Ms. Mary Higby’s A3 class competed in a Cupcake War on Thursday, December 12. Six teams worked together to create and decorate a holiday themed cupcake and presented their creations to judges who evaluated their cupcakes based on appearance, flavor, texture, presentation and creativity. 

“I supply them a basic vanilla cupcake, and they take that vanilla cupcake and they add chocolate chips, or they add flavored frosting, or they add whatever kind of variation they want to turn their cupcake into, and I teach them how to do that beforehand,” Higby said. 

For example, Kitchen One turned their simple vanilla recipe into red velvet cupcakes with buttercream icing filling and cream cheese icing on top and covered it with various decorations.

“We [decorated with] an icing tree, a stick of candy cane, a little nut topping, and some chocolate pearls,” Kimberly Juarez, a sophomore student in Kitchen One said. 

Teams also were asked to provide a unique presentation to their cupcake. Kitchen Two decided to go all out using an ice cream cone in place of a cupcake wrappers, topped with vanilla icing, graham crackers, and a little man made out of marshmallows. 

“[Students] decorate [their cupcakes], and they bring all the extra [supplies], so that they are successful to end the wars,” Higby said.  

Higby wanted to do the Cupcake War in order to give her students a fun assignment to do right before winter break.  

“I love for the kids to be able to create,” Higby said. “It’s really fun to see what they come up with, and their ideas, and their flavor palettes, and all that good stuff.” 

The judges came at the end of the class period once all the cupcakes were baked and went from table to table tasting and testing each teams’ cupcakes while scoring each cupcake on a score sheet. Students did very well overall, but judges offered some critiques.

“[The students] didn’t change the recipe enough,” two-time judge Ms. Haley Guillory said. 

The competition was a close one, but Kitchen Two with the cupcakes inside the ice cream cone took the cake. Kitchen Six with their chocolate chip cupcakes and vanilla icing took second, and Kitchen Two with the red velvet cupcakes with buttercream filling took third. 

“[The students do] very well,” Higby said. “Everybody seems to get really excited about [the Wars]. We have music. We have fun. It’s just a really good time for the end of the year.”