Talk about a major sweet tooth!
Competitive eater Stephanie “Xanadu” Torres, an out-of-towner from Las Cruces, N.M., crammed down 71 cupcakes on June 30 in eight minutes during the first contest of its kind to be held in Coney Island.
The cupcake-eating contest’s planners — sisters Katherine Kallinis and Sophie LaMontagne — owners of Georgetown Cupcakes and stars of the hit TV show “DC Cupcakes” — predicted unpredicability when talking to this paper in June.
“It’s going to be wild,” said LaMontagne.
She wasn’t wrong — the diminutive Torres topped the totals of several male competitors in front of Deno’s Wonder Wheel, including the 60 confections that Eric “Silo” Dahl of Minnesota consumed and the 42 “Gentleman” Joe Menchetti of Connecticut forced down his gullet.
She also defeated Brooklyn’s own Will “The Champ” Millender — the Bay Ridge-born five-year winner of the borough’s annual Stinky Cheese-Eating Contest.
Millender tried to grab another hometown victory, but he couldn’t keep down the countless desserts of vanilla cake and vanilla buttercream icing he scarfed down, leading him to spew up everything.
Torres took home the trophy and an extra-large check for $750 — easily surpassing LaMontagne’s prediction that the winner would eat around 60 treats.
But she fell short by one baked good of the record set by Pat “Deep Dish” Bertoletti, who ate a stunning 72 cupcakes in just six minutes at the Isle Waterloo World Cupcake-Eating Championship in April.
Bertoletti said cupcakes are a competitive eater’s dream.
“As long as they’re soft and fresh they’re really easy to get down,” said Bertoletti.
Reach reporter Will Bredderman at (718) 260–4507 or e-mail him at wbredderman@cnglocal.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/WillBredderman
