Ed. Note: The comments section is now closed, as we have made our decision. Sofia Straus joins Melanie Tello as our second reader judge. Good luck to them both.
We broke you in easy with the first Eating Our Words event: a wine tasting with light bites and smooth jazz. But now we're ready to rumble.
We'll be hosting a Cupcake Smackdown on Sunday, January 24, at Block 7 Wine Company from 4 to 6 p.m. Cupcakes from a dozen restaurants and bakeries around Houston will be pitted against each other in an epic gladiatorial event that's too big for our weekly Food Fight. To keep things interesting, we'll also have a batch of homemade cupcakes thrown in to the mix to see if our judges can tell the difference. Cupcakes will be blind taste-tested by a panel of four judges on cake taste, frosting taste, cake texture, frosting texture and cake-to-frosting ratio. Finally, the cupcakes we've kept in reserve will be revealed and the judges' blindfolds removed so they can judge the overall appearance of each cupcake. The winner will be crowned the Eating Our Words Cupcake King.
To assist us in keeping this battle under control, we've enlisted experts: Plinio Sandalio, pastry chef at Textile, and Jody Stevens, pastry chef at Gravitas and owner of Jodycakes, will be our two professional judges. But we need your help. We need two of our readers to fill out the judging panel. In addition to a whole lot of cupcakes, the two judges will also receive special limited-edition Eating Our Words aprons for lending their tasting talents to the panel.
If you'd like to be a judge, tell us why in 50 words or less in the comments section below. The best answer will be chosen by our food blog editor. Be sure to leave your email address so we can contact you. Only one judge will be chosen this week, so check back here next week when we'll choose the second and final judge.
But even if you aren't chosen, you won't want to miss the fun at Block 7 on January 24. We'll have tasty door prizes (read: restaurant gift cards) and Eating Our Words t-shirts for everyone who comes out to watch the smackdown, so mark your calendars now.
