Cupcake-themed Fashion Show for Cystic Fibrosis

Last night I went to a cupcake-themed fashion show to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis at Pittsburgh's Firehouse Lounge. Attractive men and women modeled clothing from several Pittsburgh boutiques on the bar-turned-catwalk while guests sipped drinks made from Absolut, one of the sponsors of the fashion show. The catwalk was decorated with cute construction-paper cupcakes and the first model of each boutique carried a large cupcake-shaped sign with the boutique's name on it.

Admission was $10, but for $200 you could buy a six-person table which included t-shirts from the various boutiques, a bottle of your choice of Absolut vodka, and float of six cupcakes, each made with a different flavor of Absolut. The cupcakes were made by CoCo's Cupcake Cafe in Pittsburgh. Initially I planned to head over to the Firehouse just to watch the show (as much as I wanted to support the Cystic Fibrosis charity, $200 is a fair bit out of my price range), but at the last minute some friends of mine who own a company decided to buy a table. Thanks Electric Owl Studios!

The gentleman who checked us in told us that our table would be marked with a cupcake with our name on it, and sure enough a giant paper cupcake on top of an elegant wine case awaited us at our table. Shortly after we sat down our hostess brought us our bottle of Absolut on ice, along with pitchers of Sprite and cranberry juice. The highlight of the evening, however, was definitely the cupcakes. Everyone agreed that they were absolutely divine! Shea Mullen (owner of CoCo's) sat and chatted with me for awhile, and people kept coming up to our table to tell her how delicious the cupcakes were. Great job, CoCo's!

The cupcakes were (almost) too beautiful to eat, and it took our party about half an hour to conquer our guilt and devour them. Clockwise from top left the flavors were: Citron, Mandarin Orange, Raspberri, Peach, Vanilla, and Ruby Red. At 10pm, after the runway show ended, the event organizers broke out boxes of mini-cupcakes made with Absolut Pear and unveiled the piece of art commemorating the launch of Absolut Pear that Absolut commissioned from Shea. Shea's silk screen print was cute, modern, and clever, and I was pretty bummed that my camera broke shortly after I took the pictures above. I've got a new camera on the way, and as soon as it arrives I'll take some more pictures of the cupcake-schwag that was on our table and update the gallery.