My Entry in the CT Cake Competition 2012

Alright, I've been posting over the past couple of days about the "mystery cake" I entered in the CT Cake Competition last weekend... time to unveil my creation!  I'm sure you will all be very underwhelmed, lol!

Now, I had very grand plans for this cake... but I simply did not have the time to pull it together due to other obligations last week... But I did win a 3rd place ribbon... so here it is (insert drum roll, please...)

So this is my little cake, sitting between two, much larger, tiered cakes at the competition with my pretty yellow ribbon :)  Let me just say that I really don't like the way I placed the flowers (Lily of the Valley) around the middle tier!  Besides just looking ridiculous, I am embarrassed that the judges though I would have put flower wires directly into the cake!  I would NEVER do that, just FYI... if the wires were to be placed into the cake, I would insert straws first, so the wires would not touch cake... OMG, I was so embarrassed!  This was a "dummy" cake, so I didn't think I needed to insert straws into the stryofoam... also... I was exhausted from lack of sleep, tired from a stressful drive to my mother's house in Connecticut and just ready to be done with the cake!  So I literally just stuck them in and went to bed, haha! 

Okay, I'm not trying to make excuses for my work... I am happy to have gotten a 3rd place ribbon... but I wanted to let everyone know why I changed the flower placement for the pictures I took!  I want to be able to add this cake to my portfolio and the way it was I just did not want photographic evidence of it, haha!  So here are some additional pictures of my cake, looking a little better!

The fondant was kind of a light lavender...

The band on the middle tier was embossed with one of those cross-stitch plastic form things!

I used brush embroidery to give a "fern" motif to the tiers

And going for a "New England wild-flower" theme, I added some stems of Lily of the Valley (they may look simple, but you have to make a lot of them!)

Overall, this cake is just not what I had intended and I think my point just did not come across... But in the end I think I have a "pretty" cake, that after making a few adjustments, I can add to my cake portfolio!

I know one thing, after seeing the amazing cakes at the show (you can see my post from yesterday if you want to see some of the pictures I got), I am excited and inspired for next years competition!

Happy Caking :)