The Gingersnap bakery - Homespun Gifts


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Hearth and Home Classes Community A.C.F. Bakery Tours Awards Recipes Notes of Thanks	Awards BACK	Live Action Showpiece Bronze Medal Delhi Culinary Competition October 24-25 Ann Pellegrino-The Gingersnap Bakery

	details the judges like to see	Here are some photos from the "Live Action showpiece". This is a new category offered in A.C.F. competition. It is also the first time I have competed in this category. The audience is able to interact with the chef while he/she is competing. The theme in this category was an autumn wedding cake with a minimum of three tiers. Everything except for the support dowels must be edible and must be made on site. I had three hours to complete this design.	competing in front of an audience

	covering a cake in fondant to look like a pumpkin	My cake had a picket fence at the base with "pumpkins" stacked on it from there. I carved an old wooden rolling pin to look like wood grain so when I rolled it over the fondant it looked like the wood in the picket fence. At the top was a chocolate moon. inside the moon was a silhouette of a bride and groom flying away on a broom with tin cans trailing behind. (I made my own cutter for this element) I pulled sugar to make cat tail leaves and stems. I really extended myself with many different elements like pulled sugar, poured chocolate, cake carving.

	the critique with a judge	Part of being in an A.C.F. competition is the critique. You must defend your piece to the judges as well as hear their input and criticism. This is done in front of your piers. Though I was pleased I finished this entire design I was not totally happy with some of my elements (like my pulled sugar). I was really pleased to learn so much in this competition. For starters three hours is not enough time for fondant to dry because my fence started to sag. It was also very time consuming to tint the fondant. I would have been better off painting the color on the cake and my colors would have been brighter. Overall this cake took a bronze medal...not bad for a first time!

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