This past week was insane! I had my first cake competition ever plus 4 events I had to bake for. I some how pulled it all together but crashed hard on Tuesday.
I have no idea why I signed up for this cake competition in the first place. I believe you should challenge yourself but I like to take it to an unhealthy level. I tend to think stress is my drug of choice. I mean I don’t know who I am these days without it and I enable every last bit of it. The event is called ‘ Let Them Eat Cake’ which is put on by City of Hope which funds research for cancer. So at least I know that when they cure cancer I was involved because that’s what I’m going to tell people.
The theme for the competition was ‘Under the Big Top’. I wanted my cake to represent how the circus is for all generations as well as how long the circus has been around. On one side of the cake it was the 1930s and on the other it was present day. On the first layer I made cars from each period so it looked like they were parked to go to the circus. The next layer I made two types of fences with a ticket booth on each side. The middle was a double layer which had a little boy with a balloon going into the circus in 1930 and on the present day side it was him as an old man with the same balloon. Then on top I had a night sky with fireworks. I seriously thought the concept was going to evoke tears from people. I was sure I would have to console many strangers at my table. This did not happen which I thought was extremely odd.
The 1930s
Present Day
I asked my friend Kimmy to be my assistant the day of the event which was my saving grace. We obvi were the first to arrive to the event at 9.30 am. I had focused so much time on my cake I forgot that I probably should have a sign with my company name. Kimmy basically handle the sitch and got my life together. She made sure that I had all the marketing materials neccessary for the event and made my table look awesome. When we got back to the event other cakes were set up and that’s when my self-esteem hit some low levels. The cakes were ammmazing and everyone did an awesome job. Don’t get me wrong I am extremely proud of the cake I did but I am also very competitive and WAY too hard on myself. I like to think of myself as laid back but there are many ‘type A’ traits that have been appearing lately.
Some of the Competition
We had to leave the room so our cakes could be judged and that’s when Kimmy put my frazzled self back together. She gave me some pep talks basically letting me know I was being an idiot and then took me to a bar which is how you know she’s a good friend. Three drinks in I started to come around. I was in a better state of mind going back into the competition and it was an amazing event. I made samples of chocolate cake with salted caramel frosting topped with roasted peanuts. People were pretty amped up on the flavor and came back for seconds so I thought that was a score. My dad, step-mom, brother and pals – Jazzy and Da as well as Kimmy’s mom Dar came which was so nice to have the support.
Some of my lovely support crew
As my first big event it was a success. I learned a ton about competing and what to expect. I also learned not to take everything so seriously because come on – it’s cake.
My table at ‘Let them eat cake’
Facebook
Twitter
Subscribe
Contact