Cupcake Wars for Teens

Type: Self-directed
Age: High school
Optimal size: 11-20
Estimated cost: $100+
Planning time: 5+ hours
Frequency: One-time

Learning outcomes

• Articulate their learning to peers and adults
• Create original work or responsibly remix existing content to make something new
• Demonstrate an openness to risk-taking
• Demonstrate curiosity
• Engage in personal expression
• Experiment, prototype, and test ideas
• Innovate
• Mentor, assist, or teach others
• Think flexibly
• Use materials and tools for developmental, educational and recreational needs

Instructions

Objectives:

• Literary Challenge: Decorate one cupcake using inspiration from a book, book series, or book genre.
• Wacky Challenge: Decorate one cupcake as wacky as you can. The more creativity, risk taking, and innovation, the better.

Supplies:

*We set the attendance limit for this event at 20 teens but planned for 30.

 Food Items:

• Icing: We provided 12 icing options in a variety of flavors with the majority being vanilla, cream cheese, or butter cream for dying using food color.
• Premade vanilla cupcakes by the dozen (enough for 2 per each teen or 2 per each group of teens)
• Traditional decoration for cupcakes: We provided nut mixes, milk chocolate chips, and canned pineapple.
• Unusual decoration for cupcakes: We provided bacon bits, mini vanilla wafers, individually packaged fruit snacks, potato sticks, peanut butter filled pretzels, snack size package of honest nut Cheerios, and mini Oreos.

Other:

• 1 box disposable aprons (enough for 1 per each teen)
• 1 box disposable food prep gloves (enough for 1 pair per each teen and library staff assisting with program)
• 1 box assorted utensils
• 1 box plastic table cover roll
• 2 12-piece sets of cupcake decorating icing tips and plastic decorating bags (includes 4 tips and 8 bags)
• 2 packages 4-set food coloring, includes red, blue, yellow, and green
• Hand sanitizer
• Paper bowls

Set Up:

• 3 groups of 2 tables each were set up with all supplies evenly divided between all the tables. Drop cloths were lain down under each table grouping.

Instruction:

• A guest baker and baking assistant from a local grocery store provided basic cupcake decorating instruction, including showing piping techniques and dying icing.
• Teens were given two cupcakes to decorate by the themes: literary theme and wacky theme.
• Our guest baker, baking assistant, and library staff provided help and instruction throughout the program.

Judging:

• Our guest baker, baking assistant, and 2 library staff members served as judges for the program. We visited each table and let each teen explain individually about both their literary and wacky theme cupcakes.
• Questions and criteria examined for literary themed cupcake included what book inspired the decoration and in what unique ways was the book expressed through the decoration.
• Questions and criteria examined for the wacky theme cupcake included creativity, innovation, and ingenuity.
• All judges held a quick meeting to decide on one winner for the each of the two cupcakes themes. (Although, an honorable mention was also named as third given the great turnout of cupcakes!)

Evaluation

Cupcake Wars was a great success! All the teens had a great time learning how to decorate cupcakes from our guest baker and putting these new skills into action.  Some highlights from the literary themed cupcake challenge included a Coraline cupcake, The Cat in the Hat inspired cupcake, a detailed rendition of a dragon from a Young Adult fantasy series, a clever nod to If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and more. The wacky themed cupcakes lived up to their name with an array of cupcakes expressing the teens’ interests and personality. A few of these may not have been entirely edible!

Learning outcomes:

Innovation, resourcefulness, and experimentation were all key to completing these cupcake challenges. All the teens had access to the same food, supplies, and instruction or assistance. However, it was up to them to brainstorm, formulate their plan, and tap into their creativity to think outside the box to create the best cupcake design decoration. What resulted was one and half dozen imaginative creations that expressed each teen and showcased their inventiveness.

Even though, each teen in attendance at the program were competing individually, collaboration, guidance, and teamwork naturally developed among both teens who knew each other and those who had just met. They bounced ideas off each other, made suggestions, and helped each other.

This program was also a great way for teens to practice their communication skills in a fun, open atmosphere. Each teen was given the opportunity to articulate their intentions for the cupcake decoration and explain the execution of their intentions, including explaining their choices in food items used, technique, and inspiration.

Improvements and Suggestions:

• We were not strict on time for our program. However, given the discrepancy in finishing times between teens, it would best to set allot a set amount of time for each theme cupcake to be made. This would also give teens a chance to put their time management skills to the test.
• We were not sure if we needed disposable aprons and as many disposable gloves as we purchased, but we did. Not only did this help when it came time to clean up, but these purchases greatly helped keep this program hygienic as teens shared food, utensils, and supplies while often testing their creations while they worked.
• A local TV station visited the library suddenly to film cupcake wars while library staff was setting up. The TV station live-streamed the event and posted it on their social media account, featuring clips from the program in the nightly news. This proved to ultimately be a great opportunity to promote library programming for teens and give teens the opportunity practice their interview skills. For the next Cupcake Wars, it would be best to reach out ahead to media stations, so that plans can be set in place ahead of time.