Im building a clientele through yoga places and with in my vegetarian community. Seeing as i specialize in vegan pastries. My local cake store is having a LARGE bake off in march. i was thinking about signing up only $50. i think its 30 booths. lots of competition but great exposer. I know my vegan cupcakes can go up against dairy cupcakes any day. but if i lose will it hurt business???? But i was wondering if anyone else has ever done something like this if so any tips? i was thinking doing cookies and cupcakes. 

here is the scoring guide 

Scoring
    40% Taste
    40% Cupcake, Cookie or Cakepop Decoration
    20% Serving and Booth Presentation

I'd say that for $50 it's worth doing it. You'll have to do samples so that will increase your cost (and time) but if it will get your name out it isn't a huge investment. And if you don't get much from it that will be okay, because again, not too much of an investment.

AI think it's worth fifty bucks, go for it. Make sure you have someone proofread any signage you might make, or flyers, or anything printed. I always ask at least one person to check my spelling and grammar before sending anything to print.

Rules: Entry Rules: • Participant must participate within their appropriate category. Either Professional or Novice • All entries must be brought complete. No baking/cooking will take place on site at the event, no cold storage or kitchen facilities will be available • All frosting and decoration on cupcake must be edible • Entries must consist of a minimum of a dozen (12) full size entries. Cupcakes for public taste-testing can be full or mini size, minimum qty of 300 tastes for public tasting. • Please bring your cupcakes in container and as part your display/presentation. • Please CLEARLY label your cupcakes name, description/flavor. • All competitors will be able to name their cupcake and will be assigned a number that represents who the cupcake belongs to for the purpose of judging. • Registration must be completed by 2/28/14 • We will provide you 1 6 foot table for presentation. Please review scoring on the main page

Should i do minis or regular size??? 

I would definitely do something like that, especially for $50. My competitive side wouldn't be able to resist .

I would do minis for the samples, you have to have a minimum of 300, right? That's a lot of full sized-cupcakes.

AI participated in one last year and was so nervous. There were only three entries... My bakery, a home baker that I really admired, and another bakery that had been trying to talk bad about my shop. We ended up taking 1st place. It certainly gave me a huge sense of accomplishment.... And maybe a bit of satisfaction that the other bakery came in last.

Just wanted to ditto the proofreading!  But not just the spelling, make sure that everything is matched up.  A few months ago, I had a new batch of business cards printed and despite sending them to about 5 people to check, no-one noticed that 'web' was next to the email address and 'email' was next to the website URL!!! DOH!  The second I showed them (proudly!) to my other half, he said, 'sweet, there's a mistake on them'.  I thought he was kidding to start.  Anyway, lesson learned and thankfully there was only 200 of them! x

my family is so excited that ive signed up they have already jumped head first into planning. only problem is they want to do a rain forest theme because im vegan and they think that would set me apart. im worried it would clash with my logo and my personal style. I was think of a 1940s theme being able to use my vintage mixer, and other kitchen stuff as decorations. am i being stubborn? 

here is my logo