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- Jan 3, 2006
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BAKING!!!!!!!! of course 
State Fair baking to be precise! Our state fair opened this past Friday and for the past several years I started entering the baking competitions just for fun. This year I went a little over board, I haven't done as much baking overall this year with everything going on with our house I just have been winging 2023 and while I'm usually hosting all the holidays and doing things throughout the year I haven't been able to do as much with our house being in different stages of remodeling. But they had a few categories that peaked my interest and I had some new recipes I wanted to try so here we are
My entries this year were;
classic pound cake
blueberry streusel pie
green tomato cake (that's right, you heard me LOL)
cinnamon roll cheesecake
and a breakfast pizza (it was a pizza category, I just like to color outside the lines)
I also entered canned items, vanilla spiced pear butter and pineapple jalapeno jam.
We went opening day and I was honestly only hoping for 1 ribbon and I thought it would be on the cheesecake. I'm a tough critic and I just wasn't sure on some of them but I walked away with 5 ribbons
1st place on the green tomato cake! Surprised, but not surprised. For those of you unfamiliar, green tomato cake is sorta like carrot cake if you believe carrot cake should have raisins and coconut in it (which I do not) but with chopped green tomato instead of carrot. You don't really get much flavor from the green tomato it just adds moisture and a little texture. So it's more like a moist cinnamon-y, nutmeg flavor cake with raisins, coconut and walnuts in it. I spruce it up by using gold raisins and I frosted with a cream cheese frosting with a hint of cinnamon, garnished with toasted coconut and candied walnuts, then cause I was feeling adventurous so I candied some green tomato slices so I could use one for a garnish. Then I used the leftover simple syrup from that as a soak for my cake for even more moist yumminess! Guess it did the trick cause first place in fruit/veg cakes I also probably got kudos for uniqueness, while green tomato cake is nothing new, it's not something you see often.
2nd places on my blueberry streusel pie and breakfast pizza! I didn't get a picture of the pizza with the ribbon cause I thought my hubby did and it was too high in the cabinet but he thought I did and we didn't realize it til we had already left. But the cool part of the pizza contest was it was sponsored by King Arthur flour and I get a 50.00 gift card for their website which is awesome cause I shop there anyway sometimes!
3rd places on the cinnamon roll cheesecake and pineapple jalapeno jam! Little surprised on those, I thought the pear butter I made was better than the jam and outta everything I thought my cheesecake was gonna be the bigger hit but the category was just "cheesecake" and the 1st and 2nd place winners were more classic cheesecakes so maybe I hurt myself but going a bit outside the box but hey, that's how I like to bake LOL and pardon that funky cooler case they had the cheesecakes in, I mean, would it have killed someone to wipe that sucker out?!?
Nothing on the pound cake but hey, you can't win them all. I'm still pleased with my turnout. And as if that wasn't enough cooking for 2 days, it was my husband's B-day Friday so I had to make something for him. How's a trifle layered with homemade dark fudgy brownie chunks, cheesecake oreo filling, crushed oreos, chocolate ganache and fresh whipped cream sound? Sounded like a lot of work for someone who just baked 5 other things LOL but I managed anyway
I'm done til Thanksgiving now!
State Fair baking to be precise! Our state fair opened this past Friday and for the past several years I started entering the baking competitions just for fun. This year I went a little over board, I haven't done as much baking overall this year with everything going on with our house I just have been winging 2023 and while I'm usually hosting all the holidays and doing things throughout the year I haven't been able to do as much with our house being in different stages of remodeling. But they had a few categories that peaked my interest and I had some new recipes I wanted to try so here we are My entries this year were;
classic pound cake
blueberry streusel pie
green tomato cake (that's right, you heard me LOL)
cinnamon roll cheesecake
and a breakfast pizza (it was a pizza category, I just like to color outside the lines)
I also entered canned items, vanilla spiced pear butter and pineapple jalapeno jam.
We went opening day and I was honestly only hoping for 1 ribbon and I thought it would be on the cheesecake. I'm a tough critic and I just wasn't sure on some of them but I walked away with 5 ribbons
1st place on the green tomato cake! Surprised, but not surprised. For those of you unfamiliar, green tomato cake is sorta like carrot cake if you believe carrot cake should have raisins and coconut in it (which I do not) but with chopped green tomato instead of carrot. You don't really get much flavor from the green tomato it just adds moisture and a little texture. So it's more like a moist cinnamon-y, nutmeg flavor cake with raisins, coconut and walnuts in it. I spruce it up by using gold raisins and I frosted with a cream cheese frosting with a hint of cinnamon, garnished with toasted coconut and candied walnuts, then cause I was feeling adventurous so I candied some green tomato slices so I could use one for a garnish. Then I used the leftover simple syrup from that as a soak for my cake for even more moist yumminess! Guess it did the trick cause first place in fruit/veg cakes
I also probably got kudos for uniqueness, while green tomato cake is nothing new, it's not something you see often. 2nd places on my blueberry streusel pie and breakfast pizza! I didn't get a picture of the pizza with the ribbon cause I thought my hubby did and it was too high in the cabinet but he thought I did and we didn't realize it til we had already left. But the cool part of the pizza contest was it was sponsored by King Arthur flour and I get a 50.00 gift card for their website which is awesome cause I shop there anyway sometimes!
3rd places on the cinnamon roll cheesecake and pineapple jalapeno jam! Little surprised on those, I thought the pear butter I made was better than the jam and outta everything I thought my cheesecake was gonna be the bigger hit but the category was just "cheesecake" and the 1st and 2nd place winners were more classic cheesecakes so maybe I hurt myself but going a bit outside the box but hey, that's how I like to bake LOL and pardon that funky cooler case they had the cheesecakes in, I mean, would it have killed someone to wipe that sucker out?!?
Nothing on the pound cake but hey, you can't win them all. I'm still pleased with my turnout. And as if that wasn't enough cooking for 2 days, it was my husband's B-day Friday so I had to make something for him. How's a trifle layered with homemade dark fudgy brownie chunks, cheesecake oreo filling, crushed oreos, chocolate ganache and fresh whipped cream sound? Sounded like a lot of work for someone who just baked 5 other things LOL but I managed anyway
I'm done til Thanksgiving now!
