TV types call it “competitive reality.” They’re the TV shows in which amateurs and professionals compete in contests within their professional area of expertise. “Top Chef” and “Project Runway” are two high-profile examples, but the Food Network has a number of shows geared to this premise. Among my favorites are “Food Network Challenge,” “Chopped” and “Ultimate Recipe Showdown.” All air at varying times throughout the week, but Challenge and Showdown are Sunday night staples.

I particularly like Showdown because the recipes featured are designed (mostly) by home and amateur cooks. I say “mostly” because the show fudges a little by allowing chefs, caterers and cooking contest veterans to also submit recipes. The “home cook” distinction is important, because the recipes often are things that real people actually whip up in the kitchen, with ingredients that are readily available in the local supermarket.

The winning recipe in Sunday’s Showdown is a case in point. It was created by a 34-year-old graphic designer from Roswell, Ga., and ended up besting creations by two veteran cooking contest competitors. It also won rave reviews from the judging panel, which includes award-winning chef Michael Psilakis. And while I don’t eat many desserts, I’d give these a try. They’re made with baby food and are tiny little bite-size cupcakes. If you give them a try, let me know how they turn out.

Babycakes
Recipe by Lisa Roman
Makes 8 servings

Cupcake Batter
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 eggs
1/4 cup clover honey
1/2 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 (4-ounce) jar pumpkins with pears baby food (recommended: Nature’s Goodness brand)
2 (4-ounce) jars applesauce and apricots baby food (recommended: Earth’s Best brand)
1/2 cup ground pecans

Frosting
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup ground pecans
Special equipment: 2 (12-cup) mini muffin pans

Directions for cupcakes
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small mixing bowl add the baking soda, salt, baking powder and flour. Mix thoroughly with a fork and set aside. In a large mixing bowl add the eggs, honey, both sugars and butter. Mix until smooth using a hand mixer. Add the cinnamon and baby food. Mix until smooth. Using a rubber spatula fold in the pecans. Slowly add the flour mixture using a sifter and fold in until ingredients are evenly mixed.

Place 24 mini baking cups (2-inch, non-foil) into each hole of the mini muffin pan. Place a 1-gallon resealable freezer bag into a bowl (for support) and pour the cupcake batter into the bag. Seal the bag and cut the tip off 1 of the bottom corners of the bag. Squeeze the batter into each baking cup, filling them only 3/4 of the way full. Place the mini muffin pan in the oven on the center rack. Bake for 12 minutes.

Frosting

In a small mixing bowl add the extracts, milk, cream cheese, butter and powdered sugar. Mix until smooth and creamy using a hand mixer. When the cupcakes are done baking remove each cupcake from the pan and place on a cooling rack. Place the cooling rack in the refrigerator for 5 to 7 minutes.

Once the cupcakes are cooled remove them from the refrigerator. Frost each cupcake by putting a generous dollop of frosting on the top with a spoon. Garnish top with ground pecans and they are ready to serve.

Did you happen to catch the premiere of ABC’s “True Beauty?” The show features Lewiston resident Bill Scharnhorst, aka Billy Jeffrey, who was featured in a story about his involvement in the show in the Jan. 2 Tribune Arts and Entertainment section. Scharnhorst will be blogging periodically on Tribune blogs about his thoughts on the show. But until he gets here …

I have to admit, I probably wouldn’t have watched this show if Scharnhorst wasn’t in it. It’s always interesting to see hometown folks make good. That’s assuming that he makes good, of course. The twist of True Beauty is that the contestants are judged on looks and “inner beauty.”

That being said, I can’t say I found the “true beauty” tests all that telling. The first involved an opportunity to snoop in their fellow contestant’s personal file, which seemed to be a questionaire that each one filled out. Scharnhorst resisted the urge, as did most contestants. I can’t imagine that any such file could reveal much.

The second test was better. The bottom two were presented with the opportunity to either help or ignore a coffee deliveryman.

Scharnhorst acquitted himself well in the beauty challenge by having a plastic surgeon give him a “scientific” score of 95 for his beauty. He tied for first place with another contestant. Much was made about his creaky old age … a shocking 31, which might as well have been 90 judging by the reaction of some of his fellow contestants. The doctor judged his face to be non-symmetrical, but his physical conditioning paid off. He also managed to give Lewiston some face time, mentioning his hometown and wearing a Lewis-Clark T-shirt while working out.

Unfortunately, I found myself distracted by a totally unrelated part of the show. Cheryl Tiegs, the original supermodel, is one of the judges. She’s so heavily Botoxed around the mouth that her face seems frozen, particularly her smile. She could barely flash that wide Cheryl Tiegs smile I remember from my high school years.

Until women and men no longer feel the need to inject poisonous substances into their faces in an attempt to freeze the hands of time, I’m afraid true beauty is still a long time off.

