The cake that I entered for the 2009 Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show was entitled, “The Journey begins”. My mother was born and raised in Bermuda. So, when they announced the theme “Of Sea and Shore”, I knew I wanted to make a Bermuda themed cake. The challenge was in coming up with a cake that was wedding cake appropriate but not cliche.

I thought it might be cool to make an old world map of Bermuda, so I started looking. On one of the many maps I looked at, it had written on it the phrase, “The Journey Begins”. That phrase made so much sense to me. I decided to play off of that title by making my cake represent both a physical journey as well as the journey that a couple begins on their wedding day.

In my research, I found a beautiful tall sail ship called the Spirit of Bermuda; an absolutely stunning vessel. I had to have that as part of the symbolism of the journey.

Then to incorporate Bermuda, I added tiers that had blue on half of the cake to represent water and a coral pink on the other side to tie in the beautiful pink sandy beaches of Bermuda.

I researched native flowers and decided on the Poinciana flower as my main flower. The Poinciana is a beautiful flower that grows on a tree. The entire tree is covered with these huge stunning flowers. The challenge with this flower was the extremely thin petals. I actually made several dozen flowers to ensure that I had enough that would make it safely all the way to Tulsa. I ended up with just enough to decorate my cake. They were so fragile. The other flowers I chose were the Oleander and the Bermudiana flowers.

I loved the way all of the colors of the cake came together. It reminded me so much of pictures of Bermuda that my mom had. To top it all off, I made a round stone archway known in Bermuda as a Moongate. The Moongate represents the eternal nature of marriage. I repeated the stone effect on the base of the cake.

And there you have it. My cake entry for The Oklahoma Sugar Art Show and 4th runner up.

As promised, I am going to catch up on all of the really key things that I have missed blogging about over the last year. On a personal note, I had a baby in July. That should explain my absence from the blog fairly well. However, I haven’t been absent from cakes. In October 2009, I went to Tulsa, Oklahoma. For those that haven’t read my other posts, I went to Tulsa in 2008 as well. The Grand National Wedding Cake Competition which is a part of the Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show, is the most prestigious cake decorating competition in the country. I went in 2008 for my first time and to my wonderment, I received third runner up. I hadn’t really planned on returning, but after placing so high, I felt the need to come back in 2009. I’m not sure whether it was a desire to “defend the title” or to try to prove to myself that it wasn’t just a fluke. Maybe a little of both.

The theme of the competition was “Of Sea and Shore”. It was a theme that I wasn’t as comfortable with as the last years theme. I had a hard time at the start coming up with a design that I was really happy with. Sure, I could design a hundred sea/beach themed cakes, but to come up with one that would stand out and be technically challenging as well as amazingly beautiful proved to be a challenge. It was a couple months before the competition when I finally came up with the design that I felt was good enough.

It was also a bit more difficult actually making the cake with a brand new baby. There was a lot of stress and sleepless nights, but I was determined. In the end it all paid off. I received 4th runner up this time.

It may not sound as exciting as the 3rd runner up from last year, but to be able to place two years in a row in such a big-time competition is a huge achievement. I’m going again in 2010 and I’m going for Grand! Wish me luck.

It has been a really long time since I have posted any pictures or blogs. In my defense, I have had a whole lot going on! However, when I am busiest is the best time to be blogging. So, I will try to catch up a bit. I’ll start with today though. This post won’t be so much a cake decorating post as a personal post but it relates to cakes a little bit. It worked so well, I just had to share.

My kids are young and in the process of learning to do chores. I have struggled with the process for a while because it is easier if I just do it all myself. However, there are two problems with that. First, the kids never learn to work and second, they don’t think about the messes they make because mom will clean it up. Well, this morning I had a brilliant idea!

Since my kids are totally into Ultimate Cake Off BECAUSE I WAS A COMPETITOR THIS SEASON (more on that later), I decided to make a timeline for them. Just like the one I used for the competition. I showed them the timeline (and highlighted where all of the breaks were) and told them that they needed to keep on the timeline in order to win the competition. Then I started the clock. It was amazing the amount of work they got done today…and I didn’t have to nag at them the whole time either. It was wonderful. If you’re interested in knowing how I made my chart, read on.

So, here’s how I did it. I made a chart that went in 15 minute increments. Each kid had their own chart as well as a master chart for me. I made the chores change every 15 minutes because I have young kids and they have VERY short attention spans. I also added in 15 minute breaks after every two chores. If they finished a chore before the 15 minutes were up, they got to take a break for the rest of that time.

I was actually able to get THREE HOURS worth of work out of my kids. Not to mention that they loved doing it. That is absolutely unheard of in this house. It was a lot of work for me keeping them all on task, but it wasn’t any more work than “just doing it myself”. As a reward, I gave them a movie (Pete’s Dragon). One of my favorites as a child. I don’t know if there are very many young mothers that have little Ultimate Cake Off fans. I just thought I would share, just in case.