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"That Takes the Cake!"
Looking for more photos from our recent show? We collect visitor photos in our Flickr pool each year. This year’s link is here:
Pools from previous years:
The 8th Annual “That Takes The Cake”
Sugar Art Show & Cake Competition
February 25th – 26th, 2012
Austin, Texas
The 2012 Show Theme:
Cake-a-lot: Knights of the Turn Table
All things Renaissance!
I think most people would agree that 2012 was our best show yet! Capital Confectioners would like to thank all our guests, vendors, sponsors, instructors, judges and volunteers for making that happen. We’ve heard so many positive comments from our attendees, we’re all still glowing! Now that we’ve had a few days to recover, we’d love to share our experiences.
Volunteers
This event could not be a success without our small army of dedicated volunteers who put in so much time, love, and care into making this one of the best cake shows in the nation. Club and non-club members, local and not-so-local people … we love you all! Thank you so much for giving your time and talents.
Vendors
We are very fortunate to have such a variety of cake-related vendors attend our show. We hope our attendees loaded up on goodies and toys!
Raffles
Speaking of goodies, who went home with all the raffle prizes I wanted?!? There were so many wonderful items this year, I’m sure everyone had a hard time choosing which to put their tickets in.
Classes
If a meteor hit Austin, the cake world would be devastated! We had so many talented instructors bring their tips and tricks to our show. We hope you enjoyed the many available mini and celebrity classes with world-famous sugar art instructors.
On-site Events
2012 featured our first Texas Cake Club Challenge! We invited teams of 2 from Texan cake clubs to compete in a Royal Wedding themed on-site event. This year showcased the Dallas Cake Club, Friendly Frosters (Lubbock), and our own Capital Confectioners. Each team had 3 hours to create a wedding cake fit for a king! The special twist was that each team got the assistance of a local Connally High School student with remarkable experience in cake decorating.
The Celebrity Panel Demonstration on Sunday featured Mike McCarey, Lauren Kitchens, Marina Sousa, Jay Qualls, James Rosselle, Roland and Marsha Winbeckler. The Panel theme this year was “Cake Wrecks to Sunday Sweets”. Each demonstrator was challenged to take a popular cake from Cake Wrecks and show the audience how to turn it into a fabulous looking cake.
Tasting Competition
Our special sponsor for 2012 was King Arthur Flour. Winners of our tasting competition enjoyed several prizes including gift certificates to purchase King Arthur Flour products. Competition categories included: birthday cakes, cupcakes, Renaissance cakes, and cookie.
Best of Tasting Competition
Angela Pineda
Divisional Competition
We had over 300 competition entries this year! Here are the “Best of Division” winners:
Best of Division: Teen
Evelyn Santos
Best of Division: Culinary Student
Shana Newell
Best of Division: Adult Beginner
Natalie Elliott
Best of Division: Adult Intermediate AND
Best of Divisional Competition (overall)
Palma Felicias Iacobellis
Best of Division: Adult Advanced
Diana Parrish
Best of Division: Professional
Joy Iverson
Best of Division: Masters
Michelle Foster
Show Cakes
There were so many exciting Show Cakes this year.
Show Cakes: 3rd Place
Sylvia Wilson
Show Cakes: 2nd Place
Burton Farnsworth
Show Cakes: 1st Place
Elizabeth Rowe
You can view all of this year’s winners on our slide show here:
https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=ddfwq3tp_7gw7hgxf8
Hope you had a great time! We’re excited to announce next year’s theme:
Cake to the Air
All Clear for Cake Off!
I happened to be looking for something else on CraftGossip and accidentally lingered looking at some lovelies. So even though I rarely have time to post Quick Bites anymore (since they turned out not to be very quick on my end!), here are a few gems:
- How to make clever tulip-shaped cake pops by Strawberry Chic.
- Operation Game cookies by Oh,Sugar! Events. (And yes, for those who saw the great Burton Farnsworth at our cake show in Austin last weekend wearing an Operation Game shirt, I just emailled him about these cookies!)
- An epic peacock cupcake by No Ordinary Cake. Indeed!
We got a note from Photofrost to let us know about their cake decorating contest, so if any of you are interested, the details are here:
http://photofrost.com/contest/
And of course don’t forget to register to enter a cake in our cake show! You can also enroll for classes online or buy general admission tickets now, all at http://thattakesthecake.org. Our deadline for competition registration is February 19 with no unregistered entries accepted at the door this year, so sign up soon!
