By: Christina Binder
On September 15th, 2017 – Chatham held their annual Cupcake Boss Competition in the Carriage House. Roughly 15 students attended the event and participated in the competition. The event room was cozy and festive, bustling with casual conversations and bouts of laughter as students worked hard to decorate their cupcakes. Many took the time to admire the hard work being shown by snapping pictures for their friends and family to see. Even those who arrived late or simply dropped by midway through the event were welcomed and encouraged to enter the competition.
Carriage House program coordinator Kayla Klett ’20 was responsible for running the event this year. According to Klett, the Cupcake Boss Competition is a crowd favorite that attracts returning students as well as new faces, providing a good opportunity for friendships to blossom and grow. When asked about the cupcake competition idea, Klett stated that the Chatham Activities Board (CAB) came up with the idea and, as Carriage House program coordinator, she works closely with CAB to listen to their ideas and organize them into scheduled events.
Once the competition started, contestants had one hour to design and present a cupcake of their liking. Each contestant could start with either a plain, vanilla cupcake or take a vanilla cupcake with blue icing on the top (both were provided by the contest coordinator). Then, the contestants could decorate their cupcake in any way they pleased using colored icing, sprinkles, hard candies, and so forth (also provided by the event) – but they were encouraged to have a general theme in mind. Once the hour had passed, they were asked to write down a physical description of their cupcake and give it a title. Afterwards, a panel of judges would quietly talked amongst themselves about each cupcake’s appearance, concept, and so forth. They were asked to pick their top three cupcakes and each winner received a $20 Amazon gift card.
The first-place winner of the Cupcake Boss Competition was Madison Krob ‘19, she designed a Christmas tree cupcake. In second place was Ava Olsen ‘20, who decided to make her cupcake resemble a burger. In third place, international student Kazumi Tarumi gave her cupcake a floral theme.
When asked about her overall thoughts and feeling about the event, Madison Krob said she had a fun time. She found out about the Cupcake Boss Competition through Chatham U, a new phone application that allows students and faculty to post about upcoming events. Krob stated she initially attended the event out of curiosity, simply wanting to have fun, but she soon found herself wanting to win the competition and claim the prize. Regarding the inspiration for her cupcake design, Krob said she saw a green pastry bag and a can of red spray nearby, sparking her idea for a Christmas theme (all while light heartedly stating that any time is a good time for Christmas). She concluded that it is “important to attend events since Chatham is a small campus” while noting that events also provide good opportunities to make new friends.