As the 53rd Nescatunga Arts Festival nears on May 31-June 1 in Alva, Oklahoma, seven individuals have entered the third annual Sugar Show so far at the Alva Recreation Complex with time left for others to get registered.
This year’s contest will take place inside the Pete and Ruth Leslie Fieldhouse on the north end of the building.
A new “Bake” section has been added to this year’s Sugar Show and will take place on Friday from 4-7 p.m. Bakers of all skill levels may enter four different categories – Fruit Pie, Homemade Bread, Sweet Bread and Fudge/Candies, many of which have been found at county fairs through the years.
After the judging is completed at about 6 p.m., the public may enter to see the entries. Recipes for all entries must be displayed on the table.
The “Cake” section will take place on Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon and must use the theme “Milestones.” Professionals and Aspiring Artists are welcome to compete in this contest of decorated cakes (non-edible dummy cakes or edible), cookies and sugar art. Professionals will compete against professionals and aspiring will compete against aspiring in the cake and sugar art categories. All skill levels will compete in the decorated cookie category.
Additional information and registration forms can be found at www.nescatunga.org.
Three one-hour make-and-take workshops also will be offered to the public at $20 per person starting at 1 p.m. on June 1. These workshops are open to 10 participants each and will include gift bags.
The workshops are:
Summertime Sugar Cookies, led by Lisa Hills, Autry Technology Center in Enid instructor. Participants will learn how to pipe decorations on three sugar cookies with a summertime flair.
Fondant vs Buttercream, led by April Ridgway, owner of Sunflower Road Sweets and chair of the Sugar Show contest for Nescatunga. Participants will learn how to make two versions of the marble effect on a cake using both fondant and buttercream frosting to finish a cake.
Fondant Flowers, led by April Ridgway. Participants will learn how to create two classic edible flowers with fondant – a rose and a sunflower.
Those individuals entered into the Sugar Show competition include:
PROFESSIONALS:
Anissa Boor, Laverne
She has entered into the cake and cookie categories, as well as bringing a fruit pie.
She also will have a booth in the craft area.
Boor said she learned how to decorate cakes and cookies in Girl Scouts when when she was 14 years old. She also has been attending and selling at craft shows for 27 years. She started baking and selling at shows to make Christmas money. Everyone in the family joined in and enjoyed it.
Kasey Chaffin, Alva
She has entered a cake titled “Oscar the Grouch,” which will depict the celebration of the 55th anniversary of Sesame Street and Oscar the Grouch.
Chaffin is employed full-time as an optometry technician at Northwest Family Eyecare in Cherokee and began cake decorating in 2008 after graduating from Northwestern Oklahoma State University. She studied cake decorating at Autry Technology Center in Enid. She said she doesn’t have a business but enjoys baking and decorating for friends and family.
Katie Perks with Wicked Whisk Bake House, Alva
She has entered both the cake and sugar art categories with a title of “Under the Sea” to mark a 50th birthday milestone. The cake will be a two to three-tiered non-edible dummy cake. The sculpted sugar art piece will be made from modeling chocolate, gum paste and/or fondant and is a companion piece with the 50th birthday cake.
Perks said she has been decorating cakes since 1998 and has been baking and cooking all her life; however, she is not a full-time sugar artist. She spends her weekdays at the Woods County Farm Bureau as the office administrator/CSR. In 2013 she established the Wicked Whisk Bakehouse home-based bakery. Her evenings and weekends are spent working in the bakery and helping with the food/coffee trailer Wicked Grind.
ASPIRING ARTISTS:
Laramie Boor, Laverne
She has entered an edible cake and cookies as well as sweet bread, most likely banana bread.
Since 2013, she has been helping her mom, who also is competing in this contest. She has been attending craft shows with handmade items since then. She also enjoys painting and drawing.
Kate Morelli, Sand Springs
Her decorated cookies are named “A New Happy Place” and will relate to the theme of the milestones by depicting several objects that relate to moving into a new home. She will use various decorating techniques, and muted and uplifting colors will be used to decorate the cookies to represent the home as a place of peace and joy. Citrus flavor will also be used to echo the fresh start that moving into a new home provides.
Morelli bakes and decorates cookies and cupcakes as a hobby as she is an appellate attorney by day. She explained that her family decorated cookies for all the major holidays as a child, but she was never satisfied with the results. Decorating with a spreader or knife did not yield what she wanted. A few years ago, unswayed by warnings that piping was something too difficult to learn, she taught herself how to do it and also developed a bit of a sprinkle obsession. Baking and decorating quickly became one of her favorite hobbies and is a way of showing love to others. She said baking allows her to express her creativity and requires a level of exactness that is also required in her profession.
Denaye Prigmore, Alva
She has entered two categories within the new “Bake” section bringing sweet bread and fudge/candies to the competition, and also will have a booth among the crafters.
Prigmore has been a hobby baker for 20+ years. This is the first competition she has entered; however, she does have a home bakery under the Food Freedom act and has mostly set up a booth at craft shows, which is a part-time/hobby for her. She said she enjoys the time spent baking and going to shows to see what others have created.
Elisabeth Ridgway, Alva
She has entered the cake category with a cake named “Love Postcards,” which will be a celebration of a milestone birthday reflected in the postcards that surround a surprise package. The package is the top tier, and the bottom tier is a wooden base. Some flowers will surround the package and base.
Ridgway said she enjoys baking and likes to sell her cookies and cakes at Alva's First Friday Art Walk and the Farmer's Market. This is the third year for her to enter the Sugar Show and likes the responses she gets from the people she bakes for. She enjoys both sugar art and photography. She is a student currently attending Northwestern Oklahoma State University and majoring in psychology.
Questions about the Sugar Show should be directed to April Ridgway at (580) 748-4880 or maxandapril@hotmail.com.
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