On March 27, 2021, after a year of quarantining in our homes and only being able to run a virtual online auction, we decided to undertake the ambitious task of going ahead with our annual Cupcake Contest fundraiser. For anyone who’s attended this event in the past, you’ll know just how much of an in-person event it is. The annual Cupcake Contest is usually part of the WinterShines festival and it’s always a night that brings out a great crowd, all with the common goal of eating cupcakes! Nothing brings people together quite like the objective of consuming a saccharine treat. 

As a local non-profit dependent on fundraising to continue our programming, we knew that the 6th Annual “Dress It Up” Cupcake Contest presented by MNP would be an important one for us. Currently, our big focus has been making The Princess Shop more inclusive, especially by acting on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action that connect with the work we do. Having the funds necessary to accomplish our goals is all due to your help! Not only that, we knew that people needed a sweet pick-me-up, so after all the support you all give to us, it would be remiss of us to not give back to you!

So… we went for it! We had some wonderful bakers sign up to bake up to 500 mini cupcakes to make our event possible! As much as this is a contest for them, with the potential of being “crowned” Saskatoon’s Best Cupcake as their incentive, they all volunteer their time and energy to make the Cupcake Contest possible. The event wouldn’t be the same without them (I mean, literally, there would be no cupcakes to eat). 

Let’s meet the contestants and the treats they crafted this year:

Ally's Cake Creeations: Ally brought us a lemon cupcake with raspberry puree inside, topped off with a lemon buttercream with a hint of raspberry. To finish the look, the cupcake was sprayed with rose gold lustre dust.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allyscakecreeations/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/allyscakecreeations 

Cakes by Britney: Britney crafted a chocolate cupcake with a berry filling, topped off with a berry-infused buttercream, chocolate ganache drip, berries, and a chocolate swoosh! 

Instagram: https://instagram.com/cakesbybritney/ 

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/cakesbybritneygraf/ 

Cakes by Alix: Alix’s vanilla cupcake had a blueberry filling and was iced with blueberry buttercream and topped with meringue!

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cakesbyalix/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cakesbyalix 

Ruby Lange: Ruby created a Biscoff cookie butter cupcake with a Biscoff cookie base, and a Biscoff swiss meringue buttercream. It was topped with a meringue heart!

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rubinfruits/ 

Caketopia Custom Cakes: Michelle and Margaret baked a chocolate cupcake with cinnamon coffee icing with a layer of dark chocolate on top!

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caketopia_custom_cakes/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/caketopiacustomcakes 

Jamie: Inspired by the peacock gown, Jamie’s cupcake was a light and fluffy champagne cupcake with champagne buttercream and a hand-painted, hand-made gum-paste feather on top!

Love and Butter: Aimee thought her dress resembled a firework, and with that in mind, she baked for us a chocolate cupcake, filled with coffee and raspberry, topped off with dark chocolate buttercream, mini-meringues, and glitter! 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loveandbutter_cakesbyaimee/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/loveandbutter.cakesbyaimee 

After everyone had had a chance to vote, from the comfort of their own home, we were excited to announce that Love and Butter won both Best Overall and Best Look-Alike this year! Congrats Aimee!! Cakes by Alix took home the title of Fave Flava!

Thank you to everyone who purchased tickets to this year’s Cupcake Contest! Thank you also to our sponsors who made the event possible and the local businesses that added additional treats to the Upgrade Tickets:

Presenting Sponsor: MNP

In-kind Chef Sponsor: The Prairie Grazer

Cheers Sponsor: Crossmount Cider Company

Volunteer Sponsor: SIIT

Venue Sponsor: Station 20 West Community Enterprise Centre

Virtual Program Sponsor: SaskTel

In-Kind Radio Promotion: CFCR 90.5 FM - Saskatoon Community Radio

In-Kind Paper Promotion: Eagle Feather News

In-Kind Radio Promotion: Rawlco Radio

News Coverage: CTV Morning Live - Saskatoon

Event Host: Janella Hamilton

Event Photography: Infinity Events & Decor / Infinity Imagery

Behind-the-scenes, on our end, it was heartwarming to see all the pictures and stories we were tagged in as everyone enjoyed cupcakes from the comfort of their own homes. Hopefully, by next year, we can celebrate with Princess grads in-person, but until then, it’s amazing to see the community come together for a good cause, even when we’re not physically together.

