Cake-Off 2012

Here you can see the large fondant roller that was used almost continuously during the day. The cakes on the table are all fake, however, the talent that made them is real. And of course, the CLOCK counting down from six hours.

Team Dana: Three of the four. From left- Jasmine Frank covers a cake with fondant. Carmelo Oquendo building his bear from "rice cereal treats". Dana Herbert is working on the base layer of cake that will become the beach and the ocean. The metal pipe sticking up from the cake will hold the bear, as you will see below.

Team Jay: 75% of the team roughing in the boardwalk and sea. From left- Kendra Jordan and Jay Qualls construct the cake foundation under the boardwalk, while Johanna Lyons sculpts the base under their lighthouse.

Greggy Soriano from Team Jay doing fine detail work on his bears made of modeling chocolate. Next to him is an assortment of tools he will use during the day.

Pamela Ahn (center) of Team Dana answers an audience question while Jasmine molds a figure for the igloo in front of her. During most of the day, the bakers spent a great deal of time answering questions, during the last two hours, they spent a lot more time working quickly and a lot less time talking. in front of Pamela you can see some of the small finished figures that will be on their beach.

Here you can see Team Jay putting the final touchs on the boardwalk. Everything on the cake except the boardwalk railing is edible, even the sand, which happens to be brown sugar. If they had had more time, they would have built the railing out of gum paste instead of wood, but the paste has to dry overnight before it would hold it's shape. The tall beach grass in front of the railing Greggy cut from more modeling chocolate.

That bear that Carmelo is looking at is that pile of cereal treats in the other picture. You can also see the cast sugar waves under it. Pamela seems happy with Team Dana's entry as she answers another question. The bear was hand worked to give his fur texture, then glazed to produce the shine. The bag Carmelo is holding was full of more 'beach sand'.