “cupcakeateers” Gigi’s.  Even though the service at Gigi’s was somewhat of a letdown, that didn’t do anything to damper our spirits…or maybe our energy was still rolling high because of those cupcake sample at Magpies. Either way, we remained pretty pumped as we moved on to our next target with a Midnight Magic cupcake in hand. 

  

  At the cool and classy shop named The Cup down the road we quickly and uneventfully picked up a tuxedo cupcake after recommendations from the workers, who, along with their recommendation told us that their best seller, red velvet, was gross. We loved their honesty and filed that away to remember when the judging came around.  They were also unanimously voted there and then as having the best atmosphere as we gallivanted off to our hard core judging arena, also commonly known as the Farragut Park.   

  

  The esteemed judges underwent a grueling process of interviews and analyzing but finally the pool of choices was narrowed to the 5: Dad, Mom, Caleb, Lauren, and I…keeping it in the family.  After an extremely messy but scrumptiously fun twenty minutes the buzzer went off, the curtain was drawn, the microwave beeped, and the cupcakes’ final judging was set.  Watch the video below with bated breath to find out the winner!!!