Have you jumped on the cupcake craze bandwagon yet? If not, this might be a good time to turn your kitchen creativity up to 11 and whip up a recipe that combines the miniature joy of a cupcake with the best ingredient on earth: chocolate.
Scharffen Berger Chocolate and TuttiFoodie have announced this year’s Chocolate Adventure Contest with three fantastic top prizes, and it’s all about cupcakes.
You can submit up to 10 cupcake recipes. Each one has to combine Scharffen Berger chocolate with one or more of their 14 designated “adventure ingredients” (including Meyer lemon, stout beer, saffron, and chili pepper). Recipes will be judged on creativity, taste, ease of preparation, and whether the recipe “reflects a spirit of adventure.”
So, what can you win? Besides the undying devotion of all your family and friends who will have to be your informal taste-testers, you could take home:
Grand Prize: $10,000 for the winning recipe as well as a delectable, custom selection of Scharffen Berger chocolates. The recipe will appear in Food Network Magazine and the winner will be sent to New York City to distribute the winning cupcake on one of the city’s beloved Sweet Trucks. The recipe will also be featured on chocolateadventurecontest.com, ScharffenBerger.com, and TuttiFoodie.com.
Second Place: $7,000, a custom selection of Scharffen Berger chocolates, and signed copies of Demolition Desserts by Elizabeth Falkner, Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich, and The Essence of Chocolate by John Scharffenberger and Robert Steinberg. The recipe will be featured on chocolateadventurecontest.com, ScharffenBerger.com, and TuttiFoodie.com.
Third Place: $3,000, a custom selection of Scharffen Berger chocolates, and signed copies of Demolition Desserts by Elizabeth Falkner, Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich, and The Essence of Chocolate by John Scharffenberger and Robert Steinberg. The recipe will be featured on chocolateadventurecontest.com, ScharffenBerger.com, and TuttiFoodie.com.
Visit the Chocolate Adventure website ) for more information, official contest rules, and entry forms. The contest is already underway and the deadline for entries is January 2, 2011 (at 11:59:59 p.m., Pacific time, to be exact). Happy baking and bon appétit!
Deanna Quinones is the Jersey Bites Regional Editor for Morris County. A freelance writer, blogger, and unrepentant chocolate addict, Deanna spent 20 years in the San Francisco Bay Area where life was good and the burritos even better. She recently returned to the Garden State and now resides in Morristown, where she and her Texas-born/Jersey-raised/California-found husband are raising two wild and wonderful kids. An experienced book marketer, award-winning greeting card writer, and entertainment writing dabbler, Deanna can be reached at deannaq@optimum.net. (photo credit Pete Genovese/The Star-Ledger)
