When you think of Super Bowl snacks what are some of the first things that come to mind?
Pretzels, potato chip and beer would top most lists, but how about cupcakes?
That was the challenge local baker Jess Bartlett, of Cake That in Manahawkin faced preparing for this year’s festivities leading up to the game this Sunday.
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Bartlett was invited to provide the dessert at The Beach Bowl’s celebrity lounge held at New York’s Chelsea Piers for the days leading up to Sunday’s game.
Cake That had taken second place recently on the Food Network’s Cupcake Wars, said Bartlett.
“The Beach Bowl producers saw the show and invited us to come and be the only sweets vendor for their event,” she said.
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The Beach Bowl, actually a massive tent under which a large sandy beach was constructed, will host a flag football game with former NFL stars going against movie and TV stars, musicians and other celebrities on Saturday.
The lounge opened on Thursday for three days, which meant Bartlett and her team needed to show up with “thousands” of cupcakes.
“We needed to come up football themes and tried a lot of different ideas, including a Buffalo Wing cupcake with a blue cheese icing,” she said.
They finally settled on the “Couch Potato,” a beer and potato chip cupcake topped with a chocolate dipped chip, the “Champagne Mimosa” topped with an orange butter cream, a chocolate pretzel cake with caramel crackle and their signature Red Velvet cupcake.
The cakes will be displayed in large replica of a football stadium with the New York skyline in the background with the cupcakes filling the stands.
In addition, the Cake That bakers prepared 4-packs with even more flavors for the gift bags being distributed to visitors to the lounge. Along with the gift packs, the Cake That team will distribute postcards promoting tourism events in the Long Beach Island Region for three days to press, past football players, and notable celebrities from around the world.
To help cover the cost of attending, Cake That was presented with a sponsorship check of $2000 from the funding committee of the Southern Ocean Chamber of Commerce at their January 14 meeting in Manahawkin.
Bartlett is not being compensated by the Beach Bowl for her participation and thanked the Chamber members for their support. When asked later why she would take on the challenge and cost of the event she said, “Sometimes you have to put yourself out there. You have to take the opportunity to demonstrate your skills and ability even if it is for free.”
“Plus I get to hang out for three days with all these celebrities and give them my cupcakes,” she added smiling.
You can follow her adventures on the Cake That FaceBook page or on Twitter at @jesscakethat.
Back here, Bartlett’s team, whom she credits with going “all out” for the past weeks, will keep the shop open at the Manahawkin Mart, 647 E. Bay Ave. in the Manahawkin Mart offering the Super Bowl special cakes this weekend, along with several other varieties including this week’s specials like Salted Carmel and Oreo Cookies and Cream.
The shop is open 8am-6pm Sunday-Thursday and 8am-9pm Friday and Saturday.
