By Khalida Sarwari
The library isn’t a place where one would normally go to satisfy a cupcake craving, but for one day last week that’s exactly what it was.
Dozens of teens dropped by the Campbell Library to indulge in the sweets, but first they were required to do what libraries encourage most–use their imagination.
The library’s Creepy Cupcakes Decorating for Teens event drew cupcake lovers from all over. The directions were simple; each person was given a plate with three cupcakes and instructed to sit at one of three tables. One table was instructed to design cupcakes resembling spiders while another was instructed to make cupcakes resembling Jack from Nightmare Before Christmas. Those sitting at the third table were free to make anything using their imagination.
To help them design their creepy concoctions, the participants were given such essential tools as frosting, sprinkles, candy, black licorice and M&M’s.
Everyone had a chance to sit at each of the three tables, and while some allowed their imagination to run wild, others kept theirs tame, sticking to simple decorative designs.
Jessica Vega, 16, came to the event with her friend Lauren Sugasawara, 17, both residents of San Jose and seniors at Branham High School. It didn’t take much to convince her friend to come, Jessica said.
“Free food! Let’s go to that,” she said, holding her cupcakes–one resembling a rat, another one in the form of a monster and the third a design even she had no idea about.
Lauren’s cupcakes were a little more conceptual; she called one with a square root symbol and the number zero “Divided by Zero.”
“This shouldn’t exist; it’s impossible to solve,” she said.
Another one was designed to look like “a witch monster, I guess.” Her favorite, Lauren said, was “Mr. Question Mark.”
“I’m going to take a picture of them, show them off to my friends and eat them,” she said.
One of the “creepiest” cupcakes was made by 13-year-old Jason Whitney of Campbell. The Ida Price Middle School student made a cupcake design depicting “a worm getting eaten by a butterfly.”
The event was held as part of the annual summer reading program at the Santa Clara County Library, a family and community event that aims to promote literacy and foster a love of reading.
Marlene Iwamoto, the teen services librarian, said the creepy cupcake decorating event fit in with this year’s “Own the Night” theme for those ages 12 to 18.
“I think it’s great fun,” she said. “It’s a great way to get them out here.”
