Monday, September 13, 2010

Wedding Cake Competition-- Finally!


After much anticipation..... ta da!

My final design featured isomalt gems and board, gum paste flowers: 60 hydrangea, 80 stephanotis, 25 fully blown roses, 5 rose buds, 1 mid size rose, 16 dendrobium orchids and assorted rose and hydrangea leaves.  There were also some fondant pearls and string-work, as well as a 50-50 paste bow and brooch.

From the bottom up, my flavors were: cream cheese pound cake with amaretto cream, chocolate blackout cake with espresso truffle filling and chambord syrup, butter cake with white chocolate raspberry cream, and another chocolate blackout cake on the top.


Finally had the competition yesterday-- I'm still exhausted and I feel like my head is going to explode.  :oP  I was pretty happy with my cake overall except that I wanted the tiers to be blacker and squarer.

My friend Prem came over before the show and took a bunch of really great quality pictures for me.












Then I had to transport this beast...

Unfortunately, my seats in my car aren't completely flat (though I tried to compensate a little with some extra foam), but in the 90 degree weather, things slid a little bit.  I also had to take off my top tier and carry it separately so that everything would fit through the door, and it slid a little bit in its box and destroyed its ribbon around the bottom.  So when I set up, my cake looked like it was leaning and that ribbon was just a disaster.


I fixed things as best I could (my friends swore that the table was sagging and that was contributing to the leaning issue) and then I just had to walk away because I was so frustrated.  If I hadn't been so tired, I would have thought to shim the cake board under the front left corner, and I think everything would have been much better.  Now I know.

This event was soooo long.  I set up @2:45, judging started at 4, and they didn't announce the winners till 8!  I was STARVING!  And sleep-deprived, and tired of standing by my leaning cake... 

One thing that I find frustrating is that I wonder if I even understood the 'rules'.  I put rules in quotations because their rules consisted of a couple sentences saying that you had to have at least a 10" base with variable height.  Totally edible, cakes and cupcakes in any combination.  'Creative Wedding Cake and Cupcake Competition.'  Okay, from that I take away 'I need to make a wedding cake with at least a 10" base, and I'm welcome to use cupcakes as well'.  Until one of the judges came up me and asked where my cupcakes were.  Ummmm..... ?????  Seeing as how the winner and runner up both had cupcakes in their designs, I wonder if I completely missed the mark on my design.  Unfortunately, I didn't get score sheets, so I really don't know what the verdict was.

After judging was completed, I was overwhelmed with people wanting slices of my cake.  And my mother suggested bringing boxes for the slices, which turned out to be brilliant!  People loved my cake and loved more that I could package it in an easy-to-carry mini cake box for them.  When I was fast enough, I put on little 'Cakes by Roxanne' stickers, designed by my wonderful Aunt Carol. All in all, it was a big success.

Now I just need to clean up my poor apartment.

And I'll be sticking to much smaller projects for the foreseeable future. ;)

11 comments:

  1. Your roses are so perfect.. How do you do it?!?!

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  2. Awesome cake!! I love your sugar flowers and brooch! :D Fab work done!

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  3. Absolutely gorgeous cake! Way to go! Your flowers are perfect too! :)

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  4. I understand how the rules confused you because I was confused also. I had to email Patty 2 or 3 times for clarification. Never the less, you did a great job on your flowers and I loved your color combination of flowers and cake. I would have loved to see the score card also...LOL.

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  5. Thanks, everyone! Emily, you were smart to clarify-- I just didn't know I was confused! LOL It's too bad they didn't share the scores-- it would have been very valuable to get some feedback! :) Great job to you too!

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  6. Loved this cake, Roxanne! Sorry about the mishaps on the way to the competition, but it was a great cake! On the other hand, as far as the Threadcakes competition, you was robbed! I haven't seen the winning entries yet, but that was one fantastic construction/cake. What they basically need is better judges! A big hug from Marianna46.

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  7. Hi Roxanne, I love every details (rose, bow, brooch, etc.) in your cake! It really has a WOW factor :) I love love it! I dont think I can do a huge cake like that.. Covering the 10-inch cake with makes me nervous and all sweaty LOL
    May I ask how did you put those full blown roses in between the base and mid tier.. then roses between mid and top tier? Did you use dummy cakes? I'm planning to use the same for the next wedding cake that I'm going to do for a friend. Just to make the cake taller lol.. Thanks Roxanne :)

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  8. Thanks, Jinky! :) Yes, I used 3" square dummies and covered the edges in black fondant to match the rest of the cake. Don't use floral foam-- it sheds too much. Good luck with your cake!

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  9. Thanks Roxanne! I bought the materials (dummies etc) BUT, unfortunately, I was short of time to make all those full roses :( I was so disappointed that I wasn't able to execute this design. Well, better luck next time for me. Anyways, the cake engineer is always around to ask for great advice! wooo hooo!!! Thanks again :)

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  10. Holy hell. This cake looks so stunning. I just made plain chocolate cake but I used a cake mix. I suck at baking. It looks too good to eat.

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