On Tuesday, January 29th, we took part in the Nutrien Wintershines Festival for the fourth time! That week was one of the coldest we've had this year (perhaps even in the past few years, honestly), but we bundled up and braved the cold to set up our fundraiser. Lucky for us, we were met with a large crowd of people - the greatest turnout we've had at a Cupcake event thus far - and of course, the cupcake contestants with their yummy goods! 

The rules are pretty simple. Six local bakers select a dress from the Princess Shop to base their design off of. Bakers are encouraged to be as creative as possible with all aspects of the cupcake; the flavour, the decorations, and even the setup of their display. This year, their hard work in these different areas paid off as we had three categories to win! The categories were: Best Cupcake, Fave Flave, and Best Look-a-Like. Let's meet the contestants!

Cakes by Britney:

Inspired by a sparkly light purple dress, Britney named her cupcake "Purple Unicorn". This blueberry-filled lemon cupcake with blueberry infused icing was a true showstopper. The crowd thought it was nicely decorated and the filling inside was a sweet surprise. Britney's take on the dress and how she turned it into a unicorn cake was such a great finishing touch!

Instagram: https://instagram.com/cakesbybritney/

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/cakesbybritneygraf/

CM Cakes:

Chantelle from CM Cakes was our youngest contestant, but that didn't stop her from bringing bold flavours to the table! Her vanilla cake with strawberry-raspberry buttercream and lemon curd filling was to die for! Chantelle had a gorgeous display, complete with fairy lights and pinecones. Her cake was inspired by a pink high-low gown with layered ruffles. 

Instagram: https://instagram.com/cmcakes.yxe/

Create Cupcakes and Cakes: 

Angela from Create Cupcakes had champagne-infused flavours in her cupcake. The cake was inspired by a white dress with blue accents, and her beautiful cupcakes definitely fit the look!

Chef de Partie:

Italian lemon and olive oil cupcake with wildberry compote filling - yum! Based off of a lacy fitted gown, this cupcake took the flowers from the dress and recreated them with a twist! We don't know how Heather dreamed this one up, but it sure was fun to bite into it :)

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chefdepartiecatering

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chefdepartiecatering

Foodiepharmbabe / Get Baked With V:

Vanessa's chocolate cake with cookies and cream buttercream, creamy cheesecake filling, and a honey sugar shard topping it off was a sight to take in! The cupcake was packed full of flavour, with each bite revealing another layer to the complex creation! The crunch from the honey shard added some great texture. Vanessa chose a sparkly dress with tones of purple, pink, and blue. We're still not sure if it was the dress or the cupcakes that had more sparkles. Vanessa had a beautiful display, with lights, marble accents, and even some baking books to finish off the look!

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/foodiepharmbabe/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/foodiepharmbabe/

Humblebee Bake House:

Melissa Served up a vanilla cupcake with vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate Swiss Meringue buttercream. She named her creation “Ice Cream Sunday”, very fitting for a dress giving off Neapolitan vibes. Her cake looked exactly like the dress and was overall rich in flavour, not overwhelmingly sweet, and had great balance. 

Instagram: https://instagram.com/humblebeebakehouse/

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/humblebeebakehouse/

Saskatoon’s Best Cupcake 2019:

By now you're probably craving to find out who won (or maybe you're just craving some cupcakes). All the bakers gave the competition their best in terms of flavour and creativity. After over 200 guests had tasted all the delicious flavours and voted on their favourites, the results were in favour of...

Foodiepharmbabe! Venessa’s cupcakes and their layers of complex flavours won over hearts, but others weren't too far behind. After all, there were two other prizes to compete for too. CM Cakes’ Chantelle won Fave Flave and Melissa from Humblebee Bake House took home the title of Best Look-a-Like. The three winners were congratulated with framed certificates.

