Cupcake Contest -- A Summer Cupcake Caper

Good morning! It is with great pleasure that I kick off the Kisses of Sunshine Summer Cupcake Caper!

If you want to participate, a picture of your creation, along with a typed recipe for both the cupcake and the frosting must be submitted to me via email no later than midnight, Wednesday, July 25th. The judging will begin on July 26th and run through August 12 (there's a lot of baking we'll have to do!!!). The winners will be announced on Monday, August 13th.

I have two guest judges that I'm really excited to have working with me on recreating your master pieces ... the first one is our very own, Shalee. Shalee has two children, a great husband, and she loves to cook, bake, and is très excited to participate!

My second guest judge is my wonderful buddy from church that you often read about in my writings ... Trendy Church Chick. She is a Pampered Chef consultant, also has two children and a wonderful husband, and loves to cook and bake. In fact, nothing she's ever made has ever, ever disappointed me ... she's an awesome cook! She is also very excited to

Here are the rules:

1) The cupcakes can be made with a box mix, but must have some extra "stuff" thrown in to the recipe to make it a "scratchy-boxy-homemade" cupcake ... but if you can make it totally from scratch, all the better! (no you can’t add poison ivy, itching powder, or fire ants to get the scratchy effect)
2) The cupcakes must have a 100% completely home-made frosting. No ifs, ands or buts on that rule! (This means you too, Big Mama!)
3) They should be as original as possible. Take this time to discover new flavor combinations, and search the web for interesting ideas. There are a lot of cupcake blogs out there to discover, so use them as a spring board for ideas! Just be warned ... I read many of them, so if the recipe or combination is someone elses, please be sure to credit them.
4) The recipe used for both cupcake and frosting must be provided upon submission via email to: kissesof.sunshine@yahoo.com, no later then midnight, July 25, 2007.
5) A picture must be submitted of your frosted creation via email to: kissesof.sunshine@yahoo.com, no later then midnight, July 25, 2007.
6) You must have actually baked, frosted, and taken a picture of the recipe you are submitting.
7)Bribery with the judges is optional, but highly recommended. They really like chocolate, purses and massages.

The winners will be judged and chosen based on the following categories/criteria:

1) Most scrumptious-est cupcake - moist, with good crumb, good flavor combination, and delicious taste.
2) Most extravagantly and/or outlandishly decorated cupcake
3) Most likely to be eaten by children
5) Most decadent cupcake for adults

I am currently working on procuring prizes from various vendors. Once the list of prizes have been finalized, I will post them.

If you will be participating in the contest, or you would like to advertise the contest on your blog, please use the official graphic and link it back to this post.

Please feel free to contact me via email with any questions you may have.