Blue ribbon

When you were little, did the adults tell you that if at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again?

A famous quote by William E. Hickson.  What would he know - he only wrote parts of the British national anthem.... ;)  Perhaps these days, it's more likely to be “If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no point in being a damn fool about it.” W. C. Fields

So, when the fabulous Glenda goaded me into entering the Royal show again....I was really not a happy little camper.  The idea of spending another weekend unable to lift my arms wasn't really high on my list of to dos.

 

 My arms felt like they no longer belonged to me after this marathon effort in 2009 when I covered these 3 cakes (plus a miniature not in the pic) all in one day for my then Royal show entries.  Definately not the most intelligent thing I've done.......and probably why I refused to enter last year.

Still, the voice of my Aunt pops up at times like this "if you don't compete, how will you know how good you are?"  Yes, Asian relatives are good that way...........

So, off to work.  This year I entered the Open section of the Celebration cake and was delighted with a win for the fantasy carousel cake.

At the start and the design process

Panels for the centre pole - these were stencilled before being joined together by royal icing

 A whole heap of Peggy Porschen inspired roses that never got used.

The beautiful silicon mold that kept giving me horses with broken legs.

 

Adding the fine details to the carousel horses

Painting the gold accents on the hand piped column details

Viola!!

And closer up:

And the blue ribbon!!

Glenda's amazing Peggy Porschen meets Ben Ron Israel wedding cake also came in with an award.  Such an gorgeous cake, with so many beautiful details!

 

The moral of the story: 

If at first you don't suceed, try again.  

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As part of exhibiting at the Royal show, I was also excited to be asked to run a demonstration on the first weekend.  Bright on a Sunday morning, I headed to the Cookery Pavilion and made a whole heap of bright coloured chickies and gave them to excited littlies who were interested enough to sit and watch.

I can just imagine the poor parents that had to hold onto a little sugar bird (so it didnt break) after the novelty had worn off, whilst these kids went off to enjoy the rest of the show.  I hope they all made the trip home safely!

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