Cupcake War: Round 2
Welcome to Bahrain Cupcake War Round 2
Remember when I said this stuff was tense? No kidding.
I want to be sorry for being late, but I'm lazy. Let's put it out there. Lazy.
Before reading, get a better idea of how the score system works at the Cupcake War Introduction.
Bring it.
The judges for Cupcake Round 2 are:
Noor Nooruddin: A cake connoisseur, if you will.
Ali Haji: Thinks Ben Affleck will be awesome as Batman, and he's not wrong.
Nawaf Nooruddin: In this round, the antithesis of Ali Haji (not about Batman of course).
Zainab Abdulrahman: A woman who would give up a dinner party to have new cupcakes.
The Contestants and Their Cakes:
- Cake Me UP!: A very small cupcake business run by a young mother who makes these cupcakes from home and claims a passion for all cakey things. She is most famous for her cake pops, so it sucks that we could not judge them... OH WELL THIS ISN'T CAKE POP WAR.
Cupcakes being judged: Red Velvet Cupcake and Vanilla Cupcake
- Sweet Little Things: This business is a bit more established than their competitor, also working from home but offering a wider range of things with a more standardized system of pricing and menus.
Cupcakes being judged: Red Velvet and Rainbow
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It is TIME.
Cake Me UP!: Red Velvet
We chose the red velvet cupcake simply because the owner recommended it and she claims it's the most popular flavor. So. Obviously.
After the tasting, we rated the flavoras follows:
Noor: 7/10
Ali: 8/10
Nawaf: 2/10
Zainab: 5/10
Average: 5.5
The cake tastes like Betty Crocker, and the 3/4 judges who had experienced baking at all have agreed on this. So this is where the polarization on the judging panel occurred: Two judges (take a guess) are blatantly against this, as they side with the argument that if you're going to open a cake business, bake your own cakes! If I can make ones at home that taste exactly like yours without even really trying, I shouldn't have to pay you. You're not doing anything. Now the other two judges are on the other side of the coin: While it tastes like there is 0 creativity in this cupcake, it's still a good cupcake (Betty Crocker is pretty good), and I would gladly pay for someone else to go through the effort of baking it instead of me (as long as it isn't overpriced of course). Everyone can bake cupcakes if they wanted to, but the whole point of a cupcake shop is that I'm too lazy to do it myself.
ALSO NOTE: The frosting was NOT cream cheese frosting, it was just vanilla frosting. Again, polarizing the judging panel: half were obviously appalled as this is no longer a red velvet cupcake really, it's just a chocolate and vanilla cupcake, while the other half of the panel don't really like cream cheese frosting so it was alright.
We all argued for a while by the way. I told you it was tense.
Cake Me UP!: Vanilla Cupcake
Can't go wrong with vanilla. Right?
Flavorratings:
Noor: 4/10
Ali: 6/10
Nawaf: 2/10
Zainab: 3/10
Average: 3.75
So it tasted like, you guessed it, Betty Crocker. Actually it tasted exactly like the red velvet cake, just with a different frosting. The overall impression of the cupcake was that it was "okay," but the fiery two must take away points for the ethics of it all (and they're not wrong), and the other half were just underwhelmed by the cupcake (it was the SAME).
Note: We are not stating it as a fact that the cake was made with the Betty Crocker mix, this is what we guessed based on what the cupcakes tasted like. Obviously, we could be wrong. Duh.
LET'S HEAT IT UP
Sweet Little Things: Red Velvet
Flavorratings:
Noor: 6/10
Ali: 5/10
Nawaf: 7/10
Zainab: 5/10
Average: 5.75
It was okay. A pretty solid red velvet cupcake.
Sweet Little Things: Rainbow
Flavor:
Noor: 4/10
Ali: 3/10
Nawaf: 5/10
Zainab: 4/10
Average: 4
This cupcake was not particularly good, there wasn't anything special about it really, clearly the red velvet would be a stronger contender.
Extra Point Winners:
- Appearance and Presentation (3 points):
Unanimous Winner: Sweet Little Things - Classic appearance, looks less messy than its competitor (which doesn't mean Cake Me UP!'s presentation is bad, it's just homier maybe?).
- Accessibility (3 points):
Unanimous Winner:Sweet Little Things - A semi-regularly updated Facebook page, standard menu, website (at the time; it seems to be down now), and a regularly updated Instagram makes this competitor more accessible. Also, they offer a delivery option WHICH the owner did NOT tell me about, she did not offer me delivery at the time that I ordered and then I asked her on the day of pick-up whether it would be delivery or pick-up, and she said "oh you didn't tell me you wanted delivery." It would have been nice if she let me know that I had to notify her beforehand. I didn't know so.
- Value for Money (2 points):
Nawaf:Sweet Little Things - At BD3 for half a dozen (3 of each flavor), they are only 500 fils above their competitor but Nawaf feels there's a better value here since it probably isn't just Betty Crocker.
Noor, Zainab, and Ali Haji:Cake Me UP! - BD2.500 for half a dozen (3 of each flavor) is not just cheaper, but the cupcakes are certainly bigger than the competitor's so you feel like you're getting more.
- Menu and Variety (2 points):
Unanimous Winner:Cake Me UP! - While you would think that the lack of a standardized menu would lose Cake Me UP! their menu variety points, she's actually a very flexible and open-to-requests baker, so you can pick and choose which frosting to put on which cupcake, and she's willing to try baking something new per requests. It's a comforting openness.
Grand Totals:
WINNER: Sweet Little Things
While Cake Me UP! polarized the judging panel, what helped get Sweet Little Things through is the extra points for presentation and accessibility, and "not using Betty Crocker," so it's a strange victory. We'll see how they fare against the others during the quarter finals.
Congratulations to the winner of Cupcake War Round 2!!
Stay tuned for our next round!
To get in contact with the cupcake businesses in this round:
Cake Me UP! (do try their cake pops!): Cake Me UP!'s Twitter
Sweet Little Things: Their Instagram
Tournament Bracket:
Next: Maya's Cuppies VS Amna Patisserie
Thanks for reading!
