September 3rd and 4th are the dates for the Eastern Idaho State Fair. The fair has had a cake decorating competition for several years. It has grown quite a bit over the last couple of years and is making quite a showing in the Midwest. I was asked last year to be a judge of the competition and I will be returning this year to judge again. Along with the judging, there will be classes offered. There will be two other judges that will be teaching as well.

We are in the process of making things final and I will post the class as soon as I know the details. I do know that the class will be on the 4th of September and that it will involve gumpaste flowers. So, mark your calendars and come to the fair!

After the Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show last year, I decided that I needed to set timelines and if I didn’t reach those timelines, I would not be entering in 2010. It was a real strain on myself but more importantly a strain on my family. The last few weeks leading up to the competition were especially stressful. I didn’t want to put that kind of burden on my family again, so I set my deadlines.

The first major deadline was to have a design sketched out for my cake by the end of December. It was down to the wire, but I did it. I designed my cake and was happy with it. But going against my second deadline, I decided to sit on the design and see if I still liked it after a month. I’ve had second thoughts on it though which means I can’t do that cake. I have to be 100% on the design. I truly believe that it affects the outcome of the cake. If I’m 90% sure of the cake, I’ll end up with a cake that is 90% perfect and that’s just not good enough for the national competition. So, I decided to start again.

I’ve designed another cake and I am LOVING it. I think this is “The One”. Of course, I need to give it a little time again to see if it’s true love or just a little crush. Only time will tell. The clock is ticking though. Deadlines are looming. We’ll see if I make my deadlines from here on out.

Last night my wonderful husband very kindly reminded me that my Ultimate Cake Off competition was not really my first live competition. So, after coming out of my terrible flashback, I decided it would make a fun story for my blog. I don’t know why I am torturing myself. I guess it’s to show that everyone has their down days. Nobody is perfect and I’m the first to admit that.

First Live Competition

by Amelia Carbine

Once upon a time there was a cake artist who entered a cake in the Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show. 2008 to be exact. She did so well that she went back the next year to defend her title. A few months before the competition, she was asked to participate in a live competition. She was assured that it was a small competition, meant to be for fun and entertainment. The cake artist anxiously agreed because being chosen by the Grand Master Sugar Artist (Kerry Vincent) as one of four competitors was such an honor. What the cake artist failed to take into consideration, was that she had just recently had a beautiful baby boy who (while being an extremely good baby) required much attention.

The day came when the cake artist set off on her journey of 24 hours to the land of Tulsa with her wonderful and super supportive sister and her tiny 4 month old baby. She was behind in her work and knew that it would be a push to complete her entry into the Grand National Wedding Cake Competition. The journey went amazingly well and they arrived in good time. So the cake artist set to work to finish her masterpiece QUICKLY so she could have time to prepare for her upcoming live competition.

The cake artist worked long into the night. She was still working when the sun began to peak through her hotel window. At that moment, she knew that she had run out of time. A choice had to be made. Should she sacrifice the quality of work on her masterpiece or go into battle (live competition) unprepared? It was a hard decision to make, but she knew that the reason that she was there was to have an amazing wedding cake entry, so she chose to continue her work on the wedding cake.

After finishing her masterpiece, the cake artist hurriedly made a futile attempt to prepare for her live competition. However, the time of the competition had arrived. The cake artist sized up her fierce competitors with their amazing weapons of filled cakes and gumpaste sculptures. Then she looked at her measly weapons. Cakes- not filled, her gumpaste- untouched in it’s packaging. It would be a long, hard two hour battle.

Time started and the cake artist bravely, but solemnly, began her battle. Head down and not willing to give up, she filled and covered her cakes while the other competitors around her placed neatly made ornaments on their cakes. It was pure torture for two long hours, but finally the time was up. She had completed her cake as well as time would allow.  The cake artist was relieved that it was over and walked away from the competition knowing that she had failed miserably. And on top of the embarrassment, she forgot to gather her consolation prize of a very nice three tiered cake stand.

But she learned from her mistakes and got a small taste of what live competitions are all about which helped her in competing in a much bigger battle where she faired quite a bit better.

And she lived Happily Ever After!

THE END

This will be very short since I just posted. I just noticed that the Meet the Teams page on the Ultimate Cake Off website has been updated. There is a great picture of me and my amazing team on there. Go check it out!

We did it! Our show aired last night. I was so anxious and nervous before it aired. All day long I played the competition out in my head and thought about everything that happened and everything that was said. I was so curious to find out what parts were included in the final cut.

The show turned out amazingly well! I am so happy about the way we were portrayed. Out of 9 hours, I’m sure there were plenty of goof-ups and silly things that we did. I’m sure that the final show could have been much less flattering. But as it was, I felt like they showed the real events of the competition and emphasized the things that really were as they were. Great Job TLC and whoever it was that edited the show.

Ok. Enough about the editing… lets talk competition! A lot happens in 9 hours! And that’s not even including the preparation before or the aftermath. Here are some behind the scenes things that weren’t shown that might be interesting to read about.

• I got a phone call 2 weeks before the competition and was asked if I could compete. Normally, contestants are given a bit more notice… not the case here. When all of the deciding and traveling was added into the picture, we had pretty much one week to prepare for this extreme competition. When we got there, we were met by everyone telling us how brave we were to take on something so huge in so little time. I think we were a little crazy to take it on, but how do you say no to such a huge opportunity?

• With us being so pressed for time, we actually didn’t bring all of our own cake. We ordered it through a company in California. I won’t say much because my mother taught me to be nice… but the cake was terrible and it was very difficult to work with. We struggled a lot with that awful cake which put us back on the clock quite a bit. But, being the skilled decorators that we are, we were able to work through that fiasco.

• When it was time for the piping skills test I was nervous. I was going up against years of experience. If you watch the show and look closely at each of my tiers, I tried to tie the borders together by using a star tip and round tip alternately throughout the tiers. It was not just a test to see how many borders we could think of but having an overall pleasing look. After the test was complete and I saw the work of the others compared to mine, I knew I had won that test.

• About the wires! My husband was the man behind the wires and in his defense, the wires were long enough. We just made the fatal mistake of pulling the wire too far through the bottom end of the cake and then we taped it to the shaft. The structure worked perfectly. Just one small oversight… and hundreds of cake pounds later, it was a catastrophe.

• You may think that showing the final minutes as rushing to the finish is just silly and drama. Well, it may be for some, but for us I think they mellowed it out. At about an hour left in the competition, we didn’t even have half of our tiers stacked. After the issue with our wiring, we had to just kick it into high gear and get about 6 tiers of cake stacked, finish piping the details that we didn’t get put on before like we had planned, put on all of the flowers, pipe all the borders…. what else? It was a circus act in the last 10 minutes. We were climbing over each other on the ladders, running circles around the cake… we were everywhere. But we did it!

So now that you know a little more, here is a picture of our sketch along with a picture of the final cake. I think it turned out so amazingly beautiful. My team was amazing and I am so proud of us for pulling it together.

So I don’t think that I will make a habit of posting on weekends. I like to get a break. But I guess when there’s something fun to write about, why not?

First, I just wanted to say thanks for all of you wonderful students that made my class so fun. I had a great time and I hope you all had fun too. It was nice to see some familiar faces as well as a lot of new ones. I just love what I do. I get to play with sugar and hang out with really cool people. Who wouldn’t like that?

Also, I was informed that the write-up for my Ultimate Cake Off Episode has been posted on the TLC website. It’s a pretty fun write-up and I am SO excited to be able to watch the show in TWO DAYS! Go check out the write-up and be sure to tune in on Monday (March 22nd). It will be “the most intense Ultimate Cake Off ever!”

To read about my episode, scroll to the bottom to Episode 8!

I didn’t plan well today. I published my post this morning not thinking about the fact that I had an article coming out in the Logan Herald Journal today. I couldn’t pass up posting about this, so today we get two posts. Here’s a link to the Herald Journal Article. I really enjoyed reading it and I think that the writer, Lael Gilbert, did a wonderful job. The article touches on my feature on TLC’s Ultimate Cake off as well as my “Journey Begins” cake that won 4th runner up at OSSAS 2009. Check it out.

The TLC website has just posted some application videos. Here is a link to my video.

Man did I have a time getting that video made. It gave me a whole new appreciation for videographers. I had issues with camcorders, issues with sounds, and issues with trying to add in a few pictures. Not to mention, the major task of getting it all onto my computer and burned onto a disk. I dealt with major compatibility problems. I am an artist not a director/technician (whatever the title may be that deals with all of that). Thank goodness for that.

Regardless of lack of expertise, I know how to smile and look pretty. So I think it turned out fairly well. Take a look at the video and remember to watch my episode on Monday the 22nd at 9/8 central. Yes! They changed the time. So, I believe that Utah time would make it 7:00pm. I’ll make sure and let everyone know before it airs.

Today a local news paper reporter is coming to interview me for an upcoming article. Why you ask? Because I was chosen as a contestant on TLC’s Ultimate Cake Off.

Several months ago, I was contacted by the Ultimate Cake Off Casting Crew. They were interested in having me apply for their show. So, I applied and waited. Well, my big day came. I was chosen, and competed against some wonderful and talented decorators. I can’t say much about it until after it airs. What I can say is that we had a blast! My team was made up of myself and three assistants. They were Paula Ames of Cake Creations in Idaho, Lynn Winter of Sugar Bakers in Idaho, and Susan Fox of Midway Country Corner in Midway, Utah. What wonderful women I had to work with. They were great and we had such a fun time. That’s the most important thing with competitions; that we enjoy ourselves and stay true to who we are. Winning doesn’t hurt though.

I really can’t say much more than that. You’ll have to watch and see what happens! The show airs on March 22nd @10/9 central. That’s 8:00 Utah time on TLC. I promise it will be entertaining!