A year later, Ploy and her friends were drawn to thenewly opened Fratello’s in the Third Ward for the chef’s notorious cupcakes.One friend warned the young server, “You know you have the Milwaukee CupcakeQueen here,” pointing to Ploy. After a long wait, Chef Jeff Reinke himselfwalked out to the table to serve the queen his carefully prepared cakes infull-force. Soon, the two were exchanging baking smack-downs every other weekduring the informal cupcake bouts they were hosting with friends. Ploy putforward her trademark bacon and dark chocolate cupcake. He had her try one ofhis signatures, a cake flavored with milk-steeped tobacco. Other bakers beganto show, and by April 2008, the first official IronCupcake: Milwaukee challenge was launched at theriverfront restaurant.
For each monthly event, competing bakers createtheir cupcakes according to a given ingredient, often unique flavors andtextures not typically found in your grandma’s cupcakes, like wine, soda,curry, wasabi and mustard, to name a few. Last summer, Ploy and Reinke beganasking local businesses to partner with them for the challenge, and they, in turn,would pattern their ingredient challenge after the business, and give a portionof the cover to a local charity. So when IronCupcake: Milwaukee partnered with Boswell Books, theorganizers challenged the contestants to create their cupcakes based on a booktitle or character. For the challenge, competitors bring eight to 10 dozen minicupcakes for sampling, and for a mere $7 cover charge, anyone can be a judge.
Over the course of a year, IronCupcake: Milwaukee moved fromFratello’s to the Irish Pub to accommodate the multiplying cupcake crowd. Eventplanner Karen Schoenung of My Party Places noticed that with an average ofabout 200 judges, and 20 to 25 bakers at each competition, IronCupcake wasclearly outgrowing its digs. “There were more people than space,” Schoenungremembers, and she offered to host the event at The Moct, a spacious renovatedindustrial warehouse, also in the Third Ward.
For this month’s competition held on Monday, Jan.18, IronCupcake: Milwaukeeteamed up with Blatz Liquor to challenge the contestants to make the bestcupcake using beer as an ingredient. Tasters will have the opportunity to winprizes donated by Wisconsin breweries, and aportion of the proceeds will go to the Wisconsin Brewers Guild. MichelleGarcia, Food Network Cake Challenge Baker, and owner of Smash Cake and BleedingHeart Bakery in Chicago,will be on hand as a celebrity judge. “I have been a fan and follower of theprogression of the competition from the beginning,” Garcia says. “I am lookingforward to seeing what new and exciting flavors and techniques these folks havecome up with using both cupcakes and beer, two of my favorite things on earth.”
The Milwaukee Cupcake Queen, who has visited morethan 60 cupcake shops, and uses the word cupcake as a verb, has inspired anumber of spin-off competitions in cities such as London,Las Vegas, and San Francisco. She also hosts an onlinerecipe and photo competition called IronCupcake: Earth, which has attractedmore than 425 bakers from over 20 countries. For Ploy, the joy of her reign isin meeting the cupcake aficionados of the world. Her growing success, whichcould easily include sovereignty on the Food Network, is just icing on thecupcake.
IronCupcake: www.ironcupcakemilwaukee.comand www.ironcupcakeearth.com
The Moct Bar:414-273-6628/ 240 E. Pittsburgh Ave.,/ www.themoct.com
My PartyPlaces: www.mypartyplaces.com
