Contestants in the 7th Annual Ithaca Cupcake Baking Contest on October 15 presented dazzling entries—congratulations to these winners of Special Awards!
Bee-licious Award
Kristina LaPage
Candyland Award
Hudson Sage Meyers Emberley
Pumpkin Patch Award
Ada Caster
You’ll Fall for These Award
Brooke Gordon
Most Fulfilling Award
Anna Brown
Most Bombastic Award
Michael Herceg
Retro Diner Award
Mary Sever-Schoonmaker
Out of This World Award
Della Keahna Warrior
It’ll Make You Go Nuts! Award
Persephone Doggett
Just the Right Amount of Zest Award
Echo Doggett
Peachy Keen Award
Cy Centeno-Pearlman
Kristina LaPage’s entry: Maple-flavored cakes and local honey and vanilla buttercream frosting, decorated with honeycombs, molded from white chocolate, and hard-candy sugar bees—celebrating a passion for bees and sweet family memories.
Hudson Sage Meyers Emberley’s entry: Vanilla cakes with individualized frosting in red, orange, yellow, blue, green, and purple-pink colors—rainbow cupcakes representing “all lives should be equal.”
Ada Caster’s entry: Gluten-free yellow cakes with dark chocolate frosting topped with pumpkin decorations—representing a farmer’s field at harvest time.
Brooke Gordon’s entry: Apple cider cakes with maple cinnamon buttercream frosting, inspired by a family apple-picking adventure.
Anna Brown’s entry: Nut and cardamon flavored cakes with dulce de leche cream filling and coconut scented fondant icing, an homage to the payasam pudding that caps a traditional sadhya meal during the harvest festival in southern India.
Michael Herceg’s entry: Cherry swirl cakes with a chocolate almond mousse and cherry center and red-colored chocolate top and a lime fuse, a “cupcake explosion” inspired by the song “Cherry Bomb” by The Runaways.
Mary Sever-Schoonmaker’s entry: Root beer flavored cakes with whipped root beer cream filling, and a buttercream frosting made from vanilla bean ice cream—root beer float cupcakes with cherries on top.
Della Keahna Warrior’s entry: Purple sweet potato cakes with maple rum and clementine marmalade filling and spiced buttercream frosting topped with foraged flowers—a gluten-free, plant-based, soy-free creation.
Persephone Doggett’s entry: Nutella and hazelnut flavored cakes and Nutella frosting sprinkled with gold sugar crystals.
Echo Doggett’s entry: strawberry and lemon cakes with lemon icing, from a recipe that once saw duty for a family wedding cake.
Cy Centeno-Pearlman’s entry
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