Despite being a Saturday morning, NEWTech Prep Academy’s classroom kitchen in Hillyard is filled with high school students. Divided into six teams of two to four, their focus is razor sharp as they shape cookie dough, slice biscotti, braid bread loaves, fill chocolate truffles and dust eclairs with powdered sugar.
All of them sport the same tan-colored apron, with “Great Startup Bakeoff” in bold white on the front. It’s the third year of the competition that aims to foster the entrepreneurial spirit of local youth.
“We had to spend more money on the aprons this year so they last a little longer because they wear them out,” says Clay Cerna, one of the event founders who also owns Sweetbox Bakery and is the general manager of River City Kitchen, a commercial space in downtown Spokane…