Bake-offs: a summer tradition

Not sure if this is a tradition or not in your house, but each year our family looks forward to the annual bake-off contest at our local pool. The first year we participated, I went all out, creating a masterpiece from a Martha Stewart magazine, pulling out all the stops. This year was quite a bit different.

Now that our kids are older, they have some input into these activities. My son came up with the idea of having cupcakes of red, white and blue and have them spell out the name of our pool. Last night, I baked up 46 cupcakes (2 went to tasting) and this morning, with the help of my husband, the kids decorated them.

When I came home from shopping, what awaited me was nothing less than a masterpiece, especially if you are fond of masterpieces from a 6 and 7 year old viewpoint. Each cupcake had been frosted and decorated with a respectable amount of sprinkles (could not find red/white and blue M&Ms this year), and were arranged into a letters spelling the name of our pool.

We loaded the masterpiece into the car for the trip to the pool, however, a couple things barred us from an accident free trip – the heat was causing some of the frosting to melt and slide off the cupcakes, and on the way out of the car, several of the cupcakes slide off their cardboard tray and fell to the ground. By the time we actually entered the contest, we had only 36 or so cupcakes left arranged in a giant blob.

The winner of the contest was a family who created the Declaration of Independence on top of a 9×13 cake. Looked like they had handwritten the Declaration in frosting on top of a sheet of crispy cookie. The whole thing was quite impressive, and we were no match for its excellence.

Fortunately, my kids did not care. This was a project they were proud of, they worked with their dad, and at the end, they got to eat a ton of desserts. Everyone was pretty happy.

Sorry that I don’t have a picture of this wonder, you will just have to imagine it in your head. What wonderful creations have you made with your family (creations that might not be perfect for a Pillsbury Bakeoff)? Do share your experiences!