2023 Johnson County Fair: Cherry Contest and Summary

First, let's talk about the Cherry Contest.

Every year at the Johnson County Fair there is a baking contest on Tuesday and every year there is a different theme. This year's theme was Cherry. There are four categories: Cookies, Breads, Pies and Miscellaneous. You can enter one item in each category.

Most years when I enter this contest I enter an item in each category. This year I just wasn't feeling it. I really couldn't find a cookie recipe that thrilled me. I felt like a cherry thumbprint cookie was too cliche. There were TONS of recipes using maraschino cherries. My opinion is that a maraschino cherry is an artificial rendition of a cherry and I couldn't bring myself to use one of those recipes. I just plain didn't feel like entering a pie.

What I was most interested in was a Bakewell tart. This is a traditional British recipe named after the town of Bakewell. It usually has a short pastry crust, followed by a layer of raspberry jam, then a layer of almond frangipane - which is ground almonds with sugar and eggs. All of this sounds delicious and the tart can also be made with cherries instead of raspberries. My concern though was that there wouldn't be enough cherry flavor to shine through as the bulk of the tart was almond frangipane. Plus, I wasn't sure which category it would go in. Pies? The scant amount of cherry jam was no comparison to a pie. Probably Miscellaneous...  however I wanted to compete a cake in this category.

I decided though that I could make the tart and cut it into bars and compete it as a bar cookie. I made a practice tart. It came out fine but tasted way too sweet and not enough cherry. I then decided I could add drained frozen tart cherries to the jam layer, thus cutting the sweetness and increasing the cherry flavor.

For the cake, I settled on a strawberry cake recipe I had made in the past - it actually won the Strawberry Contest in 2015 - but used frozen sweet cherries and cherry gelatin instead of strawberry. This was the only recipe that went according to plan.

For Breads, I became fixated on making focaccia after I came across a Cherry Prosciutto Focaccia recipe. It sounded wonderful and it would be unique because it would be savory instead of sweet. I made it with a sprinkle of goat cheese and also made a Cherry Balsamic Reduction to drizzle over the top after baking. It was freaking awesome! The only problem was... you couldn't taste the cherry. It tasted like prosciutto. I then found a Cherry Almond Focaccia recipe and decided to go with that.

I baked everything on the Monday before the contest. I made the Cherry Bakewell Bars first. When I took it out of the oven I could see that the top was jiggling all over the place on the cherry layer on the bottom. I figured things would firm up as it cooled so I set it aside and made the cake.

Cake baked without a problem.

I made the yeast dough for the focaccia. It felt super wet. The focaccia though is a high hydration no knead dough anyway so I tried not to worry about it.

I then made the whipped buttercream for the cake and started decorating the cake. It was so hot in my kitchen by now that I kept having to put everything back in the fridge every time I had to refill the icing bag because the buttercream was melting to the point where it wouldn't hold any detail. I think I fought with the buttercream for about 2 hours, then figured out I didn't have enough to finish the top. My husband was out running errands so I texted him to pick up some fresh cherries and I finished the cake with fresh cherries.

Back to the Bakewell Bars. They had cooled so I put a thin layer of icing on top and then put them in the refrigerator to set up. 

The focaccia dough had risen beautifully but was still super wet. I poured it out on a baking sheet and made a series of folds for structure and set it out to rise again. I actually then repeated this whole process two more times before putting the toppings on and baking it. It baked in a 13" x 9" pan. I kept checking it and the bread part just didn't look done. I finally pulled it out after 45 minutes though because the cherries and almonds on top looked practically burnt. I thought the whole thing looked like hell. 

I then pulled the Bakewell Bars out of the refrigerator and cut them. The layer of cherry filling oozed out. There was no way you could pick this bar up and eat it like a cookie. You needed a spoon. I chucked the whole tray on the baking rack to deal with later. I decided cookies weren't happening. I'm not bringing this disaster to a competition.

Tuesday morning I got up and looked at the focaccia again. I didn't want to bring a subpar product because I wasn't competing for a ribbon; I was competing to win. I usually show the entire product in competition but there is an option to show a quarter of your product. I decided to cut the focaccia and brought the most presentable part. This is part of what I left at home...

The way the Cherry Contest is judged, there are three judges. They start by having each judge sample different entries in a category. It is open judging and each judge will comment on the item they are judging, then give it either a blue, red or white ribbon - meaning everyone will get a placement of some sort. After the category is finished, all three judges will then go over all the blue ribbon placings and decide on six Honorable Mentions, a Reserve Champion and a Champion for the category. After all the categories are judged, they will then pick a Grand Champion from the four category Champions.

Tuesday I met my friend Jennifer at the fairgrounds. Jennifer is a phenomenal baker and had an entry in each category... and she had made a Cherry Bakewell Tart exactly like you were supposed to make a Bakewell tart. She had it entered in the Miscellaneous category. And let me tell you, the minute I saw her tart, I knew she was going to win it all.

The Miscellaneous category was judged first. The judge that got my cake commented that the cake was basically perfect. She couldn't find a single thing wrong with it, but she also didn't rave about it either. She gave it a blue. Then it was time to announce the category winners. I suddenly got that pounding feeling in my chest - that feeling that had been missing for the last several years - and that was when I knew, competing, I wanted to do this again. I held my breath as they announced each honorable mention winner. I knew I would get an award; question was how high. If I didn't get an honorable mention, it would be reserve champion or champion. My name was announced as the last honorable mention. Jennifer won the category.

Breads were judged last. Quite honestly I think breads are the most difficult category and I could tell right away that many of the entries were not technically good. Mine at least was technically good... and my judge actually liked it. I ended up with a blue and another Honorable Mention.

Jennifer ended up winning it all with her Bakewell Tart. I guess the lesson here is not to over think things.

As for the rest of my items, this is how they fared...

Chocolate Espresso Stout Cake
First, Other Cakes
Class Champion Cakes
Reserve Grand Champion Baked Goods

Loaded Potato Rolls

First, Fancy Dinner Rolls

Class Champion Yeast Breads

Flower Cupcakes
First, Decorated Cupcakes
Class Champion Decorated Cakes

Brown Sugar Sweet Potato Cornbread
First, Other Quick Bread

Coconut Stuffed Fudge Brownies
First, Brownies

Sweet Potato Spice Cake
First, 2-Layer Spice Cake

Caramelized Onion and Parmesan Biscuits
Second, Baking Powder Biscuits

Coffee Toffee Cookies
Second, Cutout Cookies

Molasses Cookies
No Placing

Mandalove Shawl
First, Crochet Shawl
Reserve Champion Crochet

Cherry Pie Beret
First, Crochet Hat

Purple Jellyfish
Second, Amateur Color Animal Photo

I took a final photo of my ribbons and read every judging sheet.

Every judging sheet showed that all my items were technically "excellent" (choices are "excellent", "good" and "needs to improve") and all the comments were positive. Even those molasses cookies that didn't place were rated "excellent." This means that, at the end of the day, my overall placing depended on one judge's opinion on one day. There was nothing "wrong" with the item; it's just what the judge liked best that day.

I stopped competing years ago when I realized I was picking up my fair ribbons and chucking them in an envelope. I found several large envelopes full of ribbons with just the years written on them and realized I didn't care - because when I first started competing, I wrote down all the details - dates, item, category, etc. - on those ribbons and carefully read every judging sheet. I stopped competing when I no longer felt butterflies entering the building to see how I did or feel my heart pound during an open judging event.

I had butterflies and a pounding heart this year.