Imagination Takes Flight is this year’s International Children’s Festival theme, and it lifts off with the 4th annual Butterfly Cupcake Challenge.
The cupcake challenge is the sweetest and most mouth-watering competition of the year. It is held on Saturday, May 10 at St. Albert Centre to get the buzz going, raise a few dollars and have some all-around fun.
The Friends of Northern Alberta International Children’s Festival have brought together a dozen teams from festival partners and sponsors. Each team is responsible for decorating 48 cupcakes in 90 minutes and selling them.
“This is always a super-fun activity that we enjoy, that the sponsors enjoy and that we can involve the community,” says Traci Chrysler, president of the Friends of the Festival.
The intense competition starts at 11 a.m. Each team has 30 minutes to decorate six awesome cupcakes that will be judged by Lynda Moffatt, president of St. Albert Chamber of Commerce and Janine van Essen, past president of the festival society.
“And that gets very heated. The creativity that comes out of it is quite spectacular,” Chrysler notes. She adds that while the society provides the cupcakes, teams are at liberty to purchase their own decorations.
Chrysler states that one year a team turned the cupcakes into hamburgers with icing pickles. Another team recreated cupcakes into a Sesame Street Cookie Monster while yet another team built a train with their six cupcakes and used licorice to make ladders that were attached to the side.
The public is also encouraged to vote for their favourite over-the-top designs.
Once the judges have made their call, Mayor Nolan Crouse will auction the specialty cupcakes.
As the six super-creative cupcakes undergo the judging and auction, teams continue decorating the remaining 42 cupcakes while sellers stroll through the mall sweet-talking visitors into buying them.
A special treat will be the St. Albert Children’s Theatre team dressing up in costume and serenading the public with songs in a bid to entice more buyers.
“We are passionate about the festival and what it brings to the city and the province. This is one opportunity to support the festival and raise awareness. It’s an opportunity to have fun and promote everything it stands for.”
4th annual Butterfly Cupcake Challenge<br />International Children’s Festival<br />Saturday, May 10 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.<br />St. Albert Centre
