The University of Rhode Island’s Student Senate hosted the annual Ace of Cakes competition in the Memorial Union Ballroom on Feb. 21.
The cake-decorating contest hosted various Senate-recognized organizations and clubs on campus. Each organization had one hour to decorate their cake and present it to the judges.
The coordinator of the event, Jennifer Kohl, said the theme this year was, “What does diversity mean to your organization?”
“It is always super cool to see what everyone comes up with,” Kohl said. “It’s just a fun event to get everyone to interact and talk about their organizations and what they stand for.”
The cakes were judged based on three different categories, including, “Best Overall,” “Most Creative” and “Best Theme.”
The judges of this contest were: Annie Russell, director of the Gender and Sexuality Center; Joe Berardi, assistant director of community standards; George Galian, director of the Multicultural Center; and Kathy Collins, vice president of student affairs.
Different organizations made innovative cakes that represented their mission. Thrive, a club dedicated to activism and community service, decorated their cake into an earth with different colored gummy bears to represent people of various ethnicities. The Puppy Raisers Club, five-time consecutive champions of the contest, created a multi-service dog cake to represent what diversity meant to their organization.
“There are always these clubs who come up with the most obscure but great things that no one would ever think of,” Nicolette St. Amand, director of communications for Student Senate said. “It’s fun to see the creativity of people and what they come up with. College is very stressful so bringing people together and doing something as silly as decorating cakes is a good way to hang out with your friends and decompress from all the stress.”
The “Best Theme” award went to Women Offering Women Wisdom (W.O.W.W), the “Most Creative” title was awarded to the Puppy Raisers club and the “Best Overall” title went to Powerful, Independent, Notoriously, Knowledgeable Women (P.I.N.K.).
“We wanted to start off with black history month and we realized that diversity is much more than that,” Raquel Ortiz, a P.I.N.K member said. “It is acceptance of everyone and that’s what we try to embrace as an organization. We made a tree of life, where everyone is coming together. The colors represent the different individuals and how we all bring color to each other’s’ lives and we all awaken each other up.”
The cakes were provided by URI Dining Service. The participants were also provided with many decorating materials like frosting, candies and food coloring.
The winners were awarded various URI merchandises, coupons and tickets from businesses like Five Guys and Crazy Burger Cafe and Juice Bar.
“All of the teams can take their respective cakes back,” Kohl said. “Some bring it back to the club, or we go around giving it to people around the Rams Den, just making sure none of it gets wasted.”