ITHACA, N.Y.—The Sophie Fund held its 8th annual Ithaca Cupcake Baking Contest earlier this fall, aiming to see who can make the tastiest sweets. For the second year in a row, Megan Martinez won the top prize.
The Sophie Fund, a non-profit mental health organization in Ithaca, organizes the contest every year in memory of Sophie MacLeod, who held a passion for baking cupcakes in the community. Judges of the contest included Via Carpenter, Yuko Jingu, Ashley Case, Racquel Riccardi and Melissa Kenny — all local bakers tasked with determining the best submission.
Martinez’s vanilla cupcakes layered with chocolate frosting and raspberry jam was originally a macaroon recipe she had “fantasized about making a big cake out of.”
“Though I had to think really hard about how to make them look pretty,” Martinez said. “That took a while.”
Runner-ups included Alecia Sundsmo and Lucy Jiang, who got second place and third place for their creations “Inclusivity = Prevention Cupcakes” and “Happy Capybara Cupcakes,” respectively. However, even up against the competition, Martinez had a “sense that [her] cupcakes were really tasty.”
Before entering the 2022 contest, Martinez was in the middle of her fifth month of maternity leave and found herself feeling constantly exhausted. Searching for a spark, she was inspired to enter the contest after hearing about it through a Facebook post.
“I just wanted something to do,” Martinez said. “Days were blending together and so I pushed myself really hard.”
Martinez, an associate professor of mathematics at Ithaca College, has been married to her husband, Mario, for 11 years after the two met at a Dartmouth College engineering party. Mario recalls how Martinez actually won her first cupcake contest back in graduate school, meaning she is three-for-three in cupcake contests.
Mario describes Martinez as “one of the most competitive people [he knows],” recalling their time together playing video games and poking fun at each other.
Beyond her love of baking and cooking, Martinez describes herself as a creative person, a thread that weaves her varying interests together.
“I would say I like to create things because the number of hobbies I’ve picked up in my life is a little ridiculous,” Martinez said. “I’m currently in a quilting phase. I enjoy knitting, crocheting and watercolor painting. And I was a music major in college.”
Martinez grew up knowing that when you bake something, it prompts an opportunity to have people over.
“For me, it’s very social,” Martinez said. “Even this year when I made the cupcakes, I actually made a double batch and invited the neighbors over the next day. It gives you a chance to share.”
Martinez feels that entering a competition is not very fun if you do so feeling like you have to win.
“So I was basically like, ‘I’m just going to make the most delicious cupcakes I can think of and make it so I think it looks beautiful and tastes really good,’” Martinez said.
Mario describes how Martinez always gets nervous about entering contests, despite her track record.
“I haven’t seen a challenge that she can’t meet,” Mario said. “The nerves that I sensed in her were similar to when she was doing her PhD dissertation. Obviously, the stakes are not the same, but she acts like they are. That’s part of her secret sauce: she just puts everything she has into the thing she cares about doing.”
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