By: Sthefany Flores
Lorene Pagcaliwagan, associate professor of French and Spanish, and Andrew Bradshaw, academic advisor, faced off in a friendly competition to determine who makes the best fudge.
Photo by Hannah Haggerty.
The competition was held in the Tucker Student Center on Nov. 9 where each contestant created three batches of fudge for faculty and students to judge. The desserts were white house cherry, mint, bacon, southern butter pecan and cranberries with walnuts.
There were two rounds of voting. The first round of voting was by Delores Hunt, vice president of student development; Brad Vaughn, office manager for student activities, Shea Stuart, assistant professor of English and Charlie Eudy, a freshman student. A rubric was given to the voters to determine the quality of each batch of fudge including texture, taste, appearance and over-all product.
Photo by Hannah Haggerty.
The second round of voting was through popular vote. Pagcaliwagan and Bradshaw labeled six jars that corresponded with the fudge flavors and the tasters voted by putting money in their favorite jar. All proceeds went to support Charlee Rae, daughter of American Sign Language professor Russ Gribble, as she undergoes treatment for Mucopolysaccharidosis Type I, a progressive genetic disorder that prevents the breakdown of excess materials in the body.
Pagcaliwagan and Bradshaw were both confident in their baking skills. Pagcaliwagan laughed as she explained, “We have been talking smack for three months! It started with us talking about baking and Bradshaw mentioned fudge and we both argued that ours was better.”
More than 30 students attended the fudge competition, in much to the surprise of both of the competitors who only advertised the event one day to faculty and a class.
Photo by Hannah Haggerty.
“I didn’t think that many people would come because it was all advertised through word of mouth but I’m happy because it’s for a good cause,” said senior Nikole Roland. “It’s such a nice turnout.”
The final decision was technically inconclusive. The four judges voted Bradshaw’s southern butter pecan as their favorite, but the popular vote was won by Pagcaliwagan’s I-Mint-To-Tell-You-It’s-Fudge.
Pagcaliwagan’s mint fudge won by 10 dollars more than the second place popular vote. The donations at the event amounted to collected amounted to $63.32.
“I am beyond surprised at how generous people were,” Pagcaliwagan commented.“Little Charlie Rae just had a surgery last week. She’s fighting as hard as she can and every little bit helps.”
