Wheeling Park High School culinary and engineering programs participated in the Bake and Quake Culineering Challenge in Huntington, WV October 22nd and 23rd.
According to the WV Department of Education, nine teams participated and the awards included $5,000 for the grand champion team; $3,000 for second place, and $2,000 for third place.
Mr.Fedorke, the machine tool technology and engineering teacher, worked with his team of engineering students to build the shaker table which is a very unique machine that models the table on the popular Netflix series Baking Impossible. 11 of the Netflix cast members were present in Huntington, WV to present and judge the competition.
“To watch and hear the discussions and see the energy that students put into this was incredible. I’m so proud of my students and proud to be a CTE teacher here,” said Fedorke.
Two representatives from the engineering department both worked on the construction table and competed in Huntington, Brian Gonzalez and Alden Stauver.
“My time during this baking impossible competition has left me excited to pursue my engineering career. This competition forced me to think in new ways and use materials I’m not familiar with. I was able to meet amazing people who work in fields that I hope to join one day. Overall, that was an amazing experience, and, if given the chance, I would definitely do it all over again,” Gonzalez.
Our engineered table was used to put all of the competition cakes on top of and send earthquake-like waves through the cakes. All of the competitors wondered: Will their cake survive?
That is up to the engineers and bakers in the culinary program run by Ms. Hilberry. Hilberry’s team included Julliana Snively and Savannah Wiselka. Both engineers and bakers had specific structural guidelines to follow including an eight inch topper and a minimum structure height of 40 inches. All components of the cake had to be edible.
The cake design was a lighthouse structure which worked for stability and inspired the flavors. “We had to do so many test runs, not really in flavors, but in texture. We incorporated sea flavors like caramel and saltwater taffy and light flavors,” said baker Julliana Snively.
Not only did the bakers and engineers have to combine forces for this catergory five style competition, the teams had to create a social media campagin to document each team’s journey to the competition. Social media manager, Peytyn Heldreth, created the Facebook page and Instagram account for the team of Seismic Sweets. Heldreth filmed interviews and posted videos of the competition.
“I definitely learned that you can’t wait for a specific idea with social media because you have to cover in the moment,” said Heldreth.
While ultimately Hundred High School of Wetzel County took the cake in this competition, the Park CTE programs shined in their innovation and collaboration. Mr. Fedorke would like to give a special thanks to Mr. Myers and the carpentry class as well as Dr. Shepherd and his engineering students. A special thank you to Mrs. Dillon as well for providing equipment to cover the journey.
