Show Me Medals, Erm, I Mean Sweets Show

Well guys, last weekend was a TON of fun, and if you were at the Show Me Sweets Show, you know why! But if you weren't, read this post so you will want to come next year!

Now before I get too excited about this post, I want to start by saying THANK YOU to my amazing friend Zawadi for letting me fill our hotel room with all my cake supplies and competition pieces. I am NOT kidding when I say that our room was covered in tiny pieces of styrofoam. Like, we were waking up with it IN OUR HAIR. We were lucky that it was a suite, because my stuff took up a whole room. No joke. Here I am pictured with my cake friends Zawadi and Shaile!

Now moving on to the exciting part- the competitions! I was lucky enough to be selected to compete in the LIVE Cake Battle, which took place on Saturday from 10:30am-4pm. It was so fun, and so hard! It's one thing to do Cake Wars, it's another thing entirely to work on a cake, live, directly in front of people! You can see all of us to the left, Team 1 (Timbo Sullivan)

Team 2 (Jessica Phan and I)

Team 3 (Sam Lucero and Kim Hall).

Sam and Kim KILLED it, and won 1st place with their amazing piece!

My partner was Jessica Phan of Phantastic Desserts, and guys, we meshed SO well together it was insane. Literally every thought one of us had, the other was on the exact same page. I really lucked out because I was actually supposed to have a different partner that dropped out at the last minute, and I was looking at the possibility that I was going to have to do it by myself. Needless to say, I was really excited when Jessica jumped at the chance to do it with me.

Even though we didn't win, it was an amazing experience to have! I learned a lot and I will definitely be more prepared for next live cake battle!

Here is a photo of me goofing off as usual with our finished piece, Queen Sophia SoftServe! The answer to your question is "No, I could not help myself".

Now without further adieu, here are my AWARD WINNING competition pieces from the show! In addition to competing in the Live Cake Battle, I also submitted 3 other pieces: Sugar Falls (single tier celebration cake), Oopsy Daisy Garden (sugar flowers/plants), and Ruler's Treats (cupcakes, oreos, cake pops, etc). My pieces did really, really well! Sure, I encountered some problems, most notably leaving my actual cupcakes in our hotel room with NO time to go back and grab them making it so my piece for Ruler's Treats was just the cupcake toppers on a cake stand- but guys, they still placed and won me two additional medals!!

For the Sugar Falls category, my piece not only won 1st place in the Semi-Pro division, it also won Best Use of Isomalt AND Best use of Interpretation of Theme Sugar Falls!

My piece for the Oopsy Daisy Garden also won 1st Place in the Semi-Pro Division!

Lastly, for the Ruler's Treats category, my piece placed 3rd in Semi-Pro, and also landed me Best Use of Piping and Best Interpretation of Theme Ruler's Treats!

Now I'm not sure if you were counting, but that is SEVEN medals, my friends. SEVEN. I could not believe it. Honestly, I still can't really believe it. I mean, I only entered 3 categories! The moral of my story is COMPETE. Compete in every competition you can, better yourself as an artist, and learn new things! Make mistakes! The judges will give you constructive criticism to help you improve! It is so rewarding, and you will not regret it!