Cupcake Battle Royale
It was a bit of a war zone in Austun Savitski’s Culinary Arts II classroom last week. Six teams of culinary students were challenged with creating a themed display of baked-from-scratch cupcakes—and they had less than a week of class time to pull it off! Recipe research, baking, and display building were all part of the official BHS Cupcake War.
And, that’s not all. The theme had to correspond with the concept “The Big Reveal” because—surprise!—the overall winner bakes for Water Street Studio’s “Big Reveal Masquerade Party” on Nov. 11.
No pressure.
By 11:15 a.m. on Fri., Oct. 27, all six teams of culinary students had to be ready to present their creations to judges (a.k.a. BHS staff members). They did it … and, with no apparent kitchen disasters! One team did, however, admit to changing themes midstream, which caused a slight uptick in the stress-o-meter.
By 11:30 a.m. on Fri., Oct. 27, all judges were circling the BHS Foods Lab to watch each of the six presentations, taste the cupcakes, and then vote on best cake, best use of the theme, best background, best frosting, and the overall winner.
It was a stiff competition! Students had some clever takes on a “big reveal” like a red carpet display of tuxedoed cupcakes and a gorgeous glittering wedding cupcake display with a missing cake topper to leave a question mark about who was getting married. The actual cupcakes were interesting, too. Some were filled with fruit purees, another batch was pumpkin spiced, a few were tie dyed, and still others wore Oreo bottoms.
In the end, the overall winner was team “Superhero” (Kitchen 4) with a two-sided display that revealed caped crusaders’ day and night personas. The second-place team was “Hunger Games” (Kitchen 5), which featured several different types of cupcakes hopeful of making it through the “Reaping,” and the third-place team was “Red Carpet” (Kitchen 1) revealing a runway of red velvet cupcakes. The “Best Use of the Theme” and “Best Background” awards went to team “Superhero.” Best frosting was won by team “Red Carpet” (cream cheese goodness!), and Best Cake was won by team “Hunger Games.” Several judges raved about the Hunger Games’ lemon cupcake filled with a strawberry puree. Yum!
“I am so proud of all of my students,” said Mrs. Savitski. “The challenge was not easy and they all rose to it. I love seeing the creativity and can’t wait to see team Superhero at the Water Street Studios Masquerade Party.”
