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Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge: Official Rules

THIS MONTHLY CHALLENGE HAS NOW CONCLUDED; THERE WILL BE NO MORE CHALLENGES!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST AND PARTICPATION!

Welcome to the Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge!  This is an exciting new competition where each month a secret ingredient from the Mystery Box is revealed and participants must create a cupcake based on that ingredient.  There are some neat prizes to be won, so read below to find out how you can enter!

—CHECK THE SIDEBAR TO THE RIGHT FOR THIS MONTH’S INGREDIENT—

How It Works
All dates and times in relation to this competition are Pacific Standard Time in the USA. Deadlines are always at 11:59PM respectively.

On the 1st of each month a new secret ingredient will be announced on The Sweetest Kitchen blog and a notice will be placed in the sidebar of the blog.  It could be a single ingredient, such as “chocolate”, or a general theme, such as “winter”.  Particular rules relating to each ingredient will be announced on the blog.  Participants will have 20 days to create their own cupcake based around the secret ingredient.  After the 20th of the month, all entries will be posted on The Sweetest Kitchen blog along with a poll so that anyone who visits the blog can vote for their favorite entry.  Voting will remain open for 5 days.  After the voting has ended, the top 5 cupcakes that receive the most votes go into a draw where a winner will be chosen at random from those top 5.

Participants who have already won are still allowed to enter the competition, however, they will not be eligible to win the prize pack.  If a past winner makes it into the top 5, their spot will be given to the cupcake that is next in line with the 6th highest vote.  This ensures that everyone will have a chance to win.

Always check in the sidebar to the right of The Sweetest Kitchen blog for all updates on this competition – including the current month’s ingredient and when voting is open.

How To Enter
Participation is free and open to everyone of all ages from all over the world.  There is no commitment – only compete in the months that you want to.

Only one entry per person is allowed.

On the 1st of the month, check The Sweetest Kitchen blog for the new secret ingredient.  This information will be placed on a blog post and in the sidebar.  Once the ingredient is announced, you must then create a cupcake based on this ingredient by the 20th of the month.

Keep in mind that the purpose of this competition is to challenge you in the kitchen and to create interesting flavors that are way beyond the average chocolate and vanilla cupcakes you’d find in a cookbook or bakery.

Unless specified, the general rule is that the ingredient has to be incorporated/used in some part of the cupcake.

Post pictures and your baking story on your blog. Posting your recipe is optional.  In your blog post, please provide a link to the Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge info page (the page you are reading now). You are also required to post links to the prize providers. For the current month’s prize providers, please see the ingredient announcement post for that month (link to this post is in the sidebar to the right), where you will find text that you can copy and paste directly into your post.

All photos entered into the competition must be your own.  All cupcakes entered into the competition must be your own. If this rule is disregarded, your entry will not be accepted.

After posting the above information on your blog, fill out the official entry form. Make sure you provide accurate details in this form as the information you provide there is exactly what I’ll be using on the roundup and voting poll.

I will reply back to every entry. If you do not receive a reply from me in 3 days, please resend your entry. If I don’t receive your entry you will not be included in the roundup or voting.

You are not required to have a blog to enter the competition. If you’d like to enter the competition and don’t have a blog, you may provide a link to your Flickr photo.  If you don’t have a Flickr account, simply leave the appropriate sections blank on the entry form.

After submitting the entry form, you are done.  Just sit back and let the votes roll in!

How Voting Works
Voting takes place on the 21st through the 26th of each month and voting is open to every person who visits The Sweetest Kitchen blog.  A poll with your entry information will be posted in the sidebar of The Sweetest Kitchen blog.

It is perfectly acceptable to ask all your friends and family to vote for you, but please be fair and do not vote for yourself more than once, or ask your friends and family to vote for you more than once.  I have detailed site tracking installed on my blog that tracks visitor information, and the poll I use tracks IP addresses – if you or someone else is voting for you more than once, I will most likely know about it.  If I suspect that someone is cheating, that person will be contacted and can possibly be disqualified from the competition for that month.  Repeat offenders will be banned completely from the competition.

Voters will be allowed to vote for their TWO favorite cupcakes.

When voting, keep in mind that this competition has been created to introduce exciting, new cupcake flavors, rather than for appearance (unless specified in the particular month’s post), so place your vote according to the cupcake that you think is most inventive and that you’d be most likely to eat and enjoy.

When voting has ended, the top 5 cupcakes that receive the most votes will go into a draw, where the winner will be chosen at random.  I will not be using the good old random.org random number generator; instead I’m going to do it the old-fashioned way.  I will write the name of the top 5 cupcakes and the blog they belong to on 5 separate pieces of paper, toss them around in a small box and draw one piece of paper out of the box.  The cupcake written on that paper will be announced the winner.

On the 27th of the month, the winner will be announced on The Sweetest Kitchen blog and will receive prizes from that particular month’s prize sponsors.

Please note that the dates given above are not set in stone as I am not a robot – I am a human, I am a mother of 3 young children and I can’t always get to the computer when I need to.

Prize Sponsors
When the winner is chosen, he or she will be contacted by email and will be required to email me their postal address within 5 days so that I can provide the prize sponsors with the information necessary to send the winner that month’s prizes.  If you do not provide your postal address within 5 days, a new winner will be chosen out of the remaining top 5 cupcakes.

If you are a winner and haven’t received one of your prizes, please email me at mysteryboxcc@gmail.com and I will try to work it out.

