At the competition. . .

Now, before we all get excited, these are most definitely not my cakes. Perhaps one day I will achieve this awesomeness. No, these are some of the cakes from my competitors at a competition last weekend. Here are some more:

There were four categories this year: contemporary, traditional, retro, and vintage. We entered in the contemporary and retro. Our contemporary bombed. It was just frankly sloppy and uninteresting, and I never liked it much and didn't photograph it. But our retro cake, I liked quite a bit, as did the judges, as it came in 1st in its category (yay)! Here she is: This thing was a lot of work, but a lot of fun, too. Those little plaques on the bottom tier are fondant that I painted on with colored cocoa butter. Everything else is a result of fondant and airbrush, down to the basket of fries you see in the corner. (Techinically edible, but not so much eatable. More of a showpiece.)

My favorite part of the competition was meeting everyone else in the valley who does this. Everyone had a different take on the theme, which was fun to see. Some people were really nice and eager to share secrets, and others were hypercompetitive and snobby. Seriously, I just don't see a reason to get uptight at a competition like this. It's cake, for heaven's sake! Cake! How much more unimportant and frivolous can you get?

Well, I mostly just thought I would share the visual splendor I was recently subject to. I don't really have anything to report as far as my life story goes. Have a nice day!