Time is ticking, intense focus resting on the faces of students, and rainbow sprinkles are carefully placed on the surface of a sweet delicacy—cake. The Students Events and Activities Council (SEAC) club held a cake decorating contest Jan. 30. The event consisted of teams competing with each other to have the best-decorated cake and allowed students to show off their creativity. 

Ella Ohlson, a second-year international studies major and member of SEAC, planned the event as she is a part of the club’s programming team. She was assisted with setting up the event by Caitlin Haydon, a fourth-year marketing major, who is the executive director of SEAC. Haydon talked about how the event is different from what they’ve typically held in the past. 

“This is the first competition event we’ve had all year, which is kind of fun. [It’s] something different and I feel like people got excited about it,” Haydon said. 

Haydon also emphasized that, as long as the students who attend the event are happy and can build connections with one another, then SEAC’s goal is achieved. 

10 teams signed up for the competition, with each team having three to five members. The theme of the competition was “Birthday Cake.” SEAC provided frosting, food dyes, sprinkles and other decorations, but students were encouraged to bring their own supplies as well. However, the theme was not disclosed to the teams beforehand so whether their purchased supplies aligned with the theme was purely by chance. 

Once the competition began, teams were on the clock and had one hour to decorate their cakes.

Even with the time pressure and limited resources, students were happy to share decorating materials. Some of the students would go around asking other teams if they had any extra frosting or sprinkles. The other teams then shared their supplies without any hesitation. 

Maka Yusuf, a second-year psychology major, shared her experience during the competition and noted how everyone was supportive of each other.

“I felt like it was very inclusive, because everyone was sharing the materials. Everyone was having fun. We’re having conversations [and] getting to know new people,” Maka said.

Michael Albert, a third-year double major in anthropology and sociology, echoed Yusuf’s sentiment and found that everyone’s willingness to share supplies made the competition feel less competitive. 

“We’re all having a laugh. We’re all working on the cake and from time to time people go like, ‘Hey, can I borrow this?’ [I’m] like, ‘Yeah, sure.’ I was doing that at one point,” Albert said. “As I’m going around, I’m looking to connect… it is nice because sure it was a competition but it did not feel like it was,” Albert said.

Albert added that he and his team came prepared with a plan for their cake. The teammates planned to decorate a cake with a group of frogs in a pond celebrating a smaller birthday cake. 

However, even with their theme planned out, Albert said that they felt nervous about their design. 

“We turn around looking at the other people’s cakes [and] we’re like, ‘Oh, my goodness!’ Everyone’s cakes are so professionally done. You have people with nice little swings around and then nice little tops. The table next to us had strawberries. We were like ‘No, we’re not winning,’” Albert said. 

Albert and his group have been planning to attend for a while for the sake of fun and to do something as a group. They had fun decorating the cake even when they felt the pressure of seeing the other participants’ cakes.

The goal was to get the most points to win first place. The cakes were ranked by two SEAC judges and each judge gave teams a score from one to 10. The event even had a surprise judge that came at the end, Rudy the Redhawk himself. 

Albert’s team won first place. The group won a wide range of gift cards for the group members to divide amongst themselves. 

Following in second place was Yusuf’s team, who won Batch cooking classes.

Overall, the event seemed like it was a hit. Albert and Yusuf both expressed that they loved the vibe of the event and the community it provided.

“Cause we’re just having fun. But I think that was the best part, just the idea in itself that was the best,” Albert said.

One wonders what SEAC will cook up next!