VegNews interviewed Chef Chloe Coscarelli, winner of this week's Cupcake Wars episode on the Food Network. Click here for the recipe for her crème-filled Chocolate Orange Cupcakes also at VegNews.
VegNews: How did your win on Food Network’s Cupcake Wars come about?
Chloe Coscarelli: It all started when I saw an ad for the Cupcake Wars casting call on Twitter, and I tried out on a whim. At the audition I had to show up with an elaborately decorated cupcake—I made a cupcake with an Alice in Wonderland theme. They loved the cupcake, and several days later the producers called me back to say I made it! Times are a changing! I brought my college roommate, Sandhya, to assist me on the show. It turns out we make a pretty good team.
VN: What kind of feedback did you receive from the judges?
CC: I was required to come up with four different cupcake flavors based on aphrodisiacs for a “hot singles” event. The competition consisted of four challenges; the first was the taste test. This was the scariest challenge, because if they didn’t like my cupcake, I would be immediately eliminated and told to leave the studio. For this round, I made the Ginger Nutmeg Spice Cupcake. They each took a bite and I was so relieved when the judges liked it better than anyone else’s. One of the judges, Florian Bellanger, who is a renowned traditional pastry chef from NYC, even asked me to marry him after tasting it...
VN: You catered 1,000 vegan cupcakes for an OK! Magazine celebrity party in Beverly Hills. Tell us more!
CC: The party happened right after the win at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, so it was a huge rush! It was so exciting to walk on the red carpet and see celebrities coming back for seconds and thirds of my cupcakes. From the OK! Magazine execs to the star guests, everyone loved the fact that my cupcakes were vegan, and all 1,000 cupcakes were wiped clean. I even found out that some of my favorite celebs were vegan themselves, such as Chelsea Hightower from Dancing with the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance. It was surreal to have people that I’ve always admired appreciating my cupcakes.
VegNews: How did your win on Food Network’s Cupcake Wars come about?
Chloe Coscarelli: It all started when I saw an ad for the Cupcake Wars casting call on Twitter, and I tried out on a whim. At the audition I had to show up with an elaborately decorated cupcake—I made a cupcake with an Alice in Wonderland theme. They loved the cupcake, and several days later the producers called me back to say I made it! Times are a changing! I brought my college roommate, Sandhya, to assist me on the show. It turns out we make a pretty good team.
VN: What kind of feedback did you receive from the judges?
CC: I was required to come up with four different cupcake flavors based on aphrodisiacs for a “hot singles” event. The competition consisted of four challenges; the first was the taste test. This was the scariest challenge, because if they didn’t like my cupcake, I would be immediately eliminated and told to leave the studio. For this round, I made the Ginger Nutmeg Spice Cupcake. They each took a bite and I was so relieved when the judges liked it better than anyone else’s. One of the judges, Florian Bellanger, who is a renowned traditional pastry chef from NYC, even asked me to marry him after tasting it...
VN: You catered 1,000 vegan cupcakes for an OK! Magazine celebrity party in Beverly Hills. Tell us more!
CC: The party happened right after the win at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, so it was a huge rush! It was so exciting to walk on the red carpet and see celebrities coming back for seconds and thirds of my cupcakes. From the OK! Magazine execs to the star guests, everyone loved the fact that my cupcakes were vegan, and all 1,000 cupcakes were wiped clean. I even found out that some of my favorite celebs were vegan themselves, such as Chelsea Hightower from Dancing with the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance. It was surreal to have people that I’ve always admired appreciating my cupcakes.
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