Hey! Does anyone know aout any cake competitions in southern California or anywhere in Oregon?

Check out your local county fairs. I am in Solano County (near Napa) and my husband and I are entering cakes in 13 local county fairs. It's not big money for prizes, but Wilton sponsors some of the prizes as well as local cake supply stores, so the gift certificates are real cool.

I live in Oceanside, California and I've recently joined a club here. The club had a charity cake competition on the 18 May. It was a lot of fun. I hope there will be more to come. You can see pictures posted on the North San Diego Cake Club site: http://sdcakes.com

Entering into the county fairs is a lot of fun. My husband and I started off this fair season with a great start. Our decorated cake at the Dixon Fair took First Place and Best of Division. Unfortunately our camera was stolen, so we don't have pictures. Last year we entered four cakes, two in Solano County and two in Contra Costa, taking home three 1st place, one 2nd, a Best of Division, a Best of Show, and a Reserve Best of Show. This year we are hitting 11 fairs!

Many counties are open to residents in neighboring counties as well. The only one in our area that I am aware of that is limited to strictly county residents is Sonoma. Be sure to read the guidebook for rules governing where you must live. The ones listed below are all open to Solano County residents.

Decorated cakes are judged on decoration only. Many of the fairs encourage the use of styrofoam or cardboard forms in place of cake as they are lighter to carry and don't go bad. They also require that you be an amateur. (A few of the fairs do have categories for professionals.)

Below is a list of some of the county fairs in our area.

Upcoming Fairs
Napa   http://www.napacountyfairgrounds.com/fair.htm
Napa Town & Cntry http://www.napavalleyexpo.com/
San Mateo   http://www.sanmateocountyfair.com/
Solano   http://www.scfair.com/
Sonoma-Marin   http://www.sonoma-marinfair.org/
Yolo   http://www.yolocountyfair.net/

Fairs Past Deadline to Enter this year
Alameda   http://www.alamedacountyfair.com/   
Contra Costa  http://www.ccfair.org/
Dixon May Fair  http://www.dixonmayfair.com/2008mayfair.html
Marin   http://www.marinfair.org/
Sacramento  http://www.sacfair.com/
San Joaquin  http://www.sanjoaquinfair.com/

For fairs in other areas, go to:

California Dept of Food & Agriculture, Division of Fairs & Expositions
http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/fe/Fair_Information/Fair_Dates_and_Information.asp

Western Fairs Association [url]
www.fairsnet.org/find_a_fair/index.shtml[/url].

I hope this helps. It would be great to get some more competition out there!