Pastry Live 2013 – Art of Cake Winners Announced

KENNESAW, Ga. - Sept. 19, 2013 - PRLog -- On Sunday, August 25th, thirteen cake artists from across the country competed in the third annual Art of Cake competition, turning icing and fondant into masterpieces inspired by this year’s theme of Art Nouveau. Pastry Live is proud to announce that Joseph Cumm of EdenJoes Cakery is the winner of the 2013 Art of Cake.

Joseph Cumm’s cake, titled “Winds of Change,” highlighted organic shapes and lines which he translated into decorative elements on his design. His piece depicted a hand-sculpted woman surrounded by flora and nature, also accompanied by a towering seven tiered cake showcasing the symmetry between the sculpted elements and the more traditional. His creation featured hand painted details and intricate royal icing piping to compliment the various flowers and carved aspects. As such, his design earned high scores for its degree of technical difficulty, as well as for the overall artistic skill put into it. His pineapple pound cake with coconut rum filling and Swiss meringue buttercream also proved to the judges his baking expertise.

Second place went to Gretchen George of Le Cordon Bleu, whose design embodied traditional aspects of Art Nouveau, as seen in her cake’s elegant piping and scroll work and through her use of various hues of blues and greens. Included in her creation was a graceful peacock, whose feathers cascaded down the various layers, and stylized flowers matching the soft curves and flow seen in paintings of that era. While her design was excellently crafted and praised for its overall impression, her vanilla bean tasting cake, layered with passion fruit curd, caramel and vanilla buttercream, was also well received by the judging panel.

Jessie Anne Reilly of Take the Cake Décor took third place with her design, which blended the whimsical style of “Alice in Wonderland” with the flowing lines of Art Nouveau. Titled "Alice in Art Nouveau," her cake featured a tiny Alice figure balanced on sculpted tiers, each depicting designs inspired by numerous Art Nouveau inspirations including Jugendstil Haustur and Otto Wagner’s Majolicahouse. Her chocolate beet cake, a traditional cake in use during the theme’s time period, featured a roux based buttercream as well as a light cream cheese icing.

The Art of Cake calls for competitors to transform cake into creations inspired by great artists and art time periods of the past. With both traditional stacked tiers and sculpted elements required, each competitor is asked to decorate a cake reflecting the original art each designer is inspired by and their own artistic flair as well. Flavor is equally as important in this competition as the overall creativity and appearance of the final piece, as competitors are scored based on their tasting cake as well. Pastry Live wishes to congratulate all of the winners as well as thank each of the cake artists who competed for their professionalism, dedication and hard work.

For more details about Pastry Live and the Art of Cake competition, please contact Event Producer Paul Bodrogi at chef@pastrylive.com or (678) 881-9490. Further information is also available on our website at www.pastrylive.com.