Serious cakers all over the country turn their eyes to Tulsa, Oklahoma every fall, where one of the biggest cake shows in the country takes place during the Tulsa State Fair. For the past three years, I've attended in person, but this year, I decided not to go. My good friend Michele took my entries to Tulsa with her so that I could still compete without having to figure out a way to get there myself. Thanks, Michele!


I had five entries in the Professional division this year. Here they are, in ascending order of placement in the competition.



Divisional Wedding Tiered category: Cornelli and Red Roses

Tulsa Show

If this cake dummy looks familiar to you, it should - it's the one in the photography tutorial. I made this one for a cake show in the spring that I decided against going to, so I changed out the gumpaste bouquet for a smaller one and entered it. This one didn't win anything, but I knew it wouldn't. This is the one I would have been fine leaving behind had Michele not had room for it in her vehicle.



Confections category:  Trout With Fly

I admit, I think this little cake is flat-out adorable. I love the pink border, the palest pale pink roses, all of it. The judges wanted the roses to have more color to them, but they gave me a third place ribbon regardless!



Novelty category:  Mallard Duck

This was my first time entering the Chocolate! Chocolate! category, but I was inspired to go for it by Cairissy's monkey. The rules for this category state that any chocolate medium can be used, so I thought I should go for the most chocolate that I could get into it. The cake is a chocolate pound cake, covered in chocolate buttercream, and then finally covered in modeling chocolate. Everything about this entire entry is chocolate. I'm completely happy with the way it turned out, and the judges must have been, too, because I got a first place ribbon for it! Yahoooo!!

If you found this article helpful, please support me and the website by buying my cake sculpture DVD.

–Deanna

I was really, really proud of this cookie. The whopping 9" size of the cookie makes it almost a meal in itself. It's decorated in royal icing floodwork, airbrushed and then hand-painted. The fishing fly is gumpaste, tinted cornmeal and flower stamens over a small piece of wire. The judges said they thought it was nicely done, they liked the addition of the fly, and the way the board was covered, but alas, no ribbon for this one.



Holiday category:  Valentine

Cake show entries can usually be made from styrofoam dummies, but not if the cake is sculpted. In that case, they must be made from real cake in order to be assured that the design could be reproduced for a customer if need be. In a departure from my usual style, this little pound cake drake is covered in hand-painted royal icing. The wing tips and tail feathers are gumpaste. I got a second place ribbon for this one.



Chocolate! Chocolate! category:  "Um, A Little Help??"