Students enrolled in the course A ‘La Carte Baking get to design a cupcake in their small baking groups for a competition. They must find recipes, bake the cupcakes, make a frosting, and decorate them however they’d like to. That cupcake will then be judged by other students and teachers in the building to determine the best cupcake based on taste and appearance. This year, that cupcake was “The Maple Piggy.”

This is a tradition Mrs. Cupp has been continuing at IHS and the students seem to enjoy it. It’s a chance for them to get creative and work with others while also still learning. It’s extremely hectic, but when the students see their final product they are usually satisfied and proud of themselves. Mrs. Cupp announced, “I am very thankful for my FCS department colleagues who are very supportive and jump in to help when needed. Their experience and consulting to help best prepare for the students during cupcake wars makes the entire process enjoyable and rewarding.”

Several students got very creative with their ideas this year. Senior Will Berzonsky said his group, “made cinnamon cupcakes with cinnamon frosting, topped with a cinnamon roll. The name of the cupcake was “Mold,” so we had to make it look like mold.” 

This baking, making, and assembling process takes four days for students to complete. Mrs. Cupp stated, “The creative process is unique to each individual; however, my favorite day is the fourth/final day of the competition. This is when students’ ideas and creations come to fruition. It is neat to see students’ work being developed and then at the last moment before judging, they may pull out a unique decoration or design that catches your eye. Sometimes it’s just the moments when students step back, smile and say “I did it!” or ‘Ms. Cupp, look at this!’”

Senior Jake Roumfort added, “Cupcake wars was enjoyable as it lets us be creative and learn how to bake cupcakes. My favorite part was finishing off our cupcake to see the final product after all of the steps we went through.”

The best part of Cupcake Wars is that students do this all on their own. Mrs. Cupp provides the ingredients necessary, but students pick out their own recipes and go through the whole process on their own within their baking groups. It takes a lot of teamwork and collaboration to have the final cupcake done on time and out of the door for judging on the last day. Roumfort expressed, “My group did great, as we were passionate but had fun during the process as well. Each member of our team was absent for at least one day which made it a little more difficult,  but it went well because we finished our cupcake on time and it was good tasting and even better looking.” 

Cupcake Wars is essentially the final for A ‘La Carte Baking, so students always put their best efforts into these designs. Mrs. Cupp says, “Several cupcakes were quite interesting. I enjoy different perspectives of students such as mixing or playing with different or layered flavors. Being innovative with construction and design can be a challenge to sometimes figure out as well. I also appreciate students with artistic detail and those who focus on precision and professionalism. Combining their concept with a good-tasting cake and frosting are qualities that stand out to me.”

Roumfort commented, “I really liked my group’s cupcake as we had a lot of detail that maybe got overlooked. But we had a theme going on and details that popped out as being creative.” Berzonsky added, “I thought our mold cupcake was amazing. Credit to Aaron for coming up with the idea.”

Overall, the 2023 Cupcake Wars was a success for IHS, and we hope to continue this tradition and see more creative and fun ideas over the years to come.