A photograph showing baker Anthony Dunlap standing behind an elaborate cupcake display table at the Great St. Pete Cupcake Contest inside the Morean Center for Clay in St. Petersburg, Florida, on August 24, 2024. Captured in a medium shot, the smiling baker wears a colorful patterned tunic, glasses, and a face mask around his chin while standing behind a teal tablecloth filled with dozens of decorated cupcakes arranged on multi-tiered wooden and orange cake stands, flanked by vibrant floral arrangements and set against an exposed red brick wall.Anthony Dunlap at Morean Center for Clay in St. Petersburg, Florida on Aug. 24, 2024 Credit: MoreanArtsCenter / Facebook

Sometimes, you need to spend a few hours pounding mini-cupcakes, for art’s sake of course.

The Morean Center for Clay gives Tampa Bay a chance to do just that when it welcomes bakers—from youth, to newbies, pros and specialty cupcake makers—for a bake off that hopes to crown St. Petersburg’s most artistic cupcakes.

It all starts when attendees reserve a 12-count box of cupcakes ($20-$25, and they pretty much sell out before doors even open), then head to the 22nd Street venue where boxes get filled. Awards are given out in multiple categories, and attendees vote for a people’s choice winner announced at 3 p.m.

Boxes to 15th Annual Great St. Pete Cupcake Contest happening at Morean Center for Clay Saturday, Aug. 29 are still available and start at $20.

This article appears in August 20 – 26, 2026.

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Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief…
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