Marilyn Frable has a delicious job. She teaches cooking classes at Northampton Community College. Some of her summer students are pint-size, ranging in ages from 6-16. She says she tries to make the classes fun and educational. One of her classes was "Cupcake Wars."

"I tried to appeal to their competitive natures," Frable says.It worked. Frable had each of her classes break up into teams.Monday they made fondant and were instructed on baking skills, frosting and filling, decorating ideas and techniques. They chose a theme and recipes for cupcakes, fillings and frostings from lists she provided.Tuesday they made one kind of cupcake having to use a fruit from one list and an ingredient from a second list. Those were judged for taste.Wednesday they had to make two different flavors of cupcakes, one from a white cake mix. They were then judged on 50 percent flavor and 50 percent for decorations and look. Two teams were eliminated. They were then helpers to the two remaining teams in the final challenge.Thursday the two competing teams had to make a 36-cupcake display, consisting of three flavors of cupcakes. Each team was given a three-tier cardboard cupcake display server. They could use paint, ribbon and anything else they wished to personalize the display for the theme of their cupcakes. They had two hours and 30 minutes.The judges awarded up to 10 points each for taste, decorations that represent the theme, appearance of the display, how the display represents the theme and cleanup and teamwork.Team 1 chose a Food theme, turning their cupcakes into spaghetti with meatballs, miniature grills complete with a cheeseburger and hot dog and apples.Team 2 chose a Dessert theme with their cupcake creations of hot fudge Sundaes, candy apples and lollipops.Team 1 baked and decorated their way to first place, winning Olympic-style awards.Elora Burton, 12, of East Stroudsburg said she had fun and learned to make a bunch of recipes."I really enjoyed the challenge," she said.Macayla Almeida, 12, of Albrightsville said her favorite part was learning how to make fondant.Kathryn Schlemmer, 12, Palmerton, is proud of learning how to make cupcakes from scratch and how to fill them.But Rachel Yosh, 13, of East Stroudsburg summed it up with, "I liked the whole thing," referring to the classes.To Frable, those words are like the cherry on top with sprinkles.