I've decided that I will be entering a cake for the San Diego Cake Club competition that's coming up in March. I will be entering into the Amateur division. I'm doing it mainly for fun, but also for experience and practice.

So what do I need to know? How can I best prepare for the competition? I will be using dummies, and have decided that I will take a try at making a wedding cake. I have not made a wedding cake before, but I'm comfortable with the techniques that I plan to use for the design.

So if there are competition veterans out there, what advice can you offer me??

TIA!

No advice, just sending good juju your way!

Here is a link to some competition information I wrote a while back.
http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopic-603734-0.html
Although it was written with the Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show in mind, the ideas hold true for most cake competitions.

I'll try to answer any other questions you might have.

Michele

No problem. I hope the information is useful. Mostly, I hope you do very well!

Best of luck to you.

Michele

Sugarflowers' link really is it. I can't think of anything to add to what she wrote in the thread.

Remember to have fun too! That's the reason you're doing it

I've entered 7 or 8 competitions in the past 3.5 years and sometimes forget it's supposed to be fun, lol.

Ok, read sugarflower's post again......

* Make sure you read over the rules of the competition and follow them - big points off for breaking rules

* Even if you KNOW what was wrong with your cake, always ask the judge (or judges) what you could have done better (don't ask "why didn't I win"). I didn't do this in my first competition, and regret it to this day.

* Spend the time you need to make it as perfect as you can. You are using dummies, and the competition isn't until March. That gives you at least 4 months to prepare your entry.

* If you don't win first place, take the judges comments and suggestions in mind, and see if you can fix up your entry and enter it into another cake competition. Most will allow it as long as the cake has not won first place, and was originally entered within a year.

I think that's all that comes to mind.

Good luck!!!!

One thing that I have learned...

If you are using styro and the cake is "floating" above another cake so you can see under it, make sure it is on a board. You must treat the styro as real cake. you will get points off for this.

Also, even styro can be not level after you ice and fondant. MAKE SURE. use a level at each step. if you are doing a tilted cake, make sure it looks deliberate, not accidental.

This should go without saying, but you would be surprised...make sure you cant see any wires in your flowers.

Good luck. (by the way, try to have fun...but be careful...it is addicting to compete)

That's a very good point about using cake boards under stryrofoam. When judging, I have commented on this on the judging sheets. I completely forgot about it when I was writing up the information.

Thanks for adding this and the other good ideas as well.

Michele