VERO BEACH — The sweet smell of success permeated the Heritage Center at the fourth annual Jeane Graves Charity Cupcake Challenge to benefit the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.
The event was created four years ago by sisters Janie Graves Hoover, Judy Graves, and Jeane Graves Bartlett, who were ably assisted by Judy’s daughter Amelia Graves along with numerous other family members and friends.
The three girls were raised in a home filled with the enticing aroma of freshly baked goods and are keeping that memory alive with this tribute to their mother Jeane Graves, who passed away in April 2010 from complications related to Parkinson’s.
Each of the contestants, which interestingly included a number of young bakers, brought copious quantities of cupcakes, cutting some into bite sized pieces for all to enjoy, baking extras for people to purchase and take home with them, and fashioning artful displays with the remainder to show off their creatively decorated works of edible art.
“They’ve got all sorts of fascinating cupcakes here,” said Alma Lee Loy. “It’s amazing, all the imagination; this is one place where it really comes alive.”
Competition was fierce and selecting a winner from the abundance goodies was a daunting but enjoyable task relished by attendees, who were each given 10 voting coupons and could purchase additional ones.
After nibbling samples of the delectable selections, they cast their votes for Best Icing, Best Cupcake and Best Decoration in two competitive categories: Home Baker and Professional.
A select panel of judges – Elizabeth Graves Bass, Heritage Center board president; Vero Beach City Councilman Jay Kramer, and Amanda Ellis, Pastry Chef at Cobalt, then had the sweet-toothed job of choosing winners from the top finalists in each category.
First Place in the Home Baker category was awarded to Sebastian High School 10th grader Cassie Nicolace, the only four-time competitor in the challenge, for her decadent Chocolaty Cheesecake Surprise cupcakes.
Carly Monaghan, a Rosewood Elementary 5th grader, and Lily Naughtin, a Willow School 6th grader, teamed up and earned Best Decoration for their purple Midnight Monsters, complete with gummy googley eyes.
Best Icing went to Amber Skubal, for her Ultimate Football cupcakes, topped with a sweet and salty maple frosting with candied bacon.
Best Cake went to St. Edward’s senior Jacqs Carroll for her banana and Nutella Monkey Cakes.
Jan Neubauer and Lindsay Yencho of You Take the Cake were awarded Best Icing and First Place in the Professional category and Best Overall Cupcake for their autumnal Apple Pie Cupcakes.
Cakes by Cindy and Glenn [Walker] won Best Professional Cake for Pina Colada cupcakes, topped with edible golden pineapples.
The other Home Bakers were Glendale Elementary 5th grader Jillie Sweetland, Reanna Frazier, Elizabeth Cobun assisted by Glendale 4th grader Lucas Eisinger, Dave Williamson, assisted by son Ian, a Liberty Magnet 4th grader, Sabrina Sigler, Charity Plum, and Cindy Watson. The other Professional Bakers were Angela Cletzer and Chantel Kouns from Ace Cakery.
The not-so-secret ingredient in each baker’s arsenal was the knowledge that their sweet treats would be helping to fund research for a cure for Parkinson’s disease.
