I Did It Again

Entered a cake in an online contest, that is. The theme was Summer Sports and since I already had a picture of a baseball cake, I entered that. The original blog post with the details is here.

This cake was made two years ago for the El Paso County (Colorado) Fair. My decorating skills have improved since then and there are many things I'd do differently now. Well, except for the peanuts...I really like how those gumpaste peanuts came out.


Heck, my picture-taking skills, not to mention my camera, have improved since then. Ignore the date stamp...not only were my picture-taking skills bad, I didn't even know how to get rid of that, never mind have it show the right date!

Much to my surprise, it was voted into the top 10! Out of 79 cakes, it was #8. Very pleased!




Where do competition cakes go when the contest is over?

Well, that all depends on the cake. Is it real cake? Is it faux cake? Is it styrofoam?

If it's real cake, like these:

...well, they either get eaten or thrown away within a few days. These, from my early competition days, were real cake with buttercream under the fondant.

Faux cakes, like these:

...again, it depends. This is technically real cake that's inedible. The ingredients that would cause it to spoil have been removed. You can read more about it here. On Peggy Sue, in the lower right hand corner, the girl in pink, for some reason I used actual buttercream under the fondant. While I was able to display her for quite some time, I did notice some mold and tossed her in the trash in January. The other two cakes have just a bit of shortening under the fondant. I still have both. Lucy the Ladybug is well over a year old and, while showing some fading, still looks great. The fan, which is about five months old, is also holding up extremely well. Sadly, I dropped something on it the other day and broke a large portion of the lace and some of the flowers.

Now, the styrofoam cakes:

...theoretically, they'll last forever! The only reason to get rid of these is due to space restraints or the need to reuse the dummies.

So, what started all this thinking about my old competition cakes? The need for a 6" dummy. So, I said goodbye to my pretty little "Black and White and Ruffled All Over" cake.

Step 1, the still intact cake:

Step 2, remove the top tier. I was hoping to save at least one flower but was unsuccessful.

Step 3, remove the 2nd tier. This is the one I need.

Step 4, separate bottom tier from cake stand.

 Step 5, lots of time under running water to soften up the fondant for removal.

Goodbye cake, hello stripped dummies!

I've noticed that my dummies are starting to wear a bit of each of their incarnations. I kind of like that. My favorite pair of jeans are a pair of Levi's that are many years old. For the past 10 years or so, I've only worn them to paint. They show a story of my projects and home decor evolution. I like that my dummies are now creating a history of their own.

So, why did I need the dummy tier, you wonder? This is it's next incarnation:

Dahlia on dummy

It became the top tier of a cake that was too small to have the WOW factor needed for the party. If you're interested in the rest of the cake or the party you can see more pictures on my Facebook page.

"What the judges liked and didn't like" posts coming soon (I promise) on the competition cakes from February!

As always, thanks for reading!