UPDATE ON BILLY’S PERFORMANCE:

Tuesday afternoon I checked one of the major viewer sites, Television Without Pity. Of the posters who commented on him, Billy seems to be doing well. My sense is he’s going to get the nice, humble-guy-from-Idaho edit. Here’s a sampling of the comments:

“Billy so far seems to be the most likable of lot, but I can’t say any of them are mensa candidates. Maybe because as a store owner he’s learned to play nicely with others.”

“The 31 year old Vitamin store owner from Idaho? Montana? Somewhere out there. He seems to be fairly humble, nice guy, polite.”

Hmmm … could Billy be awaiting a $100,000 check?

Obviously, the genius that is Corinne of Survivor fame has never bothered to read any of the writings of American patriot Benjamin Franklin.

From good ole BF, she would have learned it is better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. Instead, she did an interview with Reality News Online in which she managed to be even more nasty, self-involved and actively delusional than she was on the show.

She actively hates, as in dripping with disgust and poison, arch enemy Sugar, to the point that she says, “I meant if I saw her hit by a car and dying by the side of the road, I would not help scrape her body off the pavement.”

Wow … just … wow. She did confirm that she was recruited to the show, a practice I vehemently believe should end right away. I know why they started doing it, but the best players are the ones who have institutional knowledge of the game, not the clueless come-latelys like Corinne.

I don’t like that woman. But I’m better than her, because I can honestly say if I saw her hit by a car and dying by the side of the road, I’d help scrape her body off the pavement.

Is Corinne of Survivor: Gabon the most unlikeable Survivor ever? OK, maybe she has to share that distinction with alliance-mate Randy, but I actually think Corinne might be a tad worse. Not even Jerri Manthey of Survivor: Australia could match the reprehensible Corinne.

You know, I don’t think it’s just editing. After all, no one forced her to spew her poison confessionals, which if you watched Thursday’s recap episode, you know included fantasies of actually poisoning her tribemates. She has that whole flirty, I’m-too-hot-for-color-TV vibe going on, even before she pranced around in a bikini for her audition tape and declared that she was going by win by virtue of being flirtatious and manipulative.

Imagine, then, her shock at being not only upstaged in the hot category by pin-up girl Sugar, but outflirted and just plain outmaneuvered by people she clearly sees as her inferiors. I had wondered about her vehemence in respect to Sugar in the Nov. 20 episode. Now we know that it was sparked by Sugar’s attempt to tell Corinne that her negativity was costing her allies in the game. The fury on Corinne’s face at such an affront was a thing of evil beauty. The forums at Television Without Pity have been lit up over the trollish Corinne. One poster summed up Corinne’s character so succinctly, I just had to share:

Corinne is a thin, white, young and “attractive” woman. She’s probably had a pretty easy ride. She thinks she’s smart, successful, sophisticated and hot, and so far not much has happened to dispel that. In her mind, Ken is a geek, Crystal’s butch, Susie is old and ugly, Bob is just old, and Sugar is a bimbo. (Sugar is the only one of these people who I think Corinne might see as a threat –and that being in the “hot” and appealing to men department– which is why Corinne harps on her lack of education and unemployment). In Corinne’s world, she is better than these people. But that’s not the way it’s working out in the game, and it’s making her crazy.

It’s also not the way the world always works, post-high school. (And thank goodness). If she doesn’t adjust to it, life is not going to be pleasant for her. She is NOT going to cope well with getting older.

Hilarious. And so true. Still, fellow blogger Jeanne DePaul and I have been going back and forth on whether the nastiest of the Survivors will have a change of heart and kiss and make up for the reunion show. I think they’re probably urged to do that by the producers, but it’s much more fun if they let their true feelings show. I doubt I’d be so ready to forgive and forget if I’d been on the receiving end of some of the comments that Sugar, Bob, Susie, Crystal or even Kenny has been.

All in all this is shaping up to be one of the best seasons ever of Survivor. I wouldn’t have a problem with either Kenny, Crystal, Susie, Sugar or Bob winning. Even Matty would be OK. This is going to be one fun December.

Jeanne: I’d forgotten about Bob’s making his fake immunity idol, and I’m so ticked that he told Sugar about it. Why didn’t he just keep that to himself? It really did look good. Dang.

I can’t believe Bob has to go to Exile Island again. I hate Kenny.

Randy is such a scumbag when he said he wanted to bathe Susan. Ick. And didn’t you love how he bought cookies “for the tribe” and then tried to keep them all for himself? I loved that Sugar dusted him by giving her cookie to Matty. I want Randy to go home now!

Susie: I don’t have wireless, so I had to dash back to my computer to do my post. I can’t believe Kenny is being such an idiot. What is he saving the money for? He could have gotten himself a legup AND prevented Corinne from getting the same.

I’m waiting for Randy to get his comeuppance. My hope is that Bob will fool him into thinking the fake immunity idol is the real one, he’ll play it and then he’ll have the rug jerked out from underneath him. I’ve hated him since his stupid racist comments last week.

As for the bath, I can’t believe Susie didn’t just sit in there and soak. I certainly would have. Maybe it’s strategy … she didn’t want everyone to see her luxuriating too much.

