In the spirit of learning or doing something new just about every day, I decided to enter a cake decorating contest. Up to this point in my life, cake decorating has meant popping open a can of Betty Crocker Ready-To-Spread Frosting and applying it to the cake made with Betty Crocker Cake Mix. No kidding. But the new Liz bakes from scratch and makes her own frosting. At least for this little affair.
My friend Ken Johnston was the creator and organizer of the first annual Holyoke Winter Carnival, which took place last week and featured a schedule full of really fun events like a dog show, chili cook-off, spaghetti dinner, a hockey game between the fire and the sheriff's departments, Zydeco music, a pancake breakfast, and, you guessed it, a cake decorating contest. By the way, if you ever want to organize a wildly successful community event on a shoestring budget against all odds, Ken is your man.
Here's a little background which will help explain the idea I came up with for the cake. Several years ago, two Holyoke city councilors introduced an ordinance to allow backyard chickens. Unfortunately, it was controversial and failed miserably. Fast forward to this year's mayoral election, when Holyoke's new mayor, Alex Morse, ran on a platform promoting unity and all-inclusiveness. One of his campaign slogans was "I Am Holyoke." Thus was born the City-Hall-Backyard-Chicken-All-Inclusive Cake. After all, chickens are people too, right?
My friend Stephen, Farm School faculty member and vegetable grower extraordinaire, was my co-creator. Here's the crazy thing: we won! Best Holyoke-inspired cake and best overall! The competition was an amazing array of fondant-covered, gorgeous, professionally done works of culinary art, but were no match for the chickens of downtown Holyoke. We even got our picture taken and were interviewed by the Springfield newspaper. Oh Hallelujah fifteen minutes of fame!
Article: Bakers Take the Cake at Holyoke Winter Carnival
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So proud of you Liz! A woman of many talents!
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