iron cupcake, or: oh, my tummy

I'm back from the San Francisco Iron Cupcake event. This month's challenge ingredient was: squash! Contestants have to bring something like 70 mini cupcakes; the general public (including yours truly) pay five bucks and get to sample each entry. There were twenty (yes TWENTY) entries, so my two friends and I chose to literally divide and conquer: we shared the samples among ourselves, and only a couple of cupcakes merited second helpings.

Let's revisit my predictions, shall we? I said:
If I were doing this I might do maple-acorn squash, or curry-butternut-coconut, or summer-squash/squash-flower.

Well, did anyone follow my brainstorm? nope! None of the twenty (yes TWENTY) cupcakes on offer were any of the above combinations. There was at least one with acorn squash, two that used curry, and one that used summer squash, so all is not lost. There were a surprising number of pumpkin spice cupcakes on offer, which I found puzzling, but I guess it IS a winning flavor, literally - I know the first place cupcake was pumpkin-chocolate chip. There was a surprising number of entries with cream cheese frosting, including one unfortunate one that tasted like mayo. ALL of the cupcakes were lovely.

Some of the more interesting offerings:
Spiced chocolate zucchini cupcake
Pumpkin curry
Candied butternut squash with Guinness buttercream & {illegible writing} ginger
Butternut squash & apple cupcake with curry/cardamom cream cheese frosting
Butternut & yellow squash with brie & honey centers

My absolute favorite:
Pumpkin spice cake with butternut squash risotto "pudding" fill & creme fraiche frosting.

The cupcake was airy, and had a wee pocket of creamy goodness; the frosting was light and not too sweet. Alas, it did not win, but thank you for your effort, chefs!

I didn't have my camera with me and my phone died. Keep an eye on this link to look for updates! I'll add different links if I find good ones.