Getting Entries to Fair Not Always a Cakewalk

One woman’s dreams of victory vanished when she discovered that her husband had eaten her contest entry, a perfect pie. The cake that toppled while en route to the fair dashed other dreams. And then there was the unfortunate case of the munched sugar skull.

Such are the perils in the high-stakes world of competitive baking at the Los Angeles County Fair. And it is no laughing matter.

People spend days, months, years planning their bundt cakes, cream puffs and snicker doodles. But before the judges can taste so much as a tart, the contestants have to cart their creations to a spacious exhibition hall in Pomona to vie for the blue ribbon.

It’s not always pretty.

Shortly before 7 a.m. Wednesday, hundreds of people began lining up outside Building No. 4 at the Fairplex to deliver the goods to a crew of judges, who will pick winning sweets in time for the fair’s kickoff Friday.

The entrants moved gingerly through the line, shielding their cakes and cookies from the crowd, until they reached volunteers who logged their entries while other volunteers whisked the baked goods away to carefully organized tables, one for breads, one for muffins, one for brownies and so on.