By: Hannah Moon
A few weeks ago Mrs. Arnold informed her 6th period class that they would participate in a baking competition called Cupcake Wars and the winners would go to our county competition for FCCLA day on November 6th. If you have never seen the show, Cupcake Wars, on Food Network, then you probably have no clue what this entails. At the beginning of each episode, there are four baking teams. These teams go through different rounds of timed events baking cupcakes, and at the end of each round one team will be eliminated. The last two teams have to create a display that will hold 1000 cupcakes, as well as bake those cupcakes. The goal is to have both the best flavor and presentation to win. The winner of this round gets $10,000 and has to showcase their cupcakes at a big event which publicize the name.
At school, considering how little time we have in each class period, the class does it a little differently than the show. Mrs. Arnold’s students had one class period to completely plan out everything they were going to do, all the way down to the cupcake flavor and icing recipes. Then they had a few days to work on the display during class. Some days the students had to manage their time a little differently because they were helping with other activities during that class period as well. Last Thursday, October 24th, the students made their cupcakes. Baking alone took pretty much the whole class. The next day, these students had to finish up their cupcakes completely. This means that they had to make their icing, fill their cupcakes, make any decorations needed, and ice their cupcakes all in about a 50 minute class period. Each display only needed four cupcakes, but each group baked around 12-24 cupcakes, so there were plenty of cupcakes that the students could take with them to eat.
Mrs. Arnold’s students divided into five groups to come up with a theme.
Kitchen 1 : Olivia Noles, Shakria Dawson, Yuleisy Jimenez, and Felicity McElroy; Theme: “Halloween/Flowers.”
Kitchen 2 : Hannah Moon, Wendy Lopez, Jennifer Coronado, Cayla Betancourt, and Yoselin Mendoza; Theme: “Krusty Krab.”
Kitchen 3 : Alex Striker and Sawyer Davis; Theme: “Alabama.”
Kitchen 4 : Allyson Mereno, Saray Vargas, Shaddany Jimenez, Mallory Smith, and Jasmine Gregory; Theme: “Pick Your Pumpkin.”
Kitchen 5 consisted of Pedro Tomas, Drashti PrajaPati, Amy Paz Diaz, and Daisy Paz Diaz; Theme: “Lemonade Stand.”
Kitchen 2 won based on their display and Kitchen 5 won based on the flavor of their cupcake. Since there were two winners, Mrs. Arnold decided that the groups will combine and work together for FCCLA day. They are going to stick with the theme of Kitchen 2’s group, “The Krusty Krab,” but Kitchen 5 will help bake and ice the cupcakes to create the best flavor possible. Then each group will just choose one representative for the FCCLA day competition. Good luck to Collinsville High School’s competing team!
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