On the 25th of October 2013, I decided that I would enter the Class G Category – A Wedding Cake of 3 or 4 Tiers at the Cake InternationaI competition being held at the NEC in Birmingham. I was still unsure of what I would like to do but I entered online at the very last minute and said to myself now I have got to do it!

On the 1st November 2013, I decided to make a 4 Tier Wedding cake and as its autumn here I decided to do an autumn theme wedding cake. The elements of the cake are David Austin yellow roses, rose leaves, oak leaves, acorns, blackberries with blossoms, blossom leaves and hypericum berries and hypericum leaves. I ordered my dummies online and they arrived on the 5th of November! Panic!
Once I started to make the decorations for my cake I was in full flow. I could picture the cake in my head of how I wanted it to look and how it was going to look with all the colours, the anticipation of putting it together was growing inside me.
It was a bit stressful because I had left it all to the last minute. I covered my cake board on the 5th of November and put it in the airing cupboard to dry and I covered the dummies on Wednesday 6th Nov, in a very pale coffee colour sugarpaste.

On Thursday 7th November 2013, I put the finished decorations on my wedding cake entry. It was all ready to take to the NEC.

We set off from Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England at 6am on Friday 8th November 2013. The journey took nearly 2hours, then we spent time trying to find the right part of the NEC to deliver the cake to. We made it on time, what a relief!
I left my cake on the table and made the journey home. I knew from a friend on Saturday 9th November 2013, the cakes had been marked but I wasn’t going back to the NEC until Sunday 10th November 2013. I asked my friend not to tell me my result as I wanted to wait until I was there in person. As my daughter, my friend and I drove to the NEC I could feel my tummy churning in anticipation and excitement at the same time.
The award I won was bronze, which I was so pleased with. Next time I won’t leave it so late!