Gumball Stand

Image by: DANA KATZ/The Stanford Daily

By: Marisa Landicho
Published: November 10, 2008

Last week, teams of Stanford students were given 27 gumballs, 27 dollars and free rein of the campus for a one-week fund raising blitz known as The Gumball Challenge.

In its second year, The Challenge pitted 13 teams against one another and raised over $1,200 dollars to be donated to Kiva, a micro-lending organization that funds social entrepreneurs across the globe.

Melanie Edwards, a professor of social entrepreneurship who addressed the teams during the closing ceremonies on Sunday, pointed out that it was possible to generate change while making money.

“We’re real believers that you can do well, you can make money and you can still have really great social impact at the same time,” she said.

The goal of The Gumball Challenge was to raise money and awareness of microfinance, which involves small loans given directly to the working poor in developing countries. The number 27 was inspired by 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, whose initial loan of $27 started a cyclical lending process and evolved into the Grameen Bank, which grew to help over five million poor women.

With only one week to turn gumballs into gold, teams churned out ideas and quickly implemented their various money-making schemes.

Sophomores Maddie Duhon, Whitney Liehr, Biju Obi and Stephanie Marcy formed “Team Trash for Cash” and canvassed dorms door-to-door, operating as both garbage collectors and agents spreading the message of microfinance.

“We just asked if people wanted their trash taken out for a small donation,” Duhon said.

Ultimately, Team Trash for Cash raised the most money of all teams - over $390.

While Tuesday’s election made it difficult for some teams to carry out their plans, one team took advantage of the timing and used the presidential election as inspiration for their efforts. On Tuesday, “Team Burbank Love” organized a “Cream the Candidates” event where participants paid two dollars to throw a whipped-cream pie at their choice of mock presidential or vice presidential candidate.

Team Burbank Love’s planners Philippe De Koning ‘10, Victoria Fischman ‘12 and Kelsey Davidson ‘12 rallied over 30 dorm-mates to help out and even volunteer to have pies thrown at them by overzealous election-watchers in White Plaza and at the CoHo. Their team raised $202 through both Cream the Candidates and a dorm-wide ping pong tournament, earning them the prize for biggest risk takers.

Prizes for best microfinance advocate and most innovative went to teams “Los Elefantes” and “Blue Barracudas” respectively, both comprised of freshmen from Larkin in Stern Hall. Los Elefantes raised over $200 through a dorm assassins game, while Blue Barracudas raised $330 through a date auction and an application essay review service for high-school students.

However, not all teams managed to pull off their schemes quite according to plan. Team “Donner Love” was thwarted by the weather when their plan to sell Gatorade at intramural games was washed away by rain. Eventually, through some last-minute efforts, the team managed to raise $13.

A few other teams dropped out throughout the week due to lack of time.

“Everyone has their own roadblocks,” said Gumball Challenge Director Nick Noone ‘10. “There are successes and there are some ideas that had a rough go, but overall I’m excited.”

Noone, who also coordinates challenges at other universities through Gumball Capital, said he hoped to see The Gumball Challenge become a campus-wide event in the future.

All participating teams were enthusiastic about this year’s competition - and eager to participate again next year.

“I had the Sarah Palin mask, and I think overall in the whole day, I got 50 pies thrown at me,” De Koning said. “I’ll also never forget the fact that when Obama won, I was covered in whipped cream. It’s some of the most fun I’ve had at Stanford.”

The Canadian Press
Oct 20, 2008

The best part about these creepy bloody eyeball cupcakes — aside from being delicious - is the surprise factor. Don’t warn your guests that when they bite into the cupcakes, they will get a bloody (and maybe messy) surprise.

Adding white food coloring to the frosting isn’t essential, but it will make for a more vivid contrast between the bloodshot eyes and the blood. White food coloring is available at baking supply shops and online.  Gumballs can be purchased at your local Walmart or online.