Love Sugar. Love. her.

Susie: I think they have to do what Matty wants. They have to keep him happy this week, so he remains in their alliance long enough to not form an alliance with the evil Randy group. Who I really hate.

Jeanne: I can’t believe Bob hasn’t figured out that Sugar has taken the idol already and that’s why he can’t find it. He’s so smart about everything else. I can’t believe these jokers are falling for Matty’s line about how Bob has to go. Above all, they need to break up Randy and Corinne and Randy could go first because he’s a pompous jerk. I don’t get why Susan got out of the tub so quickly, except perhaps she felt creepy taking a bath in front of a bunch of people on national TV. Can’t imagine why she’d feel that way.

Susie: OMG … that was awesome. I can’t wait to the end. If Bob actually gives Randy the fake immunity idol and he plays it, it will be the most hilarious, satisfying moment in Survivor history. The most delicious part of it is that he is soooo certain that he’s got all the angles figured. I haven’t like Crystal much through this whole thing, but she correctly described Randy: What a troll.

Jeanne: I hope this most delicious of evil plans on “Survivor” works out like Bob and Sugar have planned. Oh please, oh please, oh please.

OMG, I have never heard so much animosity from people when reading their votes. Randy started it last week with his nastiness so what goes around comes around. What an idiot.

I was laughing out loud when Crystal just started yelling her comments so everyone could hear them.

I’m not sure I’ve ever been so happy to see someone leave as I have Randy. He looked like he wanted to hit someone when Jeff put out his torch.

Susie: I’m screaming with laughter. Sugar had the best line of the night, summing up Randy’s rotten character to a T. I know editing plays a part in this game, but I do think he’s a trollish human being.

The best, though, was watching the cat-that-swallowed-the-canary look on Corinne’s and Randy’s faces give way to disbelief when Probst tossed the fake idol in the fire.

This started out as being a fairly uninteresting season. When Crystal and Kenny and Susie started out being so physically weak and outmatched, it seemed a foregone conclusion that they would go home early. This is where Survivor knowledge plays out. All three are longtime viewers and it’s obvious they’ve plotted strategy year after year. Who knew that the weakest players would end up controlling the game? Next week’s wild card? Sugar.

Jeanne: How much fun was it watching Corinne laughing her head off thinking that Randy was going to spring the big surprise on them all only to watch her face drop when Jeff tossed it in the fire.

You know, the deal with the weakest players controlling is they have learned it’s important to get rid of the strong ones first “while we have the chance.” How many times have you heard someone say that? Sometimes the strong ones can also play smart, but not this time, I guess. It’s going to be interesting to see who wins the battle of wits now.

Susie: I just checked out Life at the Ponderosa on the CBS site. For the uninitiated, that’s where the kicked-off Survivors go after their elimination. They haven’t posted Randy’s yet. That’s what I’m waiting for. Just watching Marcus’ and Charlie’s reactions to him, though, I don’t think they’ll be that sympathetic to him. The jury questioning should be interesting. I suspect that’s where Randy is going to try to “burn the house down” again. Maybe he’ll surpass Sue’s rant from Season 1 as the most sour grapes, bitter rant EVER.

I think you correctly pegged the most important aspect of Survivor, Jeanne, and the one that not many people take into consideration. No matter how much you’ve watched the game on TV or how crafty and wise you think you are, the game tends to strip people down and reveal themselves. I mean, look at Randy. I don’t think he’s a stupid guy. He’s just so bigoted and nasty and all those things Sugar said that he simply can’t help himself, even with $1 million on the line. We’ve seen that over and over again with contestants year after year.

Quote from Television Without Pity forums (and one with which I agree wholeheartedly): “The next person who goes to Exile Island will get a map to the location with the legend, “SUGAR HAS THE IDOL. REALLY. SUGAR FOUND IT WEEKS AGO.” Then maybe they’ll finally get it.”

Susie: Update from Life at Ponderosa (11 a.m. Friday). The supposition that perhaps Randy was putting on an act of being the most hateful person ever to play Survivor has been laid to rest. Turns out, he’s all that AND MORE. For a vile human being, he’s pretty insightful about his own character. He said (and I paraphase) that the deprivations and gameplay of Survivor amplifies who you actually are. If you’re a nice person, you’ll be even nicer. And if you’re a mean, hateful person, you’ll be even meaner and more hateful. And then he confirmed that he indeed falls into the latter category. Charlie and Marcus welcomed him back as a conquering hero, so I have to wonder about them too.

I’ve always wondered about how people fare in the post-Survivor world. In his bio, Randy lists his occupation as a videographer. While his stint on Survivor may have earned him publicity, it definitely isn’t great publicity. I wonder if he’ll end up losing business because of his time on reality TV. Of course, he could try to milk the world of celebrityhood for all its worth, but other people with greater talent, looks and likability have tried to do the same, and failed. Just think of all the past Survivors. How many can you even remember now?