After much anticipation..... ta da!
My final design featured isomalt gems and board, gum paste flowers: 60 hydrangea, 80 stephanotis, 25 fully blown roses, 5 rose buds, 1 mid size rose, 16 dendrobium orchids and assorted rose and hydrangea leaves. There were also some fondant pearls and string-work, as well as a 50-50 paste bow and brooch.
From the bottom up, my flavors were: cream cheese pound cake with amaretto cream, chocolate blackout cake with espresso truffle filling and chambord syrup, butter cake with white chocolate raspberry cream, and another chocolate blackout cake on the top.
Finally had the competition yesterday-- I'm still exhausted and I feel like my head is going to explode. :oP I was pretty happy with my cake overall except that I wanted the tiers to be blacker and squarer.
My friend Prem came over before the show and took a bunch of really great quality pictures for me.
Then I had to transport this beast...
Unfortunately, my seats in my car aren't completely flat (though I tried to compensate a little with some extra foam), but in the 90 degree weather, things slid a little bit. I also had to take off my top tier and carry it separately so that everything would fit through the door, and it slid a little bit in its box and destroyed its ribbon around the bottom. So when I set up, my cake looked like it was leaning and that ribbon was just a disaster.
I fixed things as best I could (my friends swore that the table was sagging and that was contributing to the leaning issue) and then I just had to walk away because I was so frustrated. If I hadn't been so tired, I would have thought to shim the cake board under the front left corner, and I think everything would have been much better. Now I know.
This event was soooo long. I set up @2:45, judging started at 4, and they didn't announce the winners till 8! I was STARVING! And sleep-deprived, and tired of standing by my leaning cake...
One thing that I find frustrating is that I wonder if I even understood the 'rules'. I put rules in quotations because their rules consisted of a couple sentences saying that you had to have at least a 10" base with variable height. Totally edible, cakes and cupcakes in any combination. 'Creative Wedding Cake and Cupcake Competition.' Okay, from that I take away 'I need to make a wedding cake with at least a 10" base, and I'm welcome to use cupcakes as well'. Until one of the judges came up me and asked where my cupcakes were. Ummmm..... ????? Seeing as how the winner and runner up both had cupcakes in their designs, I wonder if I completely missed the mark on my design. Unfortunately, I didn't get score sheets, so I really don't know what the verdict was.
After judging was completed, I was overwhelmed with people wanting slices of my cake. And my mother suggested bringing boxes for the slices, which turned out to be brilliant! People loved my cake and loved more that I could package it in an easy-to-carry mini cake box for them. When I was fast enough, I put on little 'Cakes by Roxanne' stickers, designed by my wonderful Aunt Carol. All in all, it was a big success.
Now I just need to clean up my poor apartment.
And I'll be sticking to much smaller projects for the foreseeable future. ;)
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