photo by: Joselyn King

Ella Wheeler, a member of the Wheeling Park High School “Culinary Caddies” team, helps assemble the team’s entry in the fourth annual Culineering Challenge at Oglebay Park Resort’s Wilson Lodge.

WHEELING — Local high school students are designing and engineering a model golf hole, then baking a cake to serve as a putting green.

The hole must have edible features noting West Virginia landmarks, as well as a moving mechanism to facilitate putting. In addition, a specific tea flavor must be incorporated in the cake.

It is all part of the fourth annual Culineering Challenge taking place Wednesday and today at Oglebay Park’s Wilson Lodge.

Teams representing nine high schools throughout West Virginia are competing, including three from the Northern Panhandle — Wheeling Park HIgh School, John Marshall High School and the Wetzel County Technical Education Center. Others are representing Doddridge, Fayette, Cabell, Marion, Mercer and Wayne counties.

“The Culineering Challenge is a career technical education program competition for students in CTE programs,” explained Emily Pearson, coordinator for the West Virginia Department of Education in the CTE office. “These are high school students in the culinary field and the engineering field — that’s where we get the name ‘culineering.'”

Each six-person team consists of two culinary students, two engineering students, a social media and marketing expert and a “builder” to help with any construction.

The students work together, and every year the WVDE changes the challenge of what they will have to engineer and bake.

Pearson explained the teams applied to compete in the competition earlier in the fall, and those selected were sent the details of the competition only a few weeks before the competition.

This year’s theme is “Tea Time” and requires each team to construct a playable, culinary-inspired mini-golf hole. The hole must feature structures referencing one of West Virginia’s nine tourism regions.

The teams were assigned a specific tourism region — and also a tea flavor which they must incorporate into a cake that will make up much of the design.

Students will create their golf course by incorporating some edible components in “a meaningful and visible way” that include the tea flavor.

The design must also include at least one interactive or moving feature. Additionally, members must create a custom golf club to match their course.

In the end, the team will need to be able to putt a ball on their golf course that utilizes the interactive or moving feature. There can be a crane to lift the ball to the hole, or some popping mechanism to shoot it in the target.

Construction took place throughout the day on Wednesday, and continues today with final judging slated for the afternoon.

“The functional moving part of their build is going to be the piece of cake the judges will eat off of for tasting,” Pearson explained.

The teams are not required to use the club they designed to play the hole, but they can if they want.

Ella Wheeler, the social media member of the WPHS “Culinary Caddies” team, explained the team was creating a golf hole based on the Fayette County and New River Gorge areas.

“We chose to have a gondola system that brings the golf ball up onto the New River Gorge Bridge and over the river,” she explained. “It was a very big challenge for the gondola system to work, so the engineering students did a lot of trial and error in fixing it and working out its processes.”

The WPHS team was assigned to work with chai tea, and it was decided this would pair well with gingerbread. Wheeler was seen placing Rice Krispie treats pieces at the base of the bridge to give it a stone structure look.

The John Marshall “Eggcellent Engineers” team, meanwhile, was assigned mint tea as an ingredient, and is including it in a chocolate-mint cake.

The students explained their golf hole will include attractions from the Northern Panhandle, with Wheeling’s Suspension Bridge at the center. Also part of the presentation will be depictions of the Mound in Moundsville, the “world’s largest teapot” in Chester, and the Lotus Pond at the Palace of Gold in Marshall County.

Judging the competition will be Sara Schonour and Rodolfo Goncalves, champions from the Netflix show “Baking Impossible.”

Schonour is a native of Buffalo, who operates her own engineering firm in Boston.

“I would give them (the students) the advice that all of life is a team project,” she said. “Learning how to deal with different personalities, how to problem solve and figure out challenges as they come up — that is what happens in the real world. Even though this may seem like a silly challenge, a lot of this is transferable.”

The Culineering Challenge grand champion team will receive a $5,000 classroom grant, a team trophy, and $200 to each team member courtesy of the West Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association Educational Foundation. The second-place team will receive a $3,000 classroom grant and a custom-engraved cutting board. The third-place team will receive a $2,000 classroom grant and a custom-engraved cutting board. Certificates will also be awarded to the teams with the best video and best social media campaign. The team designing the best golf club, chosen by the audience, will receive a trophy.

The coach of the winning team also receives a trophy noting them as “mentor of the year.”