So just short of 3 months of planning this event and it finally came! and now it’s over! It’s definitely a bittersweet feeling.
All I have to say is….WOW! I am overjoyed at the turnout we had for our 1st Annual Cupcake Camp Inland Empire. I am happy to report that we raised $8,400 for the  Susan G Komen Inland Empire Affiliate in just 3 hours!!! Can you believe it?! I am so honored to have been able to work with such a great group of sponsors and donors who helped make this event possible. What a sweet way to raise money for Breast Cancer Awareness.
On Sunday, November 7, 2010 1-4pm, our Official Sponsor, The Mission Inn Hotel & Spa in Riverside, donated a beautiful room for us to have our event. The entire hotel is gorgeous but the room was so elegant and looked even better thanks to Wendy from Stars Above Balloon Decor. She does awesome balloon art!
For our event, we had 18 Professional Bakers and 8 Amateur Bakers that donated a total of about 6,000 cupcakes! This event would not be possible if it weren’t for them. Thank you so much for your support and boy did all of the cupcakes and displays look awesome! I can tell that you put so much time and effort into your masterpieces and I appreciate it greatly!
So, about 10 minutes to 1pm, there was already a long line of people waiting to come in and eat some yummy cupcakes. We were asked to start letting people in early but we weren’t quite ready yet. We started letting people in at 1pm. They paid a $10 donation at the door and received 4 pink tickets to exchange for 4 cupcakes of their choice. They also received a container that fit 4 cupcakes in case they wanted to take them home. Complimentary Starbucks coffee was provided as well as Swiss Dairy milk. What a deal! We also had face painting for the kids which was done by Kimberly at Face Play and balloon animals by Jason from Party Animals OC. The kids really enjoyed that! Souvenir shirts that said ” I Survived Cupcake Camp Inland Empire’ were available for purchase as well as raffle tickets for great prizes that were donated by our Donors and Friends. I can’t thank them enough for their generosity!
Within the first 15-20 minutes, we knew that the room was too small for everyone. Not knowing what to expect for our first event, we were pleasantly surprised. Can’t complain that there were too many people, that just means that the event was successful. 🙂 We had about 650 people in attendance at our event. Attendees also got to take pictures at a Photo Booth provided by Souverazzi. They got 4 poses and in 15 seconds, they walked away with a keepsake from the event. Thank you so much Daren for doing this. It was such a hit!
We also had 4 gorgeous cakes that were donated by Wendy Flick, Jac’s Cakes, Cake Habit, and Royalty Cakes. Those were auctioned off to help raise money for the cause. Thank you so much. I know a lot of your time and creativity went into making these cakes. Great job! Music was provided by DJ Red23 who also was our MC for the afternoon. Thank you for the entertainment. You rock!
We had beautiful pictures taken by Paul at Cean One Photography. I will be posting them on the ‘Photos’ tab once I get them from Paul. In the meantime, I have been able to see some of the pictures that everyone else has taken. Please keep sharing them. Great memories!
Also, during the event, there was a Bakers Competition amongst the bakers that donated cupcakes, both Amateur and Professional. We had the pleasure of having Special Guest Judges, Elise Wallace, founder and chief editor for CupcakeActivist.com, Evelyn Erives, Radio Co-Host, “Jeff & Evelyn in the Morning” on 99.1 KGGI, Jason Iehl and Kim Nelson, aka Mr. & Mrs. Saturday Night Foodies, Vicky Figueroa-Torres and Yvonne Ojeda, Board Board of Directors of Susan G Komen Inland Empire, and Ro Zinniger, owner of Ro Z’s Sweet Art Studio in San Marcos, CA. They had the sweet duty of tasting all of the cupcake entries and determining a winner for each level and category. They were troopers with all the cupcakes they had to eat! Thank you all for your support!
So I bet you want to know who the winners are right? Who has bragging rights? 🙂 Well here you go…..
 Winner of Bakers Competition
Amateur Competition
1. Best Pink Ribbon/Breast Cancer Themed Cupcake
Desiree Massei-Pink Velvet Cupcakes
2. Most Unique Ingredient
SueAnn Molina-Ube (Purple Yam) and Macapuno (Coconut) cupcakes
3. Tastiest Cupcake of Cupcake Camp Inland Empire
Stephanie Starbuck-Chocolate Cupcake w/Chambord Buttercream
Professional Competition
1. Best Pink Ribbon/Breast Cancer Themed Cupcake
Ah How Sweet/Loriann Serna-Save Second Base Cupcakes
2. Most Unique Ingredient
Truly Madly Sweetly/Cathryn Howard-Creamy Dreamsicle Cupcakes
3. Tastiest Cupcake of Cupcake Camp Inland Empire
The Cake Mamas/Janelle Copeland & Fabiola Gomez-Autumn Apple Cupcakes
I would like to give a special thanks to all of my family and friends that volunteered that day. With your help, the event ran smoothly and we received a lot of compliments of how well the event turned out. I couldn’t have done it without you! XOXO
I am already thinking about the 2nd Annual Cupcake Camp Inland Empire. I definitely learned a lot from this one and will be making some changes to make our next one even better! Starting with a bigger venue. Stay tuned for more details around 2nd quarter of 2011.
Thank you for all of your support for this great cause and I hope to see you next year!
Original Cupcake Camp logo created by Ariel Waldman (modified)
2nd Annual CupcakeCamp IE 