Cakes are obviously something people at work know me for, but this contest doesn't seem to have rules other than entrants will be judged on taste and presentation.

Any suggestions on what I should do? The organization I work for has over 500 employees, and only about 60 of them have probably tasted my baked goods.

But I want to WIN! I'm such a competitive person (on a small scale) and I want to WOW everyone with what I do.

I've asked if they have additional rules or guidelines, but was told, "There isn't anything additional posted. It's a friendly competition for desserts, which will be judged by a panel on a combination of taste and presentation."

Muahaahahahaahahahahahahahaha!!!

I don't understand all the muhahahaing. Are you planning to poison them or something?

OOH! How exciting! *tenting fingers* I think you and I have the same competitive vibe when it comes to these things.

How many people are you going to feed? Can you just do a dummy cake with crazy design then serve up tiny square "tasters" from a sheet cake of your fave/awesome recipe list?

Go get 'em. No holds barred!

Go with your strong suit and dress it to the 9's.

Good Luck!

it's a general dessert competition? mmmm so many ways to go with that .... i bet you'll already have a leg up just on presentation. what are some crowd pleasers? chocolate ... PB ... cream cheese ...

No No , go stacked cake and really WOW them!! What do you do for a living, you could do something themed around your work?

Do you do carved cakes? something in a unique shape that they can eat would surely wow them, especially if the object is related to the company.

Go show em whatcha got! (and then make sure to link the picture in this thread so we can see what you came up with)

Does your company have a logo? Maybe you can do a carved cake in the shape of the company logo - that would be impressive!

We just had one at my office, it was a 'summer theme'. So I did smore's on a stick. Put a Stick in a Marshmallow, dip in chocolate, roll in graham cracker crums and WAH-LAH! Winner. Super easy, cheap and mighty delicous. Not to mention simple to eat.

It might not be right for you competition if everything has to be homemade, but a unique and popular item might be cake balls...

A stacked cake would definitely have a WOW factor! And they didn't say how many on the "panel" so that just means you have oodles of cake samples for your large company to try! If you are the winner, your co-workers will be VERY interested in trying your cake!

What about 3 tiers and 3 different flavors/fillings that would appeal to the masses, yet cover all tastebud aspects? ( example: fruit/ganache/buttercream/mocha/PB/chocolate/red velvet, etc.)

I would think that would just "up" the odds that you could win if you had 3 times the good taste in one fabulously presented dessert!

I love the muahahahaha! i knew excactly what you ment Good luck with the comp X

Stick with what you do best. As you mentioned, a fondant covered cake might work against you. However, fondant covered cookies don't seem to have the bad rap that some people equate with fondant. Whatever you do, I'd LOVE to see the finished product!

"I work in an IT area of a university...not much to go with there. lol And I've only done one 3d carved cake, and while I learned many lessons from it, I'm not sure it's something I want to take on for this. "

What about a square or 1/4 sheet of a fabulous tasting cake decorated as a printed circuit board?

You could cover in green fondant (or green BC if you really think fondant hurts your chances) You could do all the little chips, capapcitors, resistors etc in fondant cut-outs or candies. Pipe all the solder connectors & brush w/luster dust.

OR--what about the university logo or mascot?

Go get 'em!
Kristy

O m'gosh, that sounds like fun!! I have to do something for the volunteers at an animal shelter next week, and you've inspired me to do something creative. I'm thinking brownie pops....make that cheescake brownie pops....covered in colored candy melts and decorated to look like little dogs & cats.

ETA: Oh, and I understood your "mwahaha" to be gleeful anticipation of a friendly competition...nothin' wrong with that!!

I just used Tesso's jello mmf on my state fair comp. cake (black one in photos) and it was awsome, it is the first time I have ever flawlessly covered a cake in fondant and the taste is fantastic (raspberry). I don't know if it is supposed to but it had a reflective sheen that was kind of cool and took color like a dream - hardly had to use any black.

Lovely decorated cakes are your strong suit yes? I

nstead of dressed to the 9's maybe something simple - most of my fave. cakes on here are very simple design wise.

here is the recipe. enjoy.

Jello-MMF recipe

1 bag of mini marshmallows 10.5 oz.
3 tbs of water
3 cups of pwd sugar
1/2 pack of jello (any flavor)

1-2 cups of pwd sugar for kneading purposes.

I added the jello to the hot marshmallow mixture. I did not dissolve it first. I then put the mixture into my KA added powder sugar, mixed, then dumped on to counter and started kneading and adding PS until it reached the right consistancy. It only took a few minutes. I let the fondant rest over night, tighly wrapped in saran, popped it into micorwave to warm up and covered cake. There was NO graininess to the fondant

here is link to the post where this orginated, it might answers any questions you might have.

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-682456.html

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Tesso! Can't wait to try this out.

Thanks again,
PianoDiva

I recommend you go to either allrecipes or epicurious or the cake mix doctor to select your recipe. For decoration, I agree that simple might be the way to go.

OMG! I decided to do something unique yet simple. Something that was individual-sized.

I baked cupcakes in ice cream cones, topped them with my chocolate fudge butter cream icing, and added sprinkles.

And I lost to a chocolate cake and a pie. I WAS ROBBED!!!

Oh well. At least I know what I made was good.

Sigh. Muggles.