“I recently ordered a dozen cupcakes (maple blueberry bacon, guiness chocolate and peanut butter and chocolate) for my fiance for Valentine’s Day. He is so hard to buy for – but these cupcakes included all of his favourite foods! Luckily he was willing to share so we are both enjoying a very cupcakey long weekend. I can’t decide which one I like best – they are all so amazing! I just finished a maple/bacon/blueberry one and am still thinking about the frosting and the blueberry filling. Don’t change a thing! We look forward to buying cupcakes from you for many occaisions in the future!”

Note: Due to a high anticipated attendance our venue has moved within the same building. Please come to our bakery (171 East Liberty St unit 117) and we will direct you on where to go. Tickets are not sold in advance and are on a first come first serve basis. Doors will open for the competition will at 1pm.

What is Iron Cupcake?

Iron Cupcake is a cupcake challenge open to the public which has a similar concept to that of Iron Chef. A “secret ingredient” is announced and the competitors must somehow incorporate it into their cupcakes. Cupcakes will be made ahead of time and brought in a finished state to the competition. There will be points awarded on presentation, taste and creativity. Iron Cupcake was started in the US and is not only popular there but in Europe as well. We are the first to bring this exciting franchise to Canada! For more details on where Iron Cupcake got it’s start visit http://www.ironcupcakemilwaukee.com/

Competition date: March 14th

The secret ingredient for our March competition is Beer and the theme is Green.

Judges: Susan Sampson, Food Writer for the Toronto Star and Lauren Wilson, Food Writer for blogTO

REGISTRATION:

Now open to registrations!

If you plan to compete, please register by emailing ironcupcake@fortheloveofcake.ca your full name, phone # and either call 416-306-6446 or use paypal to submit your entry fee.
For our first challenge we will be limiting entries to the first 12. First come, first serve. The entry fee is $15 which you can pay in person at our bakery or by credit card over the phone. There will be a cover of $5 for non-contestantants – you get to sample and judge the cupcakes entered to pick the people’s chooice! Why is there a fee to register? Well, it tells us that you are serious about entering, there will be prizes awarded, refreshments and it just helps us cover the costs of hosting the event.

Who Can enter Iron Cupcake:

The competition is open to everyone from the amateur home baker to professionals.

CUPCAKES:

Please bring 1 regular sized cupcake for your display – this will be judged on appearance

4 dozen mini sized cupcakes which will be judged on taste. You will also get to try the other competitors entries! Non-participants will be able to sample as well.

PRESENTATION:

Feel free to bring props – within reason - to better tell your cupcake’s story. Please bring a small sign stating the content of your cupcake. **Also please note if it contains nuts**
This is considered part of your presentation.
Please DO NOT put your name on the sign. The 4 dozen mini cupcakes will not be included in your display as they will be in a different area to give out for tasting, however, you may make extras to include in your display.

RECIPE:

You may bake your cupcakes from scratch or doctor up a box mix. It is your choice.
You are not required to submit your recipe.

LOCATION:

Our first Challenge will be held at Raaw Japanese Cuisine just down the way from our bakery at 171 East Liberty Street unit 146, Toronto, ON M6K 3P6

TIME:

Arrive at 12:30pm to set out your cupcakes, doors open to the public at 1pm and judging will commence at 2pm, awards will be announced by 3:30pm.

CHECK-IN:

When you arrive, please check in to register your name and the name of your cupcake and to receive your voting letter to be placed on your sign.

VOTING PROCEDURE:

Each cupcake will be judged by our panel of judges, competitors and all in attendance.

Voting is based on 1/3 presentation, 1/3 taste and 1/3 creativity (how you incorporate the secret ingredient).
Ballots will be collected and tabulated to determine the winners. The Iron Cupcake Champion will be determined by our judges and the runner up will be chosen by attendees.

Prizes:

The winner will be named Iron Cupcake Toronto Champion for the month, will have their cupcake featured in our bakery (by choice, of course) and will receive a $50 gift certificate to Raaw (March prize only), a gift certificate for 1 dozen cupcakes at For The Love of Cake, an Iron Cupcake Toronto t-shirt and a Cup-A-Cake cupcake holder.

The runner up will receive an Iron Cupcake t-shirt and a gift certificate for 1/2 dozen cupcakes at For The Love of Cake.

Check back for updates.

Hope to see you there!

171 East Liberty Street unit 117
416-306-6446

We got the keys December 1st and have been hard at work getting ready to open our doors. Here are some photos of our progress so far…

I am writing to you with regards to the wedding cake my wife and I purchased for our wedding on August 29th, 2009. Our experience with you from our initial contact to your sharing of pictures of our cake after the wedding has been nothing short of exceptional. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for your service and professionalism, and to let you know we will refer anyone looking for special occasion cakes to you in the years to come.

As a reminder, our wedding included 175 guests from all over the world. My wife and I were very diligent in the selection of our cake provider, and you exceeded our expectations every step off the way. You were prompt in answering our initial inquiries, flexible with regards to appointment bookings, and very competitive on price given the complexity of our order. The combination of your knowledge, professionalism, and focus on service leave you unmatched in our opinion. Not to mention, the cake was gorgeous and absolutely delicious! Our discerning guests travelled from Denmark, France, Germany, Mexico, and the Netherlands, as well as from all over Canada and the United States. Each of our guests was blown away by our cake, with the number of people attempting to photograph the cake being the only thing that kept our guests from immediately devouring it.

We truly feel that we lucked out by finding someone as talented, professional, and friendly as you to prepare the cake we shared with our friends and family on our special day. We not only look forward to referring our friends to you in the future whenever they are looking for a speciality cake, but also ordering from you again sometime in the future ourselves!

Best regards,

Rajan & Julie

If you are purchasing a wedding cake my best advice is to pay the extra cost to have your cake delivered. Especially for taller cakes transportation can be the most nerve-racking element in cake design, so let a professional take the responsibility! Included in the cost of delivery is set up at your venue and also having the baker on hand to fix anything that may have happened during transit. If you take this on yourself you can’t guarantee that your baker will be able to make a trip out to your venue should anything happen and the cost for emergency repairs could be more then the delivery was to begin with. Picking up your own wedding cake and the stresses that go along with it are the last thing your need on your special day.

For special occasion cakes I highly recommend paying for delivery on cakes that are 3 tiers and higher as they are more likely to slide, tilt or fall during transit. No matter the cake make sure to place it on a flat surface. This might be your passenger side floor, your trunk or the back of your mini van or suv. Placing your cake on a seat causes it to sit on a slant which could cause it to tip over if you hit a bump or excellerate too quickly. Typically your cake will be on a board which is large in diameter then the cake itself. Therefore, if your cake is in a box (no matter of the height) if it slides during transit then the board will hit the side box and the cake itself should not get damaged.

Storing a custom cake -

For all fondant covered cakes you can safely store them in a home style fridge but should never put them in a restaurant/commercial fridge/cooler or a camping style cooler. The reason being is that commercial fridges and coolers lack air circulation and are humid and the fondant will melt and slide off of your cake. Fondant covered cakes can safely sit out for a number of hours before being eaten and I recommend this, as eating a room temperature cake tastes much better then a cold one. Make sure to keep your cake out of direct sun light and extreme heat and humidity as this can cause the butter cream to spoil and the cake to sag. On humid days you may notice that your fondant cake becomes shiny. This is because, just like a cold glass of water on a hot summer day, it is sweating. This shine will go away once your cake is no longer cold. Just avoid touching the cake while it is shiny as it will be sticky and you will leave finger prints on it. Putting your cake back in the fridge will dry out the fondant again and get rid of the shine.