North Whidbey Middle School eighth graders took to the kitchen last week to battle it out for a taste of sweet, sweet victory.

Family and consumer science teacher Brianna Thompson once again held Cupcake Wars, in which her students competed for the coveted golden spatula.

This is the second year and fourth semester that Thompson has hosted the competition, which is judged by guests such as firefighters, a city council member and district administrators.

“It just keeps getting better,” Thompson said. “This semester, I’ve been really impressed with the creativity.”

The students broke into teams last week to create treats that embodied the summer theme.

Friday, judges awarded a spatula to teams in each class period with the best tasting cupcakes and another to the best presentation.

One of the afternoon classes ended in a two-way tie for taste and another two-way tie between different teams for presentation.

“I think it went really well,” said Isadora White, whose team tied for the presentation award.

Her team’s entry featured turtles made out of candy atop lemon-frosted graham cracker “sand.” Other entries included cupcakes arranged together to look like corn on the cob (complete with a yellow Starburst as the obligatory slab of butter on top), tiny cakes baked in ice cream cones and fondant starfish lounging in blue icing “water.”

Firefighter Cameron Hopkins said it was his second year serving as a judge. He called Friday’s entries “fantastic.”

Thompson said she started the Wars last year as something fun to do at the end of the semester, but she wasn’t sure how it would go.

“It became a reputation for the class,” she said.

Incoming students were already excited for it, so she continued the tasty tradition.

Although the competition itself is fun and comes with glory and an actual spatula, Thompson said the students are graded more by how they work together as a team.

They had a few class periods to choose and perfect their recipes and designs.

Some students took the challenge home with them. Amelia Dawn Nguyen’s team had a hard time getting their chosen recipe to bake inside of an ice cream cone, so the students spent extra time customizing and creating their own unique cupcake.

“With failed experiments, you figure it out,” Nguyen said.

“You learn how to make it work.”

Katelyn Kent, Miles Erikson and Kaeden Frazier arrange their freshly decorated cupcakes on a pan. Eighth graders at North Whidbey Middle School battled against each other in the kitchen for the honor of winning the golden spatula for this year’s Cupcake Wars. Photo by Laura Guido/Whidbey News-Times

An entry to this year’s Cupcake Wars in family and consumer science class at North Whidbey Middle School.

Oak Harbor firefighters, from left, James Williams, Don Baer and Cameron Hopkins tally their score cards last Friday for a cupcake competition at North Whidbey Middle School. Photo by Laura Guido/Whidbey News-Times

Eighth grader Angelique Robin frosts her team’s entry into a cupcake competition at North Whidbey Middle School. Photo by Laura Guido/Whidbey News-Times