Mom of All Trades: 2015 State Fair Round Two Update

Thursday August 6th
Cake entries were due in on Saturday morning August 8th. My cake odyssey started on Thursday (intro HERE if you missed it). I made the cake layers for my Honey Applesauce cake early Thursday morning. I had made this cake before but for some reason the three layers came out pancake flat. Ugh. I had to make it again. But first, I had to run to Bloomington for a doctor's appointment.

Got back from Bloomington after noon and made the Honey Applesauce cake again. This time I made two layers instead of three and I whipped the egg whites separately and folded them into the batter to make sure the layers would have enough height. Attempt number two came out OK but I didn't have a great feeling about this cake.

Next up was the Sweet Potato Cake. Brand new recipe for me. Another three layer cake. The batter looked wonderful but, again, the cake didn't rise as high as I expected. Definitely not like the photo I'd seen. I decided though that it was acceptable and if I had time I'd redo it but otherwise this would have to do.

Kids came home from school after that and then I had to run G up to Carmel for a dance studio meeting. She is an apprentice in Gregory Hancock Dance Theatre's student company G2 this year. The meeting got over at 7 pm. G and I ran by the fairgrounds to go to the Open House and check out our pre-entries before the fair opened on Friday, then went home. We got home at 9 pm. Where did the day go?

G was entering a cake in the fair too. Since she had to go to school in the morning and both of us were planning to go to a party on Friday night, I had to turn the kitchen over to her once we got home so she could make her cake. She got done at midnight. Since I had been up since 9 am on Wednesday, I was totally trashed by then and had to go to bed.

Friday August 7th to Saturday August 8th
Got up at 6 am and made my cookies for the Gold Medal Cookie Contest. Spent the day out at the fairgrounds and got home around 5 pm. I was home long enough to unload my car, pick up G, load up my extra German Chocolate Cookies and rejected Pina Colada Cake, and then it was off to Bloomington to attend a party for one of my co-workers. We didn't get home from the party until after 10 pm. G then had to ice her cake. I got my kitchen back at midnight. I was already exhausted.

First up was making the Honey Buttercream icing for the Honey Applesauce cake. Did that and iced the cake. When I leveled the cake to ice it, I could see that there were a couple deep tunnels. Nothing I can do about that now. Just hope it's not in the piece the judges cut into. One down...

Honey Applesauce Cake

I still had a whole cake I hadn't even started on at this point and I had the Sweet Potato Cake to ice. I was so tired I just felt, well, despaired, or in despair or something like that!. I decided I definitely did not have time to remake the cake layers. I wasn't even sure if I had the energy to make my third cake. I decided to go ahead and ice the Sweet Potato Cake so at least I'd have that done and then decide if I could do a third cake.

I made the Spiced Pecan Buttercream for my Sweet Potato Cake. The icing tasted like heaven on earth. OMG it was good! The cake looked much better once it was all iced and put together. Maybe it would be OK after all.

Sweet Potato Layer Cake with Spiced Pecan Buttercream

I cleaned the kitchen after that. I was either done or I was going to make my last cake. Funny how a clean kitchen can make you feel better. I decided I would go ahead and make my final cake.

I had settled on a Mocha Pecan Torte as my single layer cake in the Other Single Layer Cake category. This is an almost flourless chocolate cake that contains ground pecans. It came out of the oven perfect. I took a break on the couch for about 30 minutes while it cooled in the pan. It's a torte that rises and sinks in the middle a bit. It cools in the pan and then you level it my pressing the edges down. I leveled it and it came out of the pan flawlessly. I had to flip it back over after that so I could put the cake board on the top before I flipped it upside down again. It is a very moist delicate cake. I got careless. Instead of using my cooling racks to flip, I flipped the cake in the palm of my hand. Suddenly the cake started breaking in half. Crap! I quickly flipped it on a hard surface and stared in horror. There was a big crack across the cake but it hadn't completely broken in half. Luckily it was a moist cake. I pressed it back together and hoped the glazed would hold it together. The chocolate glaze looked good. I added white chocolate and dark chocolate to marble the top and pressed chopped pecans into the side. Done!

Mocha Pecan Torte

Now it was 5 am. Cakes were due in between 9 am and noon. I had to take G back to the dance studio before 2 pm for registration so I slept for 3 hours, took a shower, then had the cakes to the fairgrounds by 10 am. The Other Multiple Layer Cake category that contained my Sweet Potato Cake was going to be open judged at 1 pm. I had to be at the dance studio though so I missed the open judging. I had to go back a couple days later to see how I had fared.

The cake categories were reorganized and condensed this year. Last year there were five honey cake categories and a Sweepstakes. This year there are three categories and a Best of Show. For Single Layer Cakes, last year there were eight categories and a Sweepstakes. This year there are five categories and a Best of Show. Same goes for Multiple Layer Cakes. Last year there were 11 categories and a Sweepstakes. This year, six and a Best of Show. Basically all the categories that got cut would be lumped into the Other Cake category. I always compete in the Other Cake categories so this made my chosen category more competitive. And so...