Cupcake Coma, Courtesy of Sprinkles

You guys, I can’t even.

Today I attended one of my favorite events ever. EVER.

I was invited, you see, to enjoy cupcakes and champagne at Sprinkles Cupcakes in Chicago with the Founders (Candace and Charles Nelson). In the kitchen.

Cupcakes? Yes, please.

But seriously, I have been wanting to get to Sprinkles for a long time: I had been hearing the buzz about them for a few years, and in fact my go-to gift for friends’ birthdays a couple years back was a basket of Sprinkles Cupcake mixes, purchased at Williams-Sonoma. At that time, Sprinkles was only located in California. (You may have heard of them because Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise are Sprinkles’ most famous customers.) They now have TEN locations, having opened five of them in the last calendar year (along with having a baby!).

Candace (pastry chef and judge on Food Network’s “Cupcake Wars”) and Charles opened the Chicago location last year: in fact, through this month they are celebrating their local anniversary by giving out 1000 cupcakes every day! (Follow the Sprinklesmobile’s whereabouts on its Facebook page! It makes two “drops” of 500 cupcakes each, daily!)

Today we learned about what else is coming up for Sprinkles: the “Mommy Happy Hour:” any adult that purchases a full size cupcake will receive a free pint-sized cupcake for pint-sized customers. Follow Sprinkles’ Facebook pages (Chicago is here; national is here) to get more details on “Mommy Happy Hour”, including the start date and time of day it’ll be in effect.

Can I just say how awesome both Candace and Charles were? SO friendly, talkative, and just thrilled to have everyone in the kitchen: it was an amazing experience. Candace introduced her husband to us, saying that he often doesn’t get as much attention as she does, but indeed she thinks of him as the “brains of the business” (*I* think they both are…). When I asked her how they come up with the flavors (including Salted Caramel: YUMMY!) they serve, she told me a funny story. She wanted to incorporate a Maple- and Bacon-flavored cupcake, and Charles vetoed it, saying that no matter how good it would taste, they couldn’t have their kitchens smelling like bacon. That’s when I suggested that they could open up, next to every Sprinkles location, a small “Sprinkles’ Maple & Bacon Shack”, with separate facilities especially for that flavor.

And then, as Candace and I had a good laugh over that, I mentioned that it’s ideas like that which remind me why I’m not a businessperson.

The event was short, only about ninety minutes long, but long enough for us to eat mini cupcakes, try our hand at frosting, the Sprinkles Way, and chat up our hosts as much as we wanted. It was glorious and an experience I won’t soon forget! And if all of that wasn’t enough, we were sent home with cupcakes to share.

Check out some pictures and video from the event!

By the way, if you’re in the Chicago area, YOU can meet Candace yourself this week:

Thursday, July 21 from 10am-12pm
Friday, July 22 from 2-4pm
Saturday, July 23 from 3-5pm

Sprinkles is located at 50 East Walton Street, Chicago IL 60611.

So tell me, have YOU ever tried a Sprinkles Cupcake?

Disclosure: I was given a box of cupcakes on my way out of the event without any expectations of a blog post, but I wanted to share with my readers. All words and opinions are, as usual, mine!