Students took a break from studying Monday night to give Boston University a taste of holiday spirit – literally.
Five teams of two to five students, with 17 students in total, took part in a Gingerbread House Decorating competition through the Culinary Arts and Kitchen Entertainment club, or CAKE.
The teams had one hour to construct and decorate their own gingerbread house using decorations supplied by CAKE, as well as anything they may have brought.
“They have the gingerbread, they have gumdrops, fruit loops, mini candy canes, peppermints, gumballs, sprinkles and little colorful jellybeans and frosting,” said Lyndsay Maggin, a senior in the BU School of Management.
Many groups brought candy to decorate with ranging from Milk Duds to lollipops to gelt.
Maggin is the co-president of CAKE and was in charge of organizing the contest.
Maggin’s co-president Michelle Rappoli, a senior in the School of Hospitality Administration, said that she went to culinary school before transferring into BU for her junior year.
“We met each other during transfer orientation and we realized that we both liked to bake, and we went to Splash together and realized that there was no cooking group so we decided to put one together so we could get people together to cook and bake and eat,” Rappoli said.
“This is a new [competition],” Maggin said. “We didn’t found the club until after Christmas [last year] so this is our first holiday event.”
Maggin said the club has grown significantly since its inception.
“Last May, we had about 83 participants, now we have 457,” she said.
For Monday’s competition, the gingerbread houses were judged based on construction of the house, creativity and design and whether it was finished on time.
Students said that they participated in the competition because they thought it was a fun way to celebrate the holidays. Some had participated in other CAKE events in the past.
“It seems like something nice to get into the holiday spirit,” said SMG sophomore Amanda Cannizzo, one of the competitors in the contest. She said it was her first event with CAKE.
Cannizzo said that her team brought their own candy to decorate the house with and put some thought into their design before hand.
“We’ve been a part of CAKE since the beginning of the year and it seems really fun, and we’ve been to all the activities,” said Danielle Stein, a freshmen in the College of General Studies. “It’s around the holidays…it’s a part of the spirit.”
“We think using gelt from Hanukkah will give us the cutting edge,” she said.
“I’m in CAKE, so I figured I’d go to their activities,” said Aditi Pai, a sophomore in the College of Communication. “Last year we did Iron Chef…it was really cool.”
Pai said that her team planned in advance for the competition and bought marshmallow Christmas trees for their gingerbread house.
One of the main problems that competitors said they ran into during the building process was the roof.
“Our roof kept falling down,” said Rachel Schweiker, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. “We had to spend more time trying to keep it up instead of doing the other stuff.”
“Our roof was a little heavy, so keeping it up was a little hard but we got it,” Nekou Nowrouzi, a freshman in CGS.
The winning team was made up of Stein, Felicia Aguiar, Nekou Nowrouzi and Alex Hubert, all freshmen in CGS.
Their design integrated a gelt roof panel and candy canes, among other features.
Rappoli said that the next event CAKE plans to hold will be centered around Valentine’s Day, though they do not have the exact details finalized yet.
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