Abby Wohlhueter’s face beams with excitement and a huge smile appears on her face.

The crowd explodes in cheers for the 7-year-old who swept the Loudoun County Fair’s cupcake contest featuring more than 40 entries.

Wohlhueter’s favorite part of the contest? Winning.

“We started our inspiration with the thought of summer,” Wohlhueter said.

Her grandmother helped her with her cupcake preparation.

“I made a strawberry banana cupcake with strawberry frosting with a strawberry filling and a graham cracker bottom.”

The contest, held July 27, featured the sister-owners, Katherine Kallinis and Sophie LaMontagne of Georgetown Cupcake who also have their own TLC show, “DC Cupcakes.”

The sisters even brought their film crew from the show to tape the Loudoun County Fair’s contest.

“The thing is, there were four judges, so we all had different scores. So we really had to average it. My first place was different then their first place and my second place and third place was different,” Kallinis said. “My favorite one was the brown butter pumpkin. That was my number one. I thought that was absolutely delicious. There was one that was a toasted marshmallow, sweet potato that didn’t make – that was very good. And the rainbow one, that was very creative.”

“But, really all the entries were delicious … it was very, very close,” LaMontagne added.

Teresa Gunnell, who placed second in the contest, started her preparation last year when she did a taste test for her neighborhood.

“A lot of taste testers in my house, that’s my secret,” she said.

Her cupcake, the brown butter pumpkin cupcake with cinnamon cream cheese and homemade caramel sauce topped with sea salt, not only pleased her neighbors, but the judges as well.

Gunnell even got her cookbook signed by the two sisters.

“I think the key is to use fresh ingredients whenever you can. Really splurge on using fresh strawberries, fresh lemons, fresh fruits,” LaMontagne said. “If you really let your ingredients really shine your cupcakes will taste so much better than using like preservatives and extracts and things like that, you know, fake tastes.”

Bailey Martin, of Purcellville, won third place with her rainbow cupcake with vanilla frosting.

“It’s really cool, I love the Georgetown Cupcakes and the TV show. So it’s really cool to win the competition,” the 14-year-old said.

The sisters also had their own contest. The three winners of the fair’s contest picked which of the sisters’ cupcakes was better.

LaMontagne made a fresh peach and cream cupcake in a mason jar, while Kallinis made a deep fried red velvet cupcake.

“I thought what better cupcake to do at the county fair, and I swear it’s never been done before, a deep fried red velvet cupcake,” Kallinis said.
LaMontagne won the contest by a landslide, leaving her sister defensive over her cupcake choice.

“People at the bakery were going crazy for it. It’s never been done before … I’m the first,” Kallinis said.

The two also made a cupcake pig that was auctioned off during the fair’s pig auction July 27.

New episodes of “DC Cupcakes” will begin airing Oct. 9. The Loudoun County Fair episode will be featured in that season.