Fat Girl Bakery's impressive, award-winning cupcakes

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First impressions are sweet for Westerville baker Amy Whalen.

Whalen, owner of Fat Girl Bakery, has garnered a good amount of attention for her home-based business over the last few years, but she turned a lot of heads this spring at the Taste of Westerville.

The bakery took home the Crème de la Crème award for sweet treats at the annual showcase of local cuisine coordinated by the Westerville Area of Chamber of Commerce. It was Whalen’s first Taste of Westerville as a vendor.

The winning item: chocolate fudge cupcakes, made with peanut butter dream icing and topped with a crushed peanut butter cup.

The bakery went all out for the event, Whalen says, bringing full-sized desserts instead of sample sizes.

 “We just were doing what we could do and being friendly,” she says.

Whalen also brought her signature apple cake for those with peanut allergies. It’s a good thing she brought both, as the bakery only had about 20 cupcakes left at the end of the event.

Whalen’s bakery focuses on a more traditional style of baking. She has diabetes and wants to provide a dessert that diabetic diners can indulge in without it being entirely sugar-free. She says she can make her customers a cake that looks and tastes great, but she won’t mess around with fondant or anything too fancy.

“It’s about baking stuff the old-fashioned way, like my grandma did,” Whalen says.

Taste of Westerville also provided Whalen with an opportunity to reach out to her community. She has previously been part of the Mount Carmel St. Ann’s 4th Friday events, but Taste of Westerville was a new chance to interact with those around her.

“You can never see enough of the people you live with,” Whalen says.

All told, the competition featured 21 food and nine drink vendors with about 300 community members in attendance, says Chelsie Holmes, events manager for the chamber.

“Overall, we were pleased with the event,” Holmes says.

This year’s event was held April 27 at the Lakes Golf & Country Club. Other winners included J. Gilbert’s Wood-Fired Steaks, winner of Westerville’s Tastiest; the Lakes itself, winner of Best Presentation; Asterisk Supper Club, winner of Rookie of the Year; and Polaris Grille, winner of People’s Choice. All of the awards except People’s Choice are awarded by a panel of judges.

Fat Girl Bakery is a new chamber member, and Holmes decided to reach out to Whalen for this year’s Taste after hearing about the bakery’s participation in other events.

“I’ve heard a little bit about Amy’s story,” says Holmes. “It’s a heartwarming story. We’re so happy to support them.”

While Whalen couldn’t reveal the whole recipe for her winning dessert, she did provide the recipe for her peanut butter dream icing, which was given to her by her grandmother.

Peanut Butter Dream Icing

Ingredients

  • 1 stick butter, whipped
  • 2 tsp. vanilla
  • 1 cup peanut butter
  • ½ cup whipping cream
  • Powdered sugar

Instructions

Whip butter, vanilla, peanut butter and whipping cream together in a mixing bowl. Then, whip in powdered sugar, and continue to add powdered sugar until peaks form.

Use icing as desired; Whalen recommends dipping graham crackers in it.

Emily Hetterscheidt is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.

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