I think I may have a new favorite local food event: Cupcake Camp.

The first ever Cupcake Camp Memphis - a daylong celebration of all things cake - happened on Saturday at the Agricenter. Bakers brought several dozen cupcakes each and several hundred people dropped $3 at the door to try as many samples as they could handle.

I was asked to be one of the judges for the baking competition. I chose to judge the Best Memphis Theme category, which was for cupcakes that, either in constitution or decoration, were Memphis-related. I expected some really great decorations and interesting ingredients. What I didn't expect was the sheer quantity of peanut butter and banana cupcakes.

Of the roughly 10 cakes I tried, at least five were some variation of peanut butter and banana. The best was one topped with sugared bacon. The worst was one that had almost no flavor. The mediocre ones were referred to by my fellow judges as "palate cleansers". Some were bland. Some were more like muffins than cake. Others came to the table covered in glitter.

Some of the decorations were extremely impressive. My favorite cake was a blue velvet cake with cream cheese icing and a fondant A. Schwab's logo:

There was also a rather impressively constructed replica of the Peabody Hotel Fountain, complete with little SweeTart ducks:

Because I judged the Memphis themed cupcakes, I also got to try two barbecue cupcakes. In theory, they were a good idea combining two great things into one baking liner. In practice, though, there were some definite issues.

The first was a smoky chocolate cake topped with a pork and onion cream cheese icing that was then topped with slaw and a kicky little fondant Memphis in May logo.

While I admired the creativity and engineering that went into this cake, I couldn't help but wonder if the maker had bothered to taste it before turning it in. It wasn't exactly disgusting, just extremely confusing.

My low score of the day went to a corn-based barbecue cupcake that looked like a Ninja Turtle hockey puck. I'm not sure why it was green, and I didn't really want to find out. There was no icing, but it came to the table with a little tub of barbecue sauce glaze.

Inside the cake were a few chunks of pulled pork. I hate to say it, but I'm pretty sure I was the only person at my table brave enough to eat it (and, as much as I'd like to, I can't go back and un-eat it).

On the whole, though, I had a blast sampling all of the cupcakes (including the leftovers I swiped from the Most Unique Ingredient and Healthiest Cupcake tables after I finished judging). For those of you who (like me) are looking forward to the next Cupcake Camp, you've got a year to perfect your recipes.