South Philly cupcake queen ready for another batch of TV baking

Philadelphia’s next TV star might be a South Philly baker.

Last year, Lily Fischer won an episode of a competitive cooking show, “Cupcake Wars.” She will be back on the tube this weekend for another round.

The competitive confectionary program judges cupcakes on taste, presentation, and volume: contestants must make 1,000 cupcakes in two hours. Fischer launched a commercial business, A Cupcake Wonderland, with the $10,000 prize money she won last year. She faced off with other champions for another round of competition, which the Food Network will broadcast on Sunday.

In the food court at the Comcast Center, Fischer handed out samples to fans of “Cupcake Wars.”

“I love that show,” said Analis Barrood, an intern at a Philadelphia law firm and an avowed foodie. “It’s about cupcakes: what more do you need?”

The audience for food-related TV programming is skyrocketing. At the same time the amount of cooking done at home is plummeting. That pair of statistics led food writer Michael Pollan to surmise that, on average, people spend more time watching other people make food on TV than preparing food for themselves.

Fischer says TV cooking is nothing like regular cooking.

“The biggest competitor on any cooking show like this is the clock,” said Fischer. “You can’t fuss about what the other teams are doing. It’s really about trying to beat that clock.”

The results, however, can be sweet.

“The top is awesome,” said Barrood, working her way through a mini red velvet cupcake. “It tastes like Fluffernutter. It tastes like marshmallow-y deliciousness.”