Two culinary students from Cy Falls arrived at the Berry Center early morning on Jan 21 to compete and show their talents in the Fifth Annual CFISD Cupcake Battle. 

In preparation for the district competition, the CFISD Cupcake Battle, Culinary Arts held a school-wide competition in November in which students competed. In order to qualify to move on to the district competition, the cupcakes they produced required a certain amount of votes. The cupcakes that obtained the required amount of votes moved on and were allowed to compete in the CFISD Cupcake Battle.

“If you don’t get enough votes, I will not take you to the district competition, because it is so competitive,” Jean Chiriboga, Culinary Arts instructor said. “So I did actually have three people compete within my class. Only two had enough votes to move on.”

Between the schoolwide competition and the district competition, the qualifying students get to make their cupcakes better with the help and feedback of Chiriboga and their fellow culinary classmates. 

“They had every opportunity they wanted to recreate, recreate, get feedback,” Mrs. Chiriboga said. “The two girls that went on probably redid their cupcakes, probably four times.” 

As for the CFISD Cupcake Battle itself, there were about 14 different professional chefs there to judge the competitors. They judged the competitors on their cake, frosting, the overall combination of the cupcake, most unique flavoring/pairing, and presentation. These are the five categories the competitors could win, not including first, second, and third place for the three best cupcakes of the competition.

“Well as far as our school, we did not place this year, unfortunately,” Mrs. Chiriboga said. “But there were eight places and 59 or 60 students that competed, so not everybody can get the trophy.” 

Each of the students were tasked with choosing their own themes to match the cupcakes. The themes were used for the displays with which they exhibited their cupcakes. Litzy Martinez (11) went with a garden theme along with bunnies as decoration for her carrot cupcakes. 

¨Carrots, I thought bunnies,¨ Martinez said. 

Photo by: Maria Colmenares

Miriam Gutierrez (10) decided on a picnic theme along with a lemonade pitcher for decoration for her lemon cupcakes. 

“I got inspiration from my mom because she was the one that told me. She said that you know how picnics have a little pitcher of lemonade, and that fits with the theme of my cupcakes,” Gutierrez said.

Although they might have not won the competition, their efforts and talents were recognized. 

“The students that competed this year, when they go on to Advanced Culinary next year, there’s a higher level that they can compete in,” Mrs. Chiriboga said. “So they already have the experience to know what they are up against in the future.”