A week from today, Capital Confectioners will be hosting our monthly meeting. This time we’ll be focusing on organizing volunteers for our colossal cake show at the end of February.
So if you’re in the Austin area and want to help at the show – which can earn you some spiffy perks if you put in enough hours – come to this meeting and let us know who you are and what you want to do.
We will also have volunteer sign-up forms on the website soon, but what’s really important about next Tuesday’s meeting is getting more people involved in leadership roles. We want to meet you, discuss your strengths and expertise, and help you find the best and most fun ways you can help us. (Update: The web link for the volunteer form is here, so please fill in your available times asap even if you’re going to discuss specifics at the meeting).
What sort of things need to be done? Lots, including but certainly not limited to: set up and break down, competitor registration and management, hospitality, vendor care, supply management, event/class management and assistance, kids table help, general public management (including guarding cakes against poking fingers), and more. It takes a small army of volunteers to run one of the nation’s largest sugar arts shows!
If you’ve volunteered before, you still should come if you can, because we’re making changes to how perks are earned and other details.
Remember: the coolest volunteer jobs go to the most dedicated, long-term volunteers! For instance, getting to be the assistant at a celebrity class is something we reserve for someone who has also put in tons of hours doing other stuff. So come on out and join our team to not only put on the best cake show ever, but get your own fun slice too!
The meeting is 7 pm, Tuesday January 10, in the conference room at the back of the IHOP by Zilker Park (1101 S Mo Pac Expy, Austin, TX). Further details and RSVP are here. If you’re not already a member of the club, you may need to create an account here first.
We don’t require dues for the first meeting or two. You can definitely check us out for free first! So if you’re keen to volunteer for the show but not necessarily commit to being a club member all year, that’s fine. Come to the Tuesday meeting anyway. We’re happy to have you for what time you can share!
Early Contestant Registration for That Takes The Cake 2012 is now open online!
http://thattakesthecake.org/index.php/competition/registration/
Registration before February 19, 2012 is now required (except for Child & Junior division entries) to help us plan space needs. One registration fee includes all general competition entries for each participant. Competition registration includes General Admission to the show for the weekend for the competitor. Competition registration for entrants under 18 includes General Admission for the competitor and one accompanying adult. There will be no refunds of entry or registration fees. Entry fees for Child and Junior are waived, but registration prior to the show is encouraged.
Divisional Competition
Early Registration (ends January 15, 2012): $20
General Registration (ends February 19, 2012): $25
Child (12 & under) Registration (ends February 19, 2012) or at the door (February 25, 2012): FREE
Showcake Competition
For each 48″w x 29″h round table (ends February 19, 2012): $25
Tasting Competition
Any number of entries * (ends February 19, 2012): $15
*Entry fee is waived when combined with a Divisional or Showcake Competition entry.
If you’ve never decorated cakes with little kids, you should. Give them the tools and let them go nuts with creativity and they will both impress and amuse you. Give them instructional guidance when they request it, but for the most part, stand back and let them go with their own flow. Sometimes they’ll develop new techniques right before your eyes, doing something you always thought was “impossible”.
They’ll come up with elaborate narratives, crazy amounts of detail, and mind-blowing concepts. And with most of them, about three solid inches of icing if they can get away with it.
Our club has recently started a roving version of the kids’ decorating table we feature at our show every year, so if you know of an Austin-area event that would appreciate having a cupcake decorating table, let us know! Ideally we’d like to charge a buck a cupcake to raise funds for our club.
Here are some photos of our grand day at the Austin Family Music Festival:
Kyla, Leslie, and Gwen help some older kids create their masterpieces.
Kyla and Ellen smile at little boys enjoying piles of icing.
Poof! Cupcakes gone before I could turn the camera on!
An impressive pile of icing squiggles!
CUPCAAAAAAAAAKE!
We’re working on starting a Family Club soon, so if you’re interested, be sure to leave a comment letting us know. In the meantime, I just posted the cake my five-year-old (a member of Capital Confectioners!) made for her Daddy’s birthday and in the next few days will post the results of the classes I volunteered to teach some middle-schoolers. I find it endlessly rewarding to cake decorating with kids and I hope these joyous photos inspire you to give it a try if you haven’t already!
Plus remember that kids can enter cakes in our annual show for free! 12 and under all get a little reward, and 13-17 year olds compete for awesome prizes! So if you know a young decorator, be sure to encourage them to participate in the 2012 show. You’ll see a lot more posts about that as it gets closer. Stay tuned!
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