Thank you to everyone that came out that night in our support, to the bakers for pouring your creativity and hard work into a project for a good cause, and to Apex Trampoline Park for donating door prizes. Thank you to Nutrien for sponsoring an important event that truly keeps our community warm and vibrant: Wintershines! A huge thanks also goes to each of our The Princess Shop volunteers who helped organize, set up and take down the event as well as Janella Hamilton of CTV Saskatoon News for emceeing the event and announcing our winners! And lastly, but surely not least, to each of YOU in the community who came to sample, vote, and enjoy an evening of sweets for such a great cause. It means the world to us to have an entire community backing us up as we help bring the joys of graduation and the life that follows after to our Princess graduates. 

Our next major fundraiser is our 12th Annual Glass Slipper Benefit for Princesses, presented by K+S Potash Canada on April 10, 2019 at TCU Place. Join us for an evening of good fun, good food, and giving back to the community. We'd love to see you there! And if you're looking for more Cupcake Contest photos, check out our Facebook page for the full album!

When we were first contacted about being a part of Wintershines in 2016 we were as excited as we were overwhelmed with ideas. As a Saskatoon non-profit, we take any opportunities we can to be involved in the community. We knew that being part of Potashcorp's Wintershines was the perfect opportunity to spread information about our program, while giving the community a place to gather, and to share some sweet treats on a cold winter day. 

After learning that there weren't any other cupcake competitions locally, we knew that we had a great opportunity to bring the community together to name BEST CUPCAKE in SASKATOON! We got to work reaching out to local cake masters and bakeries, and were so grateful for the reception we had! Our event was as huge success, and we owe that to each of our local contestants. Without further ado, a huge thank you to The Park Town Hotel, Cakes by Britney, Griffin Takeaway, Baby K Cupcakes and Cakes, The Cupcake Conspiracy, and our very own Princess Shop entry. 

Each of our bakers and bakeries chose a gown from the Princess Shop to model their cupcake design after. The results were OUTSTANDING!

The Park Town Hotel's delicious vanilla cupcakes were served upside down, a design inspired by their gorgeous mermaid style grad dress. It was topped with orange creamsicle icing, and handmade black licorice pearls that perfectly emulated the taste of tiger tiger icecream.

Griffin Takeaway had the most articulate icing design. They designed a chocolatey rose on top of each cupcake that went perfectly with their stunning dark red and rose coloured gown.

Baby K Cupcakes and Cakes created a perfect swirl of vanilla and strawberry. From the most moist cupcake to the swirled icing, strawberry shortcake herself would be jealous of this one! 

The Cupcake Conspiracy absolutely nailed their take on a classic chocolate cupcake, and upped the anti from there with the most outstanding colour combination of the evening. Buttercream in flavour, but multicoloured rainbows and sparkles in appearance. It was as tantilizing to the eyes as it was to the tastebuds.

Our very own Princess Shop baker who also doubles as our Live Auction Coordinator, Miss Whitney, lead our team in the design of a beautiful and tasty raspberry rose cupcake.  

And last but certainly not least, our 'Dress It Up Cupcake Contest' WINNER is the lovely Cakes by Britney! Britney put a new spin on an old favourite. This delicious carrot cake was also infused with coconut and pineapple, topped with signature ice blue buttercream frosting and crowned with silver sparkles and jewels. It was as tasty as it was beautiful! CONGRATULATIONS BRITNEY AND TEAM!

Other thank yous to the businesses who donated door prizes: The Industrial Kitchen & Bar, KR Jewelry, Joy Tesch Stylist at Visions Salon & Spa !

A special thank you to Kevin Stanfield of Global Saskatoon for emceeing the event and announcing our winner!

To Mandy Pravda , Kim Ali, and Jeff Culbert for putting on such a fantastic winter festival and bringing the community together! Thank you to PotashCorp for funding an important community event: Wintershines!

To each of our The Princess Shop volunteers who helped bake, organize, setup and takedown the event.

And lastly, but surely not least, to each of YOU in the community who came to sample, vote, and enjoy an evening of sweets for such a great cause. You are helping us bring graduation, scholarship, and mentorship experiences to more Saskatchewan women than ever before. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! All of !the proceeds from the event were given back to the Princess Shop!

Our next major event is our 9th Annual Glass Slipper Benefit on April 7, 2016. Join us for an evening of good fun, good food, and giving back to the community. We'd love to see you there!

All love,

The Princess Shop Team