Holy Cow...We Won a Bronze Medal!?!?

Shocked. Absolutely shocked. My teammate Margaret and I weren't expecting to win anything at the American Culinary Federation/ Ben E. Keith Culinary Competition, yet we somehow walked away with a bronze medal. This is the first time either of us has ever worked on a cake beyond an ordinary sheet cake, so this was a huge surprise. It was a fantastic ending to our crazy cake competition adventure.

Although we were proud of our personal accomplishment, we couldn't help but laugh at how amateur it seemed. Especially when we arrived at the competition and saw several gorgeously polished cakes worthy of any wedding or special event. Our poor little cake looked fine from a distance, but up close it was a little rough around the edges, asymmetrical in places and could use some polishing. Yep, it was definitely a student cake. We felt just a tad embarrassed placing our cake between such stunning confections of perfection. The contrast had us laughing hysterically for quite some time and left us wondering what on earth were we doing there?!?

To make matters worse, our "little cake that could" didn't quite survive the almost three hour road trip to Conroe unscathed. At some point it rolled off the cake pedestal it was sitting on and got some minor nicks, dents and scratches from bumping the side of the box it was in. The cake was still intact and presentable, but after that it looked even rougher than it did before it weeble-wobbled in the back of the van. We were all riding in a second van that followed the cake vehicle and we joked that if they hit the brakes hard enough, we would see a big, gold ball go SPLAT in the back window. So glad that didn't happen! Oh, there were so many good laughs — many at our poor little cake's expense  — during this whole adventure. Good times!

Our pastry class did a stellar job at the competition bringing home two bronze medals and two silvers. Quite an amazing feat considering that we've only been in culinary school just over two months and haven't even started learning about cakes yet! They were a great group to work with — extremely talented and very supportive of one another. I feel very lucky to be working such a good-hearted group and it bodes well for the future of pastry arts.