On April 25th, Seniors Alana Zirlis, Jason Mansfield, and Wyatt Luke competed in the Regional Cupcake Wars, earning second place.

Two weeks earlier, on April 5th, Morgan held its annual Morgan Cupcake Wars, where students from Culinary II and Advanced Culinary could show off their baking skills. Although more students could have participated, only three groups had their plan ready to go. After judging, Zirlis, Mansfield, and Luke won, making them able to move on to the regional competition. 

For this competition, teachers were judges, including Mrs. Morrissey, who is a professional baker and works in the Morgan office. Ms. Murphy, who teaches both Culinary classes here at Morgan and organized this event, explained that for judging, “The rubric is very specific and taste is really, really important, of course.” Ms. Murphy also said that “for regionals it’s a little more intense as far as the rubric for the judges,” as the students are required to give a short speech about their process and cupcake description. 

Students were allowed to have their cake, icing, decorations, and filling already prepared for regionals. However, they had one hour to assemble their cupcakes. Ms. Murphy explains that there was “quite a bit of difference between each one, as far as design, difficulty, and flavors.”

This year at regionals, two other schools participated, Westbrook and Haddam Killingworth. Although one school had to drop out this year, as there are normally three other schools that participate. Morgan’s team earned second place overall. First place went to HK while Westbrook finished third. Jason Mansfield, who is competing in his first regional competition, said, “It was a good experience. I had never done anything like it before. It was fun getting to compete against other schools, and everyone who was there was really nice.”

To participate, students at Morgan in the spring have to be in either Advanced Culinary or Culinary II. Regionals come with a specific rubric with specific requirements. Some requirements include that the cupcakes have to be made without a box mix, while they also need a filling, icing, and a decoration. 

Ms. Murphy said she was happy with how this event turned out. “I would have liked more of my D-period students to compete, but they weren’t really prepared,” she said. However, Ms. Murphy, who gave her students time to practice in class, thinks that “the ones who did take it seriously ended up doing a great job.”