My winning cupcakes

A few weeks ago they announced that there was going to be a cooking competition at work as part of our annual potluck. As soon as I heard about it I knew I had to enter. There was an entree and a dessert division, and I knew I wanted to do the dessert/baking side of things. So I started brainstorming along with my friends.

The dish had to represent your country of origin. Since I'm on the Cuban team, being Cuban-American, I wanted to make something like a cupcake, my favorite thing to bake, while still giving it that Cuban twist. I made a few different flavors and made samples for my "taste testing team" and me to try. Then, the week after that, I made more samples for the "taste testing team" that were tweaked according to the suggestions.

part of my taste testing team

After weeks of testing and adjusting, I finally had my mojito cupcake. It's a vanilla lime cupcake soaked in rum with a lime and mint filling topped with a lime buttercream. It's like a mojito in a cake form.

The day of the competition, I came ready with my decorated cupcakes and my cupcake stand decked out in red, white and blue ribbon to represent the Cuban flag. I chose my 10 prettiest cupcakes for the judges to try and set them out. This was a blind taste test, so the judges had no idea who made what. I sneaked by and saw that they really seemed to enjoy my cupcakes!

Finally, before the end of the Potluck celebration it was time to announce the winners. First came the entree winner (Go Ines!), and they saved the best for last, the desserts. And I could barely believe it when they announced my name! I got a HUGE gift basket full of baking goodies from Williams Sonoma, and a gift certificate to get some more supplies. I can't wait to grab some fun baking gadgets.

A huge thanks goes out to my friends and co-workers for helping me brainstorm, taste, and perfect my recipe. I know without them the mojito cupcake wouldn't be as good as it was. And also thank you to everyone that sent me congrats and thank you's all day. And I'm so happy that everyone loved the cupcake. I can't wait for even more people to try it.