Wednesday 26th June at Hotel La Tour was the Brummie foodie event of the summer, #Futurefoodies. I was one of many exhibitors who was invited to take part in a celebration of all that is great about foodie brum and all those little gems that maybe off the beaten track or that you just may not be aware of .
The event was categorised so you received a meal experience as you moved through the exhibitors, starters, main and desserts
STARTERS
Lewis’s of Moseley, Kitchen Cookery School, Ubuntu Handmade Bread
‘MAINS’
Le Truc Cafe, Digbeth Dining Club, Heart of England Fine Foods, Punjabi Rasoi, Wrapchic, University College Birmingham
DESSERTS
Aalto Restaurant, ‘Brigadeiros’ by Miss Apple Sweets, Devenish Girl, Cupkakery
DRINKS
Aston Manor Cider, Beer Geek Brewery, BYWine, The Birmingham Whisky Club
– See more at: http://www.dinebirmingham.co.uk/futurefoodies
So with this major event my question to myself was what am i going to do (cupcakes of course) but which flavours?????? well if you follow me on twitter @Cupkakery you will know that l kept changing my mind but finally settled on the following flavours:
Peanut butter jelly
Pistachio and Lime
Vanilla, Coffee and Toasted Coconut
Summer berry velvet
Guinness, Baileys and Candied Bacon
Baileys and Chocolate
Pineapple and Chill
I made 300 Mini Cupcakes in the end, and happy to say every single sample got snapped up, and the feedback was amazing as well as receiving fab comments regarding the flavour combinations.
The one that really surprised me with its popularity was the Guinness, Baileys and candied bacon cupcake, i think guest were a bit bemused by the combination and just had to try and seemed to love
So this particular flavour came about due to Tammy Facey (you can follow her on twitter) setting myself Miss Apples sweets, Miss Macaroon and Devenish girl bakery a #Futurefoodies challenge on twitter which was to come up with a Irish themed Cupcake.
The Cupcake consisted of a a chocolate and Guinness cupcake, Baileys buttercream and a shard of Candied bacon, (l am going to do a short post on making candied bacon soon)
Miss Apples sweets won the challenge, she created an Irish cream creamy brigaderio shot and if you have never tried the traditional Brazilian sweet i would seriously recommend, they are just yummy
The second most popular choice was the Chill and pineapple Cupcake, which was a vanilla Cupcake with a little chopped chill and then finished with a pineapple buttercream and a pineapple and chill sweet relish.
The fact that all the samples went cemented the fact that
1. People still love cupcakes (its cake whats not too love)
2. They enjoy the quirky flavours anything a little out of the ordinary
Everybodys displays looked lovely and l had a lot more planned for my display but as is typical for me received some last minute celebration cake orders in the same week, four in fact as well as the minis to do so it ended up being an extremely busy week and yes this was all done on top of my Full time job but all this baking is hopefully baking me out of working for someone else to baking full time.
I absolutely loved taking part in the #futurefoodies event, seeing all the other independent businesses and the dedicated and passionate people behind them as well as all the visitors to the event who were really enthusiastic and supportive of all the exhibitors.
So when you next go out for a meal, drink, need a cake or confectionery etc, why not consider trying or visiting an independent foodie biz as i know we will really appreciate the support.