Cake decorating

The SMH report on the cake decoration competition at the Easter Show, which they claim is one of the “fiercest contests.” See, this is why I’m not a huge fan of transient art forms. If I spent four months knitting Na Craga only to have somebody knock it over and ruin it, I’d never pick up the needles again.

8 responses

  1. I just read that too. It’s kind of a strange space between art and food. They said that she’ll repair the horse and enter it next year. Won’t it have melted or something by then? Food just isn’t meant to last like that.

  2. The concept of how long it lasts is too scary to contemplate.

    I was also struck by the difference betwen the cake decorating community (who don’t reveal what they are doing) and the knitting community who generally share what they are doing and get encouragement from their peers.

    Or have i just been lucky enough not to notice the secretive/competitive component of the knitting society.

  3. jp’s comment just made me think that would make a great comedy film where it’s about the competitiveness of the knitting/sewing community. Would be about all the pranks you all do to gain the victory in the annual competitions.

    I think it should be called “Stitched Up!”

  4. Hmmm. I’m not very gd at this kind of thing, but maybe people would replace their competitors’ balls of yarn with identical ones that re full of short ends once they get into them. Or they could replace their patterns with copies that have small but crucial errors in them.

  5. ever looked at the expiration date on a bag of sugar? same thing.

  6. But they use something to stick the sugar together, don’t they? I dunno, egg whites or something? Surely that would go bad.

  7. corn syrup, glucose, etc. – i’m sure there are other things that would keep it from going rancid.

  8. The horse would be made from modelling paste, which contains among other things, sugar and a hardening gum. Once it dries, it can last a long time (provided the humidity doesn’t get to it); without moisture, there is no mold, nothing to make it go bad. The inside will likely be styrofoam; most show cakes are “dummy” cakes made from foam.