THUNDER BAY – A budding Buddy Valastro may have been discovered on Sunday afternoon.
A handful of youngsters descended on Carol’s Cakes for a baking competition, the kids unleashed with nothing more than their imagination, a ready-to-make cake mix and a bowl full off frosting, encouraged to design and create their very own cake.
From a seaside paradise to a butterfly to a spring-themed delight, the cakes the kids created by far exceeded expectations.
Eight-year-old Lauryn Ulvang said the free competition was a lot of fun.
“I signed up because I just love baking,” Lauryn said, adding she’s been trying her hand at baking for several years.
“I like crafts and I like that I get to eat it at the end.”
Winning was, pardon the pun, the icing on the cake.
“I’m pretty excited,” she said.
Jen Duggan and Erin Sisko, owners of Carol’s Cakes, said they were looking for a way to give back to the community, while at the same time promoting some new products, including their bake-at-home cake mix.
“This was an opportunity to get families baking at home, which we love the idea of,” Sisko said. “And kids are who we serve. We love doing birthday parties and getting involved with the kids any way we can. This was a way to show off our bakery and some of our new products and really just thank our customers for supporting us over the years.”
It was a lot of fun and the kids to be creative, which is never a bad thing, Duggan said.
“They all did a really great job,” she said.
“They did an amazing job. It was so fun to watch them create inside our bakery and it’s going to be really hard to choose the winner, so we were glad we were able to get some other community helper judges to come out and help us choose,” Sisko said.
“But the kids nailed it.”
Member of Thunder Bay Fire Rescue were on hand and tasked with the tough challenge of picking which cake was the best. The challenged was divided by age group, with kids aged six to nine competing against each other in the first competition, the older kids having their chance in the second.
Duggan and Sisko said they plan to hold the competition again.
