By Stacey Reed
A dessert contest that went far beyond a batch of brownies landed an apartment of BYU students a trip to the Price is Right game show.
Even though the prize wasn”t decided until after the contest, for these women, the competition was motivation enough.
“You should”ve seen our kitchen afterwards,” said Michelle Magelsen, 20, a junior from Seattle, studying dental hygiene at UVSC. “Everything you can think of was all over our counters and family room.”
An apartment of male students organized the contest to motivate people to cook for them.
Tad Davis, 22, senior from Murray majoring in political science, said he decided to sporadically organize a dessert contests one night because he was bored and hungry.
“After talking to my roommates, we all decided to ask the women in the ward to make us some treats and to add some fun, we made it a competition,” Davis said.
After going door to door, Davis” apartment selected sixteen apartments and became the official judge of the dessert competition, which turned out to be more elaborate than they anticipated.
“Honestly, I thought we were just going to get a bunch of brownies,” Davis said. “But people went all out.”
The contest was judged on three elements: taste, presentation and creativity. Those who made the desserts had no problem measuring up to the qualifications.
Davis said picking a winner was difficult because of so many of the desserts were creative and tasty, but they had to choose a winner.
“We want everyone to feel like and know they are winners,” he said. “If we can help these girls to develop their dessert talents, we feel like we are doing our job.”
Apartments made homemade cheesecakes, caramel brownies, chocolate covered strawberries, banana split cakes, teapot-shaped cakes, mystery cakes, chocolate filled crepes and more.
“One apartment made some really good cupcakes,” Davis said. “But when you have tripple-chocolate-dipped fondue strawberries on top of a homemade cheesecake, the cupcakes don”t stand a chance.”
Jessica Shippen, 23, senior from Alpine majoring in marriage, family and human development said some girls didn”t agree with the dessert contest.
“They thought we were being scammed into feeding the boys,” she said. “But I thought it was a good idea and it would be really fun.”
Shippen ended up getting more out of it than a good time – her apartment won the contest by half a vote and won a road trip to Los Angeles.
“Davis is doing all this research on the Price is Right and trying to find out how we can get on the show,” she said.
Shippen said the judges of the contest are planning to take her apartment to California to be on the show on the last weekend in March.
The winning dessert was a giant rice krispie treat volcano, filled with red-died chocolate mousse for lava, an ocean of blue-dyed whipping cream and a battlefield of cookie crumbs.
The dessert measured 3 feet wide by 2 feet long and almost one foot high.
“There was no playing around,” Shippen said. “The competition was pretty intense.”
