I hope you all enjoyed last night’s first ever Vegan Cupcake Wars—a show I was so honored to be a part of! The challenge posed to the vegan bakers was to create the ultimate array of vegan cupcakes fitting to debut at the Green Festival in Los Angeles. In case you missed Sunday’s show, the episode will be available soon on FoodNetwork.com. I had so much fun appearing as a guest judge! Today I thought I’d give you a little peek behind the scenes to see what goes on and what it was like tasting 30 cupcakes!
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- Leslie Durso, Vegan Guest Judge of Cupcake Wars
I arrived at 6:30am and was escorted to my dressing room for wardrobe, hair, and make-up. I was so lucky to have my favorite Dean Roybal from Planet Salon do my hair and make-up 
He used all AVEDA products on me which were, of course, vegan.
At about 8am I was escorted on set, met the host Justin Willman and the other permanent judges Candace Nelson and Florian Bellanger. They were super nice!
And here was my view for most of the day:
This really wasn’t like any other set I had ever been on! Watching the contestants run around making their cupcakes… I don’t know how they do it! It was so stressful just to watch. I was sure happy to be sitting on the other side of the judges table.
We filmed all day and to answer the question you all have been asking, yes, I really did eat all of those cupcakes, plus a few dozen more! Such a sugar rush! I’m not sure how Candace and Florian do it everyday! More than 12 hours and 30 cupcakes later, we wrapped; it was truly a day of sweet indulgence but also quite an enlightening food television experience and one I hope to have more of!
**SPOILER ALERT**
The following weekend everyone at Green Fest LA got to experience and taste the winners cupcakes. Here I am with the winner Stephanie Sparkles from Bliss Cakes and her winning display:
PS if you like my dress it came from my friend Kris’s adorable shop in Manhattan Beach called Bella Beach! And here we are shooting a little promo clip for the show (how beautiful do these cupcakes look??):
It was such a fun experience and I have to thank Food Network and everyone involved in having me on the show! Be sure to catch me LIVE on stage at the GreenFest NYC on April 21 & 22nd, EarthDay Weekend!
xoxo
You were great on the show, perfectly poised and beautiful. I love that dress, it’s stunning! Thanks for sharing the behind-the-scenes with us!
What a great experience! I love hearing behind-the-scene tidbits. I’ll have to check out the show this week.
you were wonderful on it! jenny and i are training to be judges from the cupcake challenge we did last month:
http://theactorsdiet.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/this-is-your-brain-on-sugar/
Loved seeing you judge! You looked gorgeous and fit right in on that judge’s panel! Oh, and if they are looking for another cupcake judge any time soon you know who to call;-)
[...] recently appeared as a guest judge on Cupcake Wars and I was eager to talk to her about her blogging background and experience on the Food Network [...]
Found your blog through the She Posts article, but I did see the episode. So spill it, which was your overall favorite cupcake? (and, I do love your dress!)
I love your site, I think I have all of the ingredients to try your tortilla soup tonight
Thanks Poppy! Honestly Stephanie’s cupcakes were amazing! My favorite were the mandarin orange and lavender ones and the corn/sage ones from the first round. So good!
My family of boys got such a kick out of watching the this episode! You were great!