Cupcake Wars' Candace Nelson Revealed How She Really Feels About Eating All Those Cupcakes

Making cupcakes at home from scratch isn't as hard as you might think. There's an easy trick to decorating your cupcakes that involves cooling them upside-down, not to mention tons of approachable recipes to make your favorite treats at home. NYC-based institution Magnolia Bakery's iconic Carrie cupcakes recipe, popularized thanks to "Sex and the City," is available online, for example. If you're in the mood to see something more show-stopping, though, there's no better thing to watch than "Cupcake Wars."

Cupcake lovers who are also fans of reality TV and cooking competitions might find it hard not to drool over the creations made on "Cupcake Wars." If you're jealous of the series' judges and want their jobs, though, you might want to think twice. According to Sprinkles founder Candace Nelson, one of the permanent judges on the show, eating that many cupcakes gets tiring.

Nelson made a TikTok responding to a fan's question asking, "did you ever get sick of eating that many cupcakes in one sitting?" Nelson's response was a resounding yes. Although tasting cupcakes sounds like a dream job, there are certainly a lot of desserts in each episode of the show. Plus, Nelson pointed out that she would also sample more cupcakes for her own work as a pastry chef.

In her TikTok video, Nelson broke down how many cupcakes she would eat throughout the judging process in one episode of "Cupcake Wars." She explained that in the first round, she would taste four cupcakes, one for each baker. In the second round, she'd taste three decorated cupcakes from the three remaining bakers, which added nine more to the total. By the end of the competition, Nelson says she'd have tasted 17 cupcakes, and after over 100 "Cupcake Wars" episodes, the total comes out to at least 1,700 cupcakes. 

In an article for Food Network, Nelson wrote that in Season 2 of the series, she ate 13 cupcakes per episode and ended the season with 170 cupcakes sampled. Though the exact number of cupcakes might vary by episode and season, there's no doubt that she's eaten more cupcakes than most people can even dream of! Some TikTok commenters pointed out that Nelson probably didn't eat the full cupcake every time. Still, taking a bite or two of that many cupcakes adds up.

For everyone else who isn't a judge on "Cupcake Wars" and is now craving cupcakes, there are plenty of recipes that'll satisfy your hankering. Mashed's recipe for classic vanilla cupcakes is moist and sweet, and if you're a chocolate lover, these delicious chocolate cupcakes will hit the spot.