Winners of Betta Living’s Cupcake competition

I don’t know, if you’ve heard about it, but last week (15-21 September 2014) was National Cupcake Week and Betta Living, your one stop shop for home improvements, hosted a fabulous competition looking for the most creative cupcake recipe out there. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to enter anymore as the winners have been drawn, but I thought I’d show you just how many bloggers have a hidden passion for cupcakes. There are some really fantastic bakers out there and I really wish I had entered now. With the first place taking home £750 and the second place winning £250 in vouchers, it was really worth entering, don’t you think?

You can read all about the competition on the Betta Living blog, but if you want a quick catch-up, here are the winners and some of my very personal favourites:

The first place went to Chi Chi from Cakes by Chi Chi who made a tropical cupcake with a ginger and cream cheese frosting. Moist, full of flavour and perfect for autumn, this cupcake combines crushed pineapple, shredded carrots, coconut and spices to create a real winner.

The second place went to Hannah from Hannah’s Helping Hand who created a very seasonal pumpkin cupcake that doesn’t only look like a pumpkin, but also has pumpkin meat and spice as ingredients. I love that the recipe uses pumpkin, because it is quite unusual here in the UK and the cute design makes it look even more

The next three pictures will show my personal favourites. I’m obviously not a cupcake expert (I guess eating them is just not qualification enough to get that job), but I’ve picked three recipes that immediately appealed to me because of the flavours used, the creativity shown and the skills involved.

My first favourite is my friend Jenny’s Rainbox Pinata Cupcake recipe. I just love everything about them. They’re beautiful to look at and everyone will be excited about the hidden secret in the middle of the cupcake no matter how old they are. There’s so much effort gone into making these a really specially treat, that they just deserve a special mention.

My second favourite are Caroline’s Kinder Bueno Cupcakes. Kinder Bueno is one of my favourite chocolate bars and I just love the idea of incorporating it into a cupcake recipe. I certainly wouldn’t say “No”, if offered one of these beauties and with a nice cup of coffee, these would be a beautiful afternoon treat, don’t you think?

And to round of this post nicely, here my third and last (but not least!) favourite: a Red Velvet Heart Cupcake lovingly baked by Lou from Crumbs and Corkscrews. I adore the love for details that’s gone into these cupcakes. Just look at the dainty little vanilla sponge heart in the middle of the red velvet sponge. Genius and so so cute!

Well, now that I’ve shared these little gems with you, I’m really in the mood for some baking. What’s your favourite cupcake recipe? Let me know in the comments below.

This is a collaborative post.