Contests

As I have said in a previous post, I had entered into America’s Baking and Sweets Show. My “Butterscotch-a-roo-Brownies” were chosen as a top 3 finalist. The grand prize winner would get $1000 worth of prizes, most of which I could have used; bakeware, wilton supplies, gift card for King Arthur, etc. The catch was you had to be there to claim your prize! So my sister-in-law Emily and I drove up to Schaumburg, IL, leaving at 3am so I could get there in time for the show at 1pm.

The show was more like a small convention. It was ok, not as big as I expected it to be, but the grand prize was still worth the drive, plus we would get to see Chicago!  There were 3 judges up on the stage, kind of like a show you would watch on the cooking channels on TV. Each category had 3 top finalist. The judges would taste each and would comment a little as they wrote down their scores. I was nervous sitting there wondering how they liked mine. One judge said “I shouldn’t like this one with the fritos, but I do!” Ahhh! That was mine! Except what was weird is as they brought them out and tasted I couldn’t tell which one was mine, and I should have been able to tell with it having chocolate covered fritos on top.

The time came when they announced the winners, I had no idea what to expect. “And the winner of the 2014 America’s Baking and Sweets Show Butterscotch Brownies competition is……” Not Me…..Oh well I thought, its a bummer, but I still got to come out here and experience this. So then they said “if you want to try all the finalists recipes we will be cutting them up and setting them out.” Well of course I had to try the others and also see what mine came out like. You see, we weren’t allowed to make them ourselves.

All the brownies were set out and I honestly couldn’t tell which was mine. So I tried them, one finally had a hint of fritos in it with a thin layer of chocolate on top. I was so irritated!!! I re-read my recipe and the only thing I could think of is I said “crush fritos to desired size” well they took that and literally obliterated them!!! The brownies were also over cooked. Although this is all very frustrating, it was a learning experience. Now I know my recipes have to be read by someone other than myself before submitting and be very detailed.

Needless to say I still had a great time with Emily! We got to eat deep dish pizza!

Also got to meet up with my moms long time friend who used to babysit me as a child! Ann Schultz Mathews, if you read this, we had a blast with you!!

We also drove into the city on our way out, which was beautiful!

2 cities in 1 week….Now its back to baking for me! Again thank you all for your support, it means so much to me!