I am thinking of entering the National Cake Show in Birmingham. I am less intimidated as I can enter the novice class however terrified that my cake wouldnt be good enough and then scared that may but me off doing anymore cakes, oooooo what to decide

I just looked at your awesome cakes, Jayne, and I say GO FOR IT!!!!

[quote="mamawrobin"]

Quote:

Originally Posted by metria

i think it's nice that some competitions allow you to use dummies. it's hard to get on a plane with a real cake...or drive 4 hours with cake that you'll have to assemble in your hotel room w/ little equipment.[/quote

Of course. I understand why it's allowed to use dummies. I'm just saying that I wouldn't be interested in entering a contest of that kind.

I get both sides of this...I plan to use dummies so that I can enter more than one cake next year. This past year I did use a real, filled, buttercream-under-the-fondant cake for my entry but it limited me as far as time (I have a full time job).

...But, that being said, isn't part of cake decorating being able to construct a nicely leveled cake? And one with no bulges and bumps? Dummies are already perfectly level and smooth, aren't they?

As a competitor, I can say that I enter the competitions to challenge myself. To see what I could do. I don't enter to win. One should never enter fully expecting to win. Of course, it's a great perk and there's nothing wrong with shooting for the win, but if you don't win, don't go home mad. You're doing it to challenge yourself and get critique from some of the bigger names in the industry.

I agree with some of the cakes feeling sterile. They're soooooo perfect they look fake. In a real world, so many of the cakes wouldn't really look like that.

One of the things at The Art of the Cake in Cleveland (I'm one of the directors) is "Most Artistic". This is a completely, highly prized, award. It is not based on the technical components of the cake, but strictly the artistic value of it. The only way technical scores come in is in the case of a tie. We have certified master artists judge the cakes, not cake decorators. So a 'sterile' cake may win the overall wedding prize, however it may not take Most Artistic.

Another thing AOC does is encourage creativity and out of the box cakes. We want the strangs, the unique, the colorful. Many other shows don't necessarily go after that unless it's in divisional.

We also pay prizes for the top 3 in each division, where as some of the other shows are no longer doing divisional prizes except for best of division and best of show.