So I'd like to enter our state fair this year. I know there are several categories, but I'm really not sure what to enter. There's no real "theme" or anything like that - at least not that I know of. The cakes I saw there last year weren't all that spectacular - there were two that stood out - one person did the Debbie Brown Enchanted Tree - and one person did a "fair food" stand - w/ mini pocorn, corndogs, funnel cakes, etc. That won best of show.
There's bridal, birthday, and novelty. There's a "special foreign technique" category - but it's only for semi-professionals meaning you've sold cakes for profit. Since I'm not legal yet and just "selling" to family & friends, I don't want to put myself in that category. 
But I don't know if then you can't use fondant on the cakes for figures or flowers or whatever....if you're not in the semi-professional or professional categories.....
So my worries/ questions are
1) - what on earth theme do I pick? Should I just pick a cake I like out of a book and copy it?
2) I've never done a dummy before!
3) should I use buttercream (all crisco version) or fondant?
Hi,
I don't know about where you live but here in AZ, they have an exhibitors handbook that lists exactly what is and isn't allowed for decorated cakes. Well, I should say they list what is expected so if it's not listed, I say it's ok to use it. Your State Fair should have an entry form and /or handbook that lists what is allowed.
There wasn't any theme for ours either so I just did whatever I wanted. There are categories like you mentioned: holidays, wedding, birthday, misc, etc. So I picked misc because I just made a cake that didn't really fall into any specific category.
I used dummies frosted in buttercream but made fondant accents. I would not recommend picking a cake out of a book or copying someone else's for two reasons. First because you never know if the judges would recognize it and second because it's just fun to make your own creation. That being said, I took ideas from several cakes ( different decorators) and combine them to make my own design.
On the dummies, I just frost them with buttercream directly on the styrofom with no problem. Our Fair runs for an entire month and I had no problem with the buttercream holding up that long. However, the colors did start to fade. I use an all Crisco buttercream but omitted the flavoring just because nobody was going to eat it and I figured there was no need to add that expense.
Hope that helps.
KimAZ
Hmm they have a book that outlines what the different categories are - and says if you're entering the "taste" ones, you can't use a mix..... and they say what qualifies you to enter different categories - other than that, I think it's a pretty low-key affair..... like I said, no spectacular cakes or anything like that......
One more question - with the taste contests - exactly what qualifies you to enter? Do you have to make up a recipe from scratch? Or could you take the recipe off the back of a bag of choc. chips, add some more vanilla & nutmeg, and all of a sudden you have your own recipe??
I did one for our county fair a couple years ago. I used a cake dummy, iced it in all-Crisco buttercream and decorated it with fondant and chocolate accents (big mistake!).
Don't use any chocolate. If the room that the cake is stored in is not cooled (like mine was) any of it will melt! You can see in my photos the cake before and after (the farm scene w/ pigs).
Make sure accents are secure and won't fall over. Make sure that if it has fondant on it that no one sticks it in the refridgerator (like someone did to mine, hoping it would help the melting chocolate problem!)
I am doing it again this year, and our fair does have a theme. I did check KY's state fair site and it doesn't say anything. I guess the sky's the limit then! I like to stick to fair-related decor. The theme for ours this year is "Up, up, and away". I am going to do a basic bottom cake (dummy), then make a ferris wheel (cupcakes, got idea from Wilton cupcake book) with fondant farm animals in all the cupcakes. Just to give you an idea. Whatever you do have fun with it!
So what kind of fondant do you use for this? Do you just make MMF? I just don't want to spend a ton of money on this.....
Also, what do people do at cake shows when they want to do a sculpted cake? Or something that isn't "round" or "square"? Do they carve the styrofoam somehow? Or do they use real cake?
I want to do something impressive - but I don't really want to do something that looks like a wedding cake...I'd like to do something cool and different.... I'm just really clueless... that's why I thought of doing one out of a book - which I may still do.... but like a lot of Debbie's cakes are sculpted... I can't get styrofoam to look like that......
hey, its easier to get styrofoam to look like that than it is a real cake!
Good luck either way ... I'm off to check on my county fair!
not sure if you've looked into this more, but i think the fondant is only allowed in the foreign techniques category. my mom is in louisville, and she is entering a quilt in the state fair. i was looking through the book they give out to exibotors, and in the cake deco section they listed fondant as a foreign technique. anyway, i would call them up and make sure you can use fondant in the other categories. good luck!
Ugh our fair is so lame. I've tried e-mailing several times and it seems like there is just a "general" person who answers the e-mails. They didn't answer any of my questions about using fondant or entering categories or even if you have to "create" a recipe for the taste contests from scratch - they just said to look at the rulebook. Guess what - the rulebook isn't so detailed. I don't know who to go to for these questions. They didn't list anyone to contact about it and I have no idea who the judges might be
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%