Written by Nori Lopez|

Photos by Nori Lopez and Susan Murphy|

This year new consumer science teacher Susan Murphy hosted The Morgan School annual cupcake wars continuing the tradition of retired consumer science teacher Joanne Nunan. All of her cooking classes participated in the competition.

This year the judging was held on March 26th and March 28th at 2:15. On the 26th, some judges were ELL teacher Alina Gonzalez, technology support specialist Cat Hammel, Spanish teacher Susan Natale, special education teacher Melissa Harris, biology teacher Emily Lisy, and paraprofessional Mary Jo Phelps. On March 28th, the judges included physics teacher Abbie Walston, English teacher Brooke Mazzarella, Spanish teacher Susan Peterson, special education teacher Beth Nadeau, and English teacher Amanda Fairbanks.

The judges used a sheet of paper to grade each cupcake, scoring them based on taste, texture, frosting, creativity of design, and decorating technique. The total number of points possible to score on a cupcake was 25.

To prepare for the competitions Mrs. Murphy gave all her classes time to research for recipes and decorations. Then she let her students make their cupcakes for the first time as a practice run. Finally, they made their final cupcakes during their long period block classes.

This year’s overall winners were seniors Katie Schrempp, Heather Zimmerman, and junior Karen Reinoso. They scored a 20.9 out of 25 Their cake was a carrot cake with a citrus frosting. They will be moving on to the regional competition on April 26th against Haddam- Killingworth High School, Bacon Academy, and Valley Regional High School.

Second place winners were juniors Maddie Yanza and Eric Jaracka. Their cupcakes were decorated as bunnies. They placed second with a score of 20.5 out of 25, which is only .4 less than the first place winners.

Third place winners were juniors Olivia Swan and Maggie Mahoney with a chocolate flavored cupcake. Decorated as a sunflower with chocolate chips in the middle of the frosting.