Exhibition Preparation

Once again, it is the time of year where the local exhibition is in town. That means there is a home cooking and baking competition and I am busy baking up a storm to enter many of my items. The process of baking, packaging, and delivering the items all happens mostly within the span of a two-day period; the baked goods have got to be fresh. However, planning beforehand does take some time, and I try to do this as early as possible in order to get as much accomplished as I can and reduce my workload for the two days before the competition. This involves getting the entry form and deciding which items I am going to bake. There are approximately eighty different categories I could enter, but there is no way I would be able to bake that much in two days. I know I am not the best at making breads, jams, or pickles, and these items are all quite time-consuming, so I eliminate those categories right away. But there are still many cakes, and squares, and cookies, and pies to choose from. So I choose what I believe I am the best at, and what I know I have great recipes for. I also try to choose recipes that are, for the most part, quick and easy, as I want to bake as much as I can in a short amount of time. 

Before baking begins, I also write up all of my tags for the entries, gather my recipes together, organize my supplies, and make a grocery list and purchase ingredients.  I certainly don't want to run out of something in the middle of baking, and lose precious time running to the store, so I make sure I have plenty of everything.

Then when it comes time to bake, I grab the recipe from my stack, bake the item, cool it properly, and package and tag it to be displayed on a paper plate in a plastic bag. Then I place it in a safe place, and make sure everyone knows the leftovers are there for eating, not the ones on the plate! I try to bake things in a logical order, to make best use of oven time, and bake things like cake and bars the day before, to be cooled properly before cutting, and bake items that need to be the freshest or are the least stressful the day of. 

Leftovers, there are usually a lot of them, though I try to make small batches. I end up freezing a lot of them, sharing with my family, or giving away to friends. But of course, these are all family favorite recipes, and every item needs to be tasted before I enter it!