Sunday, June 21, 2009

Giveaway!

Posted by Erin Wilburn / 185 comments » / Stuff

If you know anything at all about me, you know I LOOOOOVE free stuff. That’s why I’m SO excited to be able to give some of YOU the opportunity to score some free stuff! My adopt-a-blogger suggested we do a little Q&A so our readers can get to know us a little better, along with a giveaway. She loves doing giveaways. What we’re doing is having ONE giveaway, with TWO sets of prizes. We’re going to randomly select two winners. I’ll explain more about the prizes & how to enter, but first let me share with you a little bit more about CB. We answered 20 survey questions and are posting 10 now, and 10 when we post the winners of our prize.

1. Name 10 things in your frig RIGHT NOW.

CB: -80 calorie string cheese (b/c 60 calorie string cheese sucks! Just trust me.)
-strawberries
-1/2 can of cream cheese frosting
-3 mini cartons of half-and-half
-4 dozen eggs
-16 sticks of unsalted butter
-jar of pickles with only 1 pickle left
-Costco size box of Gogurt
-cherry tomatoes (for my bunny)
-Hershey caramel ice cream topping

2. Why did you start a food blog?

CB: – At first it was just a place to keep recipes that I found via the internet or food blogs but as I started getting more and more into blogging, it has turned into much more than a placeholder. More than even a hobby. Now it’s my creative outlet.

3. What is your comfort food?

CB: -Even though I have many comfort foods (see next question), I’m gonna have to go with pizza. Anytime, any day, any occasion, multiple times a day, anywhere.

4. What would your last meal be?

CB: -I would eat as much as humanly possible to delay the impending execution. Makes sense right?

Pizza, cheesecake, pad thai, pho (vietnamese noodle soup), spring rolls, garlic bread, shrimp scampi, bacon avocado cheeseburger, fried zucchini, french fries, chocolate cupcake with caramel buttercream, medium well done steak, Rubios fish tacos, caesar salad, white chocolate & macademia cookies, vanilla bean ice cream, chocolate covered strawberries, creme brulee, king-size snickers bar…

5. What is your favorite can’t-live-without-it kitchen gadget?

CB: -Definitely my empire red Kitchen Aid Mixer. (Thanks MIL!) It’s my pride and kitchen joy. I named her Ginger Spice.

6. What is your favorite blog(s) to find inspiration?

CB: -There are so many bloggers that inspire me but my 3 of my favorites are: Smitten Kitchen, Steamy Kitchen and Dooce. Not only are they amazing bloggers, photographers and writers but they are also true to themselves. Love them or hate them, they are REAL people with thoughts and opinions. I don’t want to be one of those people that gain popularity and cease to have an opinion to please everyone else. Ultimately I want to be ME. Not a sheeple.

7. What are 3 adjectives that describe you?

CB: -dorky
-loveable
-vertically challenged

8. How would you describe your blog to someone?

CB: Cupcake blog: A sweet read for other cupcake addicts like me.

Food blog: A little piece of the internet for me, myself and my food.

9. What are your short term goals for your blog? Long term?

CB: My short term goals are to continue blogging and building relationships with my readers through my stories, recipes and photos. I am also focusing on improving my food photography too. (DSLR for Dummies is on my to-read list.) My long term goal is to someday take that leap from hobby to full-time professional blogger. Who wouldn’t want to make money from something they love right? I want to wake up every morning and say “I LOVE my job!”

10. What do you do when blogger’s block strikes?

CB: – If I force it, it’s rarely my best work so I try to embrace it and ride it out until inspiration hits me again. Maybe with a little Wii yoga while I’m waiting.
————-
Be sure to check out her blog to see MY answers!

I think this was an awesome pairing. She’s definitely someone I’d be friends with in real life! Considering she has an entire blog dedicated to cupcakes, she wanted her prize to be cupcake related. Here’s what she said about the prizes she chose:

I am a big fan of Martha Stewart. Love her or hate her, the girl knows how to bake so I jumped at the chance to buy her new cupcake book. I’ve made her 1 bowl chocolate cupcake and it’s now my go-to chocolate cupcake recipe. I can’t wait to try some of her other recipes! I have her snickerdoodle cupcakes on the brain next. Of course I couldn’t just offer a cupcake book without some party nut cup liners and my favorite star tip too.

And me, I love me some cupcakes, but I also LOVE Martha Stewart’s Cookie book. (Remember my excitement when I received it as a gift?) I’m so excited to give someone else the opportunity to own that book! I’ve already got a tag dedicated to the cookies I’ve from the book. To go along with the book, I’m also giving away a Pampered Chef Mini Spatula, and Pampered Chef Medium Cookie Scoop. That mini-spatula is just AWESOME! It’s thin metal edge is perfect for cookies. I can’t believe how long I was using my thick plastic one to transfer my cookies. I always ended up with broken cookies. It’s also awesome for bar cookies & brownies. Another way to ensure perfect cookies, is to make them uniform in size. The best way to do that is using a cookie scoop. I made the mistake of buying one at Target. I’m not kidding when I say it broke that very day, on the third cookie I scooped. It just so happens that my cousin is a Pampered Chef rep, (click the link to visit the Pampered Chef store if you’re interested in ordering anything). This is very bad for someone as Pampered Chef obsessed as I am. I’ve slowly been purchasing all the things on my wish list. I now own all the cookie scoops. I could tell from the first instant I held this cookie scoop in my hand that it was stronger and sturdier than the Target one I bought. It hasn’t let me down yet. I’ve been making perfectly round cookies ever since!

So, you’re probably wondering just HOW you can enter to win one of these two awesome sets of prizes. Easy, all you do is leave a comment ON THIS BLOG POST answering this question: Given a choice, would you pick a cupcake or cookie? We’re curious about our reader’s preferences! And just FYI, even if you say you prefer cupcakes, there’s still a chance you’ll win the cookie book, and vice versa. We’re using random.org to pick the winners, so we might end up with two people who both prefer cookies (because cookies are awesome). The giveaway is open from now until Saturday, June 27th at 11:59 ET. Then be sure to check back on Monday, June 29th to find out the winner!!

**Also, this is only open to residents of the US & Canada**And be sure to enter a valid email address so we can contact you if you win**

Good luck!

**ONE ENTRY PER EMAIL**

**UPDATE** Thanks for the comments, the giveaway is now closed! Come back Monday to find out who the winners are!