Bloody Eyeball Cupcakes

Cupcakes

425 ml (1 3/4 cups) all-purpose flour

7 ml (1 1/2 tsp) baking powder

3 ml (3/4 tsp) salt

250 ml (1 cup) sugar

175 ml (12 tbsp or 3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened but still cool, cut into 12 pieces

3 large eggs

175 ml (3/4 cup) milk

7 ml (1 1/2 tsp) vanilla extract

Filling

90 ml (6 tbsp) seedless raspberry jam

4 drops red food colouring

45 ml (3 tbsp) light corn syrup

Frosting

250 ml (1 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature

500 ml (2 cups) powdered sugar

22 ml (1 1/2 tbsp) milk

7 ml (1 1/2 tsp) vanilla extract

0.5 ml (1/8 tsp) table salt

15 drops white food coloring (optional)

Decoration

12 small red gum balls

2 small tubes red decorating gel

Cupcakes: Adjust an oven rack to the middle position. Heat oven to 180 C (350 F). Lightly coat two 6-cup muffin tins with baking spray. Alternatively, coat tins with cooking spray, then dust with flour and tap to remove any excess.

In a large bowl, use an electric mixer on low to combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Add butter, a piece at a time, and beat until mixture resembles coarse sand, about 3 minutes.

Add eggs, one at a time, and mix until combined. Add milk and vanilla, then increase speed to medium and mix until light and fluffy and no lumps remain, about 3 minutes.

Fill muffin cups three-quarters full (do not overfill) with batter. Bake until a toothpick inserted at the center comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Cool cupcakes in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a rack to cool completely.

Filling: In a small bowl, whisk together jam, food colouring and corn syrup. Set aside.

When cupcakes have cooled, cut a cone of cake out of the centre of each. To do this, insert tip of a paring knife at a 45-degree angle about 3 mm (1/8 inch) from the top edge of the cupcake and cut all the way around the top (cutting about 2 cm/3/4 inch into the cupcake).

Remove the cone of cake from the center. Cut away all but the top 5 mm ( 1/4 inch) of the cones, leaving only small disks of cake. Set aside.

To fill the cupcakes, spoon about 7 ml ( 1/2 tbsp) of the filling into the cavity of each cupcake. Gently place the disks of cupcake over the filling, being careful not to press too hard. You do not want the filling to ooze out.

Frosting: In a large bowl, use an electric mixer on high to beat butter until light and fluffy, about 30 seconds. Slow mixer to low and add powdered sugar, 125 ml ( 1/2 cup) at a time, and mix until combined.

Increase mixer to high and beat until pale and fluffy, about 1 minute. Reduce speed to medium and add milk, vanilla and salt. Increase speed to high and beat until fluffy, about another 30 seconds. If desired, beat in white food coloring.

Spread a generous amount of frosting over each cupcake, being careful not to detach the top disk of cake. Place one red gum ball in the frosting at the center of each cupcake to form the pupil.

Use red decorating gel to draw veins in the frosting radiating outward from the pupil.

Makes 12 servings.

Source: The cupcake portion of the recipe is from “The America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book” by America’s Test Kitchen (2008).

Spend your time playing this adorable fun filled Bubblegum Eater game. It’s free, its online and there is nothing to download.  The objective is to help the bubble gum eating dinosaur collect tasty gumballs and avoid the mean and nasty sour gumballs in this online arcade game.

The game is easy to play.  Simply use the left and right arrow keys to move from side to side. The up arrow key is used to open the dinosaur’s mouth to devour the bubble gum. The down arrow is used to protect you from mean sour gumballs. It sounds easy, but there is a catch: the Bubble Gum Eater can’t walk and chew gum at the same time!

Note: It takes a few seconds for the game to load. CLICK TO PLAY

Barrack Obama wins election with 7 days to go according to the gumball poll taken at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

See press NCC release below:

One week before Election Day, the National Constitution Center announces the results of its gumball election. Today’s tally shows that Obama has won 61% of the vote with a total of 16,784 gumballs.

In conjunction with the Headed to the White House exhibition and the Center’s Election ’08: The Power of We initiative, visitors of all ages have had the opportunity to cast a vote for president in the Center’s Grand Hall Lobby and see the most up-to-date results with a running tally of colored gumballs. Each gumball signified a vote for either John McCain (red), Barack Obama (blue), or a third party candidate (white). John McCain received 33% of the vote with a total of 9,175 gumballs, and third party candidates received 6% of the vote with a total of 1,772 gumballs.

Obama took an early lead at the Center, receiving 58% of the vote during the first week of gumball voting in September. His lead remained steady throughout the following months, but took a substantial jump following the final presidential debate on October 15, bringing him to 64% of the vote.

Elections are sticky and chewy business.  Do we believe that gumballs have the ability to predict the outcome of presidential elections?  We’ve decided to wait and see what the people have to say.  Vote on election day and chew gumballs because they taste good.