Here is a list of sponsors that have donated prizes, both past and present, to the winners of this competition:

Angela’s Images
Bake It Pretty
Bakerella
Beanilla
CT2Designs
ExoDesign
Hello Hanna
Lisa Orgler
Maisie Fantaisie Cupcake Wrappers
Miss Kitty Creations Jewelry
My Little Cupcake Pop
Rishi Tea
Simply Caked
Soapylove Glycerin Soap Design
Sweet Cuppin Cakes
Tundra Books

If you are interested in donating a prize, either for a single month or for consecutive months, please email me at mysteryboxcc@gmail.com.

Previous Winners
These are the winners of previous Mystery Box Cupcake Challenges – congratulations to all of you!

July 2010 – Tea Challenge:
Sweet Coconut Tea Cupcakes With Caramel Filling And Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting, by Lina

August 2010 – White Chocolate Challenge:
White Chocolate Passion Cupcakes, by Tara

September 2010 – Childhood Memories Challenge:
Kiwi-Lime-Grapefruit Cupcakes, by Heather

October 2010 – The Color Orange Challenge:
Indian Summer (Margarita) Cupcakes, by Olga

November 2010 – Ginger Challenge:
Mini Ginger-Pineapple Cupcakes, by Eliane

December 2010 – For Someone Special Challenge:
Kulfi Cupcakes, by Courtney

January 2011 – Popcorn Challenge:
“Hot” Popped Cocoa-Cake Cupcakes, by Angela

February 2011 – Chocolate Cake With A Twist Challenge:
Balsamic Vinegar and Strawberry Chocolate Cupcakes, by Marissa

March 2011 – Birthday Challenge:
Spring Lawn Cupcakes, by Anna

April 2011 – Earth Day Challenge:
The Lil Earth Cake, by The Lil Cake Shoppe

May 2011 – Flower Challenge:
Blushing Banana Cupcakes, by Carina

June 2011 – Fizzy Challenge:
Cherries and Cream Cupcakes, by Jessie

Thank you for your interest in the Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge!

- Thank you to Lisa Orgler for the awesome Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge logo design!

53 Comments Post a comment
  1. super! ton jeu me plait!! rendez vous le 1 juillet!! bonne journée!!

    June 14, 2010
  2. What a fun idea!!

    June 14, 2010
  3. it sounds like so much fun!!! i will defenetly be making cupcakes!!!! On food network the are having a new cupcake show called “Cupcake Wars” cant wait to find out what the suprise engriedent

    June 15, 2010
    • Yes, I’ve heard of Cupcake Wars! I wish I could see it, but they’re not showing it here in Australia.

      June 15, 2010
      • Hi Jamieanne,

        I just recently found your blog and I find it so nice. I have a link to it from my blog. I’m new at this blogging stuff and I definitely look forward to entering your cupcake challenge. My quesion is how do I provide a link to the MBCC info on my page? As well as the links for the prize providers? Thanks, Jackie

        June 29, 2010
        • Hi Jackie, thanks for your kind comments! I see you’re using Blogspot. Entering links with Blogspot is pretty easy – you’ll need to highlight the text you want linked with your cursor. Just above the text box that you write your post in you will see a sort of greenish globe with what appears to be a bit of chainlink, it should be the very next button after the big T. Click that, then enter in the URL (http://www.sweetestkitchen, or whatever!), click OK and that’ll do it for you. If you still need help, just check out Blogger’s help section: http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=41379 :)

          June 29, 2010
          • Jackie Hale #

            Thanks Jamieanne!!

            xo

            June 29, 2010
  4. This is awesome! Please post a reminder on your blog July 1st so I can remember to check for the ingredient :)

    June 16, 2010
    • Don’t worry Natalie, I’ll be posting the ingredient bright and early on July 1st! I can’t wait either! :)

      June 16, 2010
  5. What a great idea! I’ll have to come back and check out the Secret ingredient on July 1st.

    June 17, 2010
  6. VERY cool! I can’t wait!

    June 17, 2010
  7. Rachela #

    I’m super excited! I only just found out about cupcake hero, and was super bummed that it had just ended! Now, I have a chance to compete in a new competition!

    June 21, 2010
  8. I just love cupcake clubs and contests! You’ll definitely see me participating!

    June 22, 2010
    • Thanks, I can’t wait to see your entries!

      June 22, 2010
  9. Very excited for July 1st! (and not because it’s Canada Day!)

    Though, I’m a bit worried about your voting system. It might turn out that the baker with the most contacts will always win, and not necessarily have the best cupcake. Perhaps you could use a system like Cupcake Hero or IronCupcake: Earth? So, have a bake off at the end between the people’s choice and your favourite? Or have people vote for more than one cupcake, then use a random generator to choose a winner a la IC:E?

    June 29, 2010
    • Thanks for your concern. I’m going to take this into consideration. Voting won’t start until late July, so I’ll have a good think about it and may change the procedure. Thanks again! :)

      June 29, 2010
  10. Sophie #

    Is this competition only open to bakers in the USA? Or could I enter as well (I live in the UK)?

    July 5, 2010
    • Hi Sophie, the competition is open to the entire world, including the UK! :D

      July 5, 2010
  11. This sounds so much fun. I can’t want to bake a yummy treat using tea.

    July 8, 2010
  12. This is terrific! Can’t wait to get baking!

    July 9, 2010
  13. Don #

    Awsome

    July 22, 2010
  14. Jamieanne, you are my (cupcake) hero! I have been so blue since the end of IC:E and now here you are with something new and different! Yay! Looking forward to the Mystery Box challenges!
    Yours in cupcake love,
    Cat

    July 29, 2010
    • Thanks Cat! I’m looking forward to your entries! :)

      July 29, 2010
  15. time to have some fun in the kitchen!
    I will bake my cupcakes tomorrow ;)

    August 15, 2010
  16. Michelle #

    Way to go Nicole !!!! we are proud to place our vote.

    January 22, 2011

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