Thank you! I agree that I couldn’t figure out how some wedding cakes with ragged edges on their fondant cut-outs and dents in their covering scored higher, but very early on I decided not to compare myself to them, even if the judging really was inconsistent. I think a big influence on grade was their expectation that the pleats should be exactly symmetrical and evenly spaced and rounded, and the ruffles were tightly packed, it seems they decided on first sight those were inaccuracies instead of considering they might be deliberate features of the cake. The judge certainly seemed surprised when I told her I looked at a lot of rosettes and decided tight was prettiest, and that I didn’t try to get the pleats even or I would have cut even strips for each individual one instead of ruching a larger piece several times. I feel if there was an opportunity to stand next to the cake as it was judged and introduce it’s inspiration and features and answer questions it would have been a different story, because to be honest the only “flaws” that could be truly considered “noticeable” according to what they pointed out in the feedback would be those x
