TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — You can have your cake and eat it too at the Traverse City Festival of Cakes.
Sunday's event, organized by Quota Club International Traverse City, features cakes to feast your eyes on and cakes to feast on, the latter with Moomers' ice cream.
Chair Laura Herman said she cooked up the festival after learning about similar events elsewhere.
"Our area is fabulous for food and wine, and I was sure we could probably pull this off," Herman said.
Area bakers will face off in six divisions in the competition — Professional Decorating, Professional Taste, Adult Hobbyist, Cupcakes, Student and Children and a "celebrity decorate-off."
"I'm a person who could not even color between the lines with crayons, so this is going to be interesting," said Pat Parker, chief of the Grand Traverse Metro Emergency Services Authority, one of four celebrity participants.
Professional baker Ann Barraclough plans to enter three cakes in two categories. Daughter, Elly, 12, will have her own entry in the children's division.
Barraclough, owner of Aunt B's Cakes and Desserts in Lake Ann, grew up baking with her grandmothers and picked up design from her mother, a graphic artist. She learned about the business of food and special events while working at four- and five-star resorts across the country.
Now she creates between 40 and 50 wedding cakes a year — plus many other cakes and desserts — in her licensed "cake shop" kitchen.
"When I work with cakes, fondant, colors and sparkles, that's my artistic expression," she said.
Denise DaFermo will help daughter, Jayden, 7, bake cupcakes for her entry in the children's division. She took Jayden to a craft store for decorating ideas.
"I'm about as food challenged as I am geographically challenged," said DaFermo, who plans to find a recipe online or buy a box cake mix. "I don't want my daughter to be that way."
Barraclough is known for her three-dimensional carved cakes, from traditional to whimsical. But she said everyone has a different opinion about which flavors she should enter in her first competition.
Front-runners so far include lemon poppyseed with lavender flowers, carrot, and chocolate sour-cream with peanut-butter buttercream.
Festival judges are Julia Slack, an instructor of cake decorating for Northwestern Michigan College Extended Education; Tess Nottke, an instructor at Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft; and Cindee Jo Atkinson, an instructor with the culinary program at Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District's Career-Tech Center.
"They won't know whose cake is whose," said Herman. "It's strictly whose cake looks or tastes best and their skills."
Slack and Nottke also will give mini-cake decorating classes throughout the day.
Online:
http://www.festivalofcakes.comInformation from: Traverse City Record-Eagle, http://www.record-eagle.com