I am entering a competition being judged by Duff Goldman and I wanted to enter two cakes a "fun" cake and a tiered cake. For the fun cake I wanted to do a barn yard theme but I want it to be impressive and not ordinary. Any ideas?

My other idea for the fun cake would be to do a Flintstones cake. I have checked with the competition manager and its ok for it to be a licensed brand. Help?

I just got done with a competition that Duff judged.

Here is my advice:

He did NOT see the cakes IN PERSON (I'm going to assume your show will be similar). 3 judges chose their top cakes (out of the 15 professional and 35 amateur cakes) and showed him pictures of the top cakes. So MAKE SURE that your cake WOWS from the FRONT. It NEEDS to photograph well. Mine had a LOT of fine detail work and hand painting that didn't translate because a) the tiny details didn't show up in the pic and b) some of the most beautiful hand painting/work was on the sides and back.

MAKE SURE your design is original. Think outside of the box. There were a lot of similar designs because it was for the school, so it hurt some people.

Go UP if you can. The smaller cakes didn't do as well. The winning cakes were at LEAST 2 to 3 ft tall

Follow the rules to the letter. A professional cake got disqualified for using astroturf when is was supposed to be all edible.

Here are the winners from my cake competition http://cakechallenge.missouri.edu/?page_id=158

I'll add more if I think about it.

Thanks so much! Its nice to hear from someone who has been in the same type of competition.

I hope my advice helped!

Here is a video of all the cakes at the Mizzou Cake Competition that I entered

(I'm #24... the first 15 are professional and the rest are amateur) You can see how there was a recurring theme in the cakes, lol.

I posted my competition cake in my pictures if you are interested.