A new talent on the table: The art of cupcake making
Cupcake enthusiast Megan Howard can brag involvement in a unique combination of activities including hockey, mariachi, and horseback riding.
A buttery, crisp graham cracker crust cradles the moist, succulent chocolate cake. This masterpiece isn’t finished yet, it is blanketed with a marshmallow frosting – FIRE. The boiling heat from a blow torch caresses the frosting rising and sealing it in a perfectly tasted shell. The s’mores cupcake is complete. Sophomore Megan Howard was merely 12 years old when she received a cupcakes cookbook for Christmas.
“I tried it out and [it] was pretty good,” Howard said. “Now I’ve baked cupcakes for two weddings (about 175 cupcakes each), and countless baby showers and birthdays. I do it anywhere I can sell them and get the word out.”
Howard’s personal favorite cupcakes are the red-velvet with marbled vanilla and cream cheese frosting, a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting topped with a Reese’s mini, and, of course the s’mores cupcake.
In sixth grade I wanted to learn to play guitar, and mariachi was the only place to do it, so I joined and fell in love with it.
— Megan Howard, 10
Howard’s talent doesn’t stop there. She is also part of the Pattern Speed Horse Association (PSHA), in which she competes in the individual events: Poles, Key Hole, Figure Eight, Barrels, Key Race, Flags, and Cal Stake. And one-team event, two-man stake.
“I was born into riding horses,” Howard said. ‘Ever since I was little I was riding a horse. Two years ago I was at State competing in Figure Eight and my horse fell with me on it. They allowed me time to get back up and I got fourth. It taught me to never give up.”
Howard is also involved in women’s hockey with the Wenatchee Banshees and Mariachi Huenachi.
“In sixth grade I wanted to learn to play guitar, and mariachi was the only place to do it, so I joined and fell in love with it,” Howard said.
When the Town Toyota Center hosted a “learn to skate class,” Howard went, and her journey to the hockey arena snowballed from there.
“Hockey is a good way to relieve stress, and meet new friends,” Howard said.
One person who has been close with Howard on her adventures is junior Isa Bekker.
“She’s one of a kind and so unique in so many ways,” Bekker said. “She may be younger than me but she is my equal. I hope I know her for a long time.”