Meet Chef Kimberly Brock Brown, One of Cupcake Camp Charleston's Judges this year!

Chef Kimberly Brock Brown was born and raised in Chicago and has over 25 years experience within the culinary arena and is currently the Executive Chef at a major hospital within the Charleston area. During her culinary journey as a Chef's Apprentice Graduate in 1984, she worked in the kitchens of Hyatt Regency Hotels in Dallas, TX & Hilton Head Island, SC, Atlanta Hilton and Towers in Atlanta,GA, Grove Park Inn and Country Club in Asheville, NC and Charleston Place Hotel in Charleston, SC. She is also a Dale Carnegie graduate and has cooked at the prestigous James Beard House in New York city.
In 2001, Chef Kimberly started a wholesale specialty foods distributing company. In 2009, she wanted to get back to the basics with her culinary expertise and started Culinary Concepts, LLC for catering and other services.

Through the American Culinary Federation, Chef Kimberly has earned several certifications & awards. She is a member of the American Academy of Chefs (AAC), the Honor Society of the ACF, and founding member of the ACF National Pastry and Baking Guild. Chef Kimberly is currently the Academy's only African-American Female Chef inducted in its 30-plus year history and is the only African-American Female Certified Pastry Chef in South Carolina. In recognition of her dedication to her craft, the joy of teaching and helping others, and love of cooking, Chef Kimberly was awarded a Lifetime Professional Membership in the ACF in 2007.

In her off time of running her own business and being a devoted mother, Kimberly has been a Culinary Arts adjunct teacher for Johnson & Wales University and The Culinary Institute of Charleston at Trident Technical College. She is a participating chef with the White House's First Lady Michelle Obama's initiative for Chefs Move to Schools program. Recently, Chef Kimberly has written a new book titled, Here I Am!: Chef Kimberly's Answer to the Question Where Are the Female and Minority Chefs? available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

Biography courtesy of www.kimberlybrockbrown.net

Parking Spots for Next Weekend!

Next weekend see the map attached for available parking spots at The Alley and Post & Courier. Thank you Post & Courier! There is also street parking. Please do not park at the Piggly Wiggly. Your car will be towed.

Meet Corrine Gottlieb, One of our 2014 Cupcake Camp Charleston Judges

Corinne Gottlieb has been involved in baking throughout her life, beginning at the age of eight.  At age ten she weaned off of Betty Crocker cake mixes and taught her mom how to bake from scratch! While living in the San Francisco Bay area for several years, she was exposed to a diversity of cuisines which influenced her repertoire of cakes, cookies, whoopee pies, homemade buttercream and other specialties.  Her friends and family have enjoyed endless kinds of baked goods. Now a Charleston resident, Corinne recently served as a judge at the Bee's Ferry Recreation Center chili cook-off. 

 

Corinne's family always encouraged creativity of every sort, and baking has always been there for her. At present, she is currently developing a cookbook and raising her two children.

SUNDAY STATS!

SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY STATS! 831 likes, 893 Twitter followers, 33 Sponsors, 31 bakers and 339 guests! Yay for all of you making this happen!

Meet One of Our 2014 Cupcake Camp Judges, Tara Baker!

America truly is home to some of the most delicious comfort foods, including none other than the delightful cupcake. Cupcakes weren't my main reason for moving here from England, but I'm sure glad I made the migration from across the pond! Red velvet, pumpkin spice, key lime, I can't get enough of those delicious mini cakes of flavor! I began baking at the tender young age of 3 years old. Baking cheddar scones with my mum in the kitchen was my all-time favorite thing to do and by 6, I had perfected the cheese to scone ratio. Under the careful supervision of my mother, it was an easy and natural progression to move on to things like sponge cake, shortbread, muffins and meringue.

As a fundraising consultant for Blackbaud, traveling is a big part of my job and the first thing on my list when prepping for a trip is checking for a local cupcake store in the city I'll be visiting. My job involves working closely with non-profit companies from all over the country and their passion for what they do makes my days very rewarding. Before my career at Blackbaud, I dabbled in my own cupcake business in which I baked natural organic vegan cupcakes for my friends and coworkers for birthdays and other celebrations. I hope to reignite that business in a few years as it’s truly such a huge passion of mine.

Outside of work, and baking delicious cupcakes of my own of course, I spend most of my time at home on Daniel Island with my boyfriend and our super fluffy and ferocious Maine Coon cat Pudding. My favorite way to spend the weekends and evenings are indulging in my inner Foodie and exploring the local restaurants of Charleston, cooking, reading a good book on the porch and good old fashioned retail therapy on King street.

We love gaining weight!

STATS: 816 likes, 885 Twitter followers, 30 Sponsors, 20 bakers and 267 guests! We love gaining weight!

GO STATS!

STATS: 810 likes, 884 Twitter followers, 29 Sponsors, 18 bakers and 240 guests so far! All monetary donations benefit South Carolina Youth Advocate Program (https://www.scyap.com/). We definitely feel the love! We picked up posters and postcards from one of our best Sponsors Ross Printing (www.rsaprinting.com) and will be distributing them out soon. Thanks for your support and see you in 38 days! Tell everyone you know!

Hump Day Update!

Well, hello there! 47 Days left, can you believe it??!

Camp will be here before you know it! We are still seeking bakers for the event.  With only 16 bakers, we're a bit on the nervous side as the attendance list keeps growing. While we love sharing cupcakes, we hope we have enough to share! Please help us find bakers by spreading the word for us and let them know it's for a good cause, SC Youth Advocate Program (www.scyap.com). They can register under the bakers tab or email us. Deadline to register as a baker is the Friday before the event, 11/8/13.

We will have posters/postcards ready for distribution soon, too. Look out for them in local coffee shops and businesses.  If you would like to help us promote them by posting them up in your office or business, email us at cupcakecampcharleston@gmail.com and we will gladly give you some.

We are looking for 2013 Sponsors and Bakers!

Favor, fellow foodies! Please cut and paste this email to everyone you know!! Thank you!!
>>
Hello!

Cupcake Camp Charleston is in its fourth year and is coming to The Alley in Charleston on November 10, 2013, 3-5 pm. We are looking for Sponsors and Bakers!

Cupcake Camp is a FREE foodie event for people to share and eat cupcakes in an open environment.  Originating in San Francisco, Cupcake Camp promotes a true spirit of community and sharing, and happen all over the world! The most essential feature of a Cupcake Camp is that it brings together people to share their love of cupcakes!

While we have fun in celebrating cupcakes, community and creativity, we also believe in giving back to local charities. This year Cupcake Camp Charleston’s charity is South Carolina Youth Advocate Program. All monetary donations will benefit the South Carolina Youth Advocate Program (www.scyap.com).

If you and/or your company loves the idea, have friends or fellow foodies who love to bake and want to help out a great cause, check out our Sponsor packages or supplies list at www.cupcakecampcharleston.blogspot.com. We are looking for prizes (gift cards/certificates, movie passes, baking supplies, free tickets, free books, etc.) and supplies (gloves, paper plates, napkins, forks and cupcakes). Let's work together, just ask!  Deadline to become a sponsor is October 15, 2013. Deadline to register as a Baker is Friday, November 8, 2013 (register at http://cupcakecampcharleston.blogspot.com/p/bakers.html). 

Thank you for your time,

Heather MacKey

Feel free to forward to everyone you know!

-- 

(c): 843.425.5655
(w): www.cupcakecampcharleston.blogspot.com
(f): Cupcake Camp Charleston
(t): @CupcakeCampChas

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May the 4th Be with You!

May the 4th Be with You! We are quite busy looking for Sponsors and finalizing our judges for November. With only seven months away, we have our work cut out for us. Oh, and two bakers to boot so far! In the meantime, we are keeping ourselves faithfully distracted with Cupcake Wars (Food Network) and making room for some new movies coming out (if you have any recommendations, feel free to let us know).

Baker and Volunteer registration forms are up! Sponsors can be bakers, in case you didn't know. Take a look at our Sponsors page for more information. We are willing to work with our Sponsors on any creative ideas. Please tell everyone you know who loves to bake, eat cupcakes and be a part of charity (coming soon) and community.

We are excited about The Alley being our awesome Host this year. Very hip and trendy, they make bowling even cooler! Bust out those bowling shoes, gloves and gear, too and bowl a few games while you enjoy FREE cupcakes. Brilliant combo, we think! Bakers, we'd love to see bowling cupcakes, too!

Bring it on, Contests, Bring it ON!

Hello Cupcake Faithful! This year's contests are announced!

Best Holiday (This category includes Holidays and will be judged on outer appearance and design; only one cupcake is needed for judges).

Best Southern (This will be judged on ingredients, flavors and decoration. Three cupcakes are needed per judge).

Best Tasting (This will be judged on taste.  Three cupcakes are needed per judge).

All competing bakers who bring 48 cupcakes are permitted to enter in one category of the competition.  Bakers who bring 120 or more are permitted to enter two categories of the competition.  Bakers who bring 240 or more are permitted to enter all three categories.  

1:48, 2:120, 3:240 = We all win!

For each category, please submit three cupcakes for each judge (exception, if you are entering the Best Holiday contest, please submit only one cupcake.  For this competition, cupcakes must be regular sized (cupcake pops are accepted). Also, please note that cupcakes will not be refrigerated, so consider ingredients that may melt or spoil and affect overall judging.

**Bakers, please consider making an extra batch for fellow bakers who want to swap with you! We will have a cupcake swap section in the staging area.**

We're Back! Join us for our 4th Year!

Come join us for our 4th year!! Cupcake Camp Charleston is coming to The Alley, 131 Columbus Street, Charleston, SC.

You can attend by joining our Facebook event or if you are not on Facebook, order tickets via Eventbrite:
http://www.eventbrite.com/event/6477850425/efbevent

Cupcake Camp Charleston is a FREE social gathering for foodies who want to share and eat cupcakes together. Cupcake Camp is based on the community's efforts. Bakers, Volunteers and Eaters are encouraged to attend. You do not have to bring cupcakes to attend. Cupcakes should be ready to go at the event. There will be a contest for bakers and monetary donations will support a local charity. More information to follow! For questions, email us at cupcakecampcharleston@gmail.com