August 8, 2023 |
Photo – Cake – Courtesy Wikipedia
Bakers in Rawlins are organizing a cake making competition during October’s Food Truck Festival.
Katie Friend, the owner of Sweet Katee’s in Rawlins, is putting together a community cake baking contest. Friend said she and GEM Cookie Company owner Elysha Mallcheck wanted a way to give back to the community. Friend said Mallcheck came up with the idea of hosting a cake making competition as an entertaining fundraising event.
Friend said she and Mallcheck discussed the cake competition idea for a while.
Rawlins residents Casey Shinkle and Megan McComas are putting together the Taste of Wyoming Food Truck Festival for Saturday, October 7th. Friend said the food truck gathering seemed like a good time to hold the baking contest. Because the event was expanding beyond just food trucks, Friend said Shinkle gave her the go ahead.
Friend said the cake-making contest is modeled after the popular reality baking show Cake Wars. In the television program, four bakers compete to impress a panel of judges with their baked goods. Friend said her version of Cake Wars will take place in the Carbon County Fairgrounds concession stand and feature two teams of three bakers. Friend said baking will begin the morning of October 7th before the Food Truck Festival gets under way. When the concession stand shutters open at 3pm, Friend said the real competition will commence.
Friend said the competition will be live streamed on Facebook.
Each team of bakers will choose a local organization they wish to represent. Friend said fundraising tickets will be sold to support the chosen charities. She said attendees can use the tickets to sabotage the bakers in different ways.
Friend said the roadblocks will be chosen by the event sponsors. She said the sponsors will make a lot of decisions about how the competition is conducted.
Friend also said the event sponsors will choose the competition theme. She said the first year of the contest will focus on Carbon County. Friend said she envisions the competition becoming a state-wide event.
Friend said a panel of three judges will decide the winner based on taste and aesthetics. She said one judge has already been selected. Friend said she has people in mind to fill the remaining two judging spots.
Friend wasn’t willing to provide any more information about the potential judges at this time.
The Carbon County Cake Wars committee is having a team meeting on Monday, August 21st. Friend said anyone interested in competing in the baking contest should contact her before the 21st.
Friend said the winners of the competition will receive small prizes, but the contest is primarily about charity fundraising. The champion team will have their names engraved on a trophy.
The first ever Carbon County Cake Wars will be Saturday, October 7th, from 3:00 to 7:00pm in the concession stand at the Carbon County Fairgrounds. Judging begins at 6:30pm. Following the announcement of the winners, the cakes will be auctioned off for charity.
To participate in the baking competition, contact Friend at 307-321-6624 or find her on Facebook under Katie Battson Friend.
