THUMBS UP to Ruthie and Ron Bzdewka, the owners of the House of Cupcakes on Witherspoon Street in Princeton, not just for winning the Food Network’s “Cupcake Wars” and a $10,000 prize but for donating the money to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.
Such generosity should be noted and praised.
And winning the prize was not easy. To do so the Bzdewkas had to compete against three other teams of bakers. None of the teams knew what the theme for the competition would be until they arrived in the studio. Judges then rated the cupcakes on originality, taste and presentation.
As it turned out, the theme was Cirque du Soleil, which as anyone who has seen performances would know, called for something unusual and exotic.
The ingredients had to begin with the letter “o” or be Asian themed. There were three timed rounds to the competition.
The Bzdewkas first created a two-layer cupcake with an oatmeal base of cake topped with an oatmeal cookie and black and white orange cream cheese frosting.
Now that sounds pretty good.
They then had to create three more cupcakes in a two-hour window. One of them had a beer and sauerkraut cocoa base and beer frosting with a chocolate liqueur shooter. Not something you’d likely find in a box of Duncan Hines.
For the third round they made 1,000 cupcakes and displays.
As Mr. Bzdewka said after winning, “we’re not just a downtown shop any more.”
That’s certainly true, and something to which the people at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital would attest because, as the Bzdewkas’ two sons say at the end of their audition video, “All kids aren’t as lucky as us.”
THUMBS UP to Montgomery High School 10th grader Nicole DeSario who, February as part of Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month, put together an interactive seminar called “Speak Out: A Workshop on Teen Dating Abuse.”
The program was presented earlier this month to eighth-graders at the Upper Middle School.
Participating in it were members of Rutgers University’s SCREAM Theatre (Students Challenging Reality and Educating Against Myth), who performed a skit representing teen relationship abuse.
Also included was a video compilation of popular songs, movies and other images of domestic violence in the media and teen desensitization to such violence, which was produced by Ms. DeSario.
Her efforts have been noted by state Sen. Linda Greenstein, who is working to pass a bill that would require students in grades seven to 12 to have similar age-appropriate education added to their health curriculum beginning in the 2011-12 school year.
Ms. DeSario would like to see her project expanded to other schools and grade levels.
It’s a serious topic and is all too real in this day and age. Efforts to address it such as Ms. DeSario’s should be respected and applauded.
