Treat yourself at the WV Cupcake & Craft Beer Fest, a fundraiser for Operation Welcome Home.
Not an obvious pairing, cupcakes and beer. But it’s the centerpiece of the WV Cupcake & Craft Beer Fest, now in its fifth year, and the pairing is a challenge that the event co-organizers at The Cupcakerie have fun with.
“We get beer from some of the vendors and we make recipes around it,” says Janet Williams of The Cupcakerie, who organizes the event with her business partner, Anna McCarty Carrier. “So for instance, we’re going to do a chocolate coffee porter cupcake”—that one is flavored by Big Timber Brewing’s enormously popular porter. Wheat beer and citrus is a classic combination, she says, so they’ll have an orange buttercream frosting–topped confection flavored by a wheat beer. On the other hand, some longtime Cupcakerie go-tos complement the beers on offer well without adjustment—for example, the Gold & Blue-berry, with whole blueberries and a lemon cream cheese frosting, goes perfectly with blueberry beer that will be at the event.
In all, ticket-holders get six mini-cupcakes and a sample from each of the 18 participating breweries, which include Morgantown and West Virginia favorites as well as guest brewhouses from as far away as Maine, Georgia, and Hawaii.
They’ll also get to vote for the best pepperoni roll, and the adventurous can enter a cupcake eating contest. Craft and food vendors will be on hand, and, as in past years, instrumental duo Ukulangley will provide live entertainment. “We’ve always done this right around St. Patrick’s Day, and they play a lot of Irish songs,” Williams says. “They really get people up and dancing.”
The WV Cupcake & Craft Beer Fest is a fundraiser for Operation Welcome Home, supporting it in its work to help returning veterans and their families find fulfilling jobs. General admission runs from 4 to 9 p.m. Can’t wait ’til 4? VIP ticket-holders get in at 3 p.m. and are treated to a hot appetizer bar, among other perks. Ticket sales at the door will be limited—get your tickets online to be sure you get in.
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