The Central Florida Fair was a couple weeks ago (I know, I'm a little late!). It ran from February 25 through March 7. My family and I went to the fair on the last day and we had a blast! Plus, I entered in the cake decorating competition! It was my first time ever entering a cake in a competition (unless you count Cakewrecks World Tour, which will be featured in a future post)!
I've been to the fair numerous times, and not once do I remember seeing cakes there. But I usually went for the rides and snacks...candy apples, funnel cakes, and cotton candy, oh my! Not to say I still won't go for those things! Hehehe! But since I've been playing with cakes for about 2 years now, I figured I would try this out. I have been a little obsessed with peacocks lately, so I thought I'd try to use a mild peacock reference, mainly the colors.
So, without further ado, here is my entry...
I know...nobody really sees the peacock reference, but that's okay! Since this was my first time entering any sort of competition, I thought I would try a few new things. Actually, I tried too many new things and didn't have time to finish the cake, but I entered it anyway! Some of my firsts were covering cake dummies, making pleats, making rope borders, making bead/pearl borders, making drapery, making jewels (which were supposed to be hard candy, but that didn't turn out so well), and using my clay extruder and molds. I will not try so many things out at once again, especially not for a competition! Some of the things I didn't get done because I ran out of time. There was supposed to be a bigger flower on the bottom tier, but it broke, there was supposed to be piped scrolls above the bottom tiers rope border and around an initial plaque on the first tier (which didn't make it on either, but that was by choice). There was also supposed to be borders around each "jewel", even more on the ones on the hearts, as they were supposed to represent peacock feathers. Overall, I was pretty happy with the way it turned out though. Plus I had a lot of fun making it!
A few things I learned this time that will hopefully help out next time:
1. Start extra early (I'm talking months in advance if possible)
2. Don't try too many new techniques
3. For this competition at least, do not get bold, the winners all seemed to stick with traditional wedding colors and flowers, and modern, popular choices
4. Also for this competition, judging didn't seem to be based on technique, as much as what "looked pretty" (in my own opinion, I'll show examples later)
5. I didn't get ANY feedback from judges like I thought and had heard I would, which was really disappointing
I'm looking forward to entering next year!
The next post will feature some of the other entries, including my favorites!
