Cake Fever

This month must be cake month because I feel as though I am surrounded by cakes. This whole school salon competition is really starting to seem like a big deal. It's just weird to have competitions in something that to me is more of a passion than a need to win. I mean sure I want to be the best at what I do but having to be judged on it...it's creepy. I'm all for criticism to better my work, but it seems as though the grades are based on the judges preferences. For example, if they prefer that the cherry blossoms on my cake should be white instead of pink then I get graded down. So needless to say, it is a little stressful.

Today we practiced decorating for salon and there were a couple of things that I need to fix. I didn't add enough milk to my buttercream so it was a little uneasy to spread. My cake needs to be taller so I need to double the recipe. Other than that everything else seemed to go quite smoothly.

This is the simplified version of my salon cake that I have sketched up. I didn't have time today to do the whole marzipan border on the base of the cakes so I just did some royal icing designs. The cherry blossoms also are done in icing.

All in all it turned out decent. The car was a little too hot for the cake so the buttercream slid around a little bit and one of the blossoms fell off. I really need to get everything prepped before the day of the salon otherwise I will go crazy. I'm not joking either. I was told the judging takes at least 3 hours. What am I gonna do for 3 hours??????? That just does not sound like fun. Oh well...once in a life time right? Hopefully I walk away with at least a decent grade and an award (that's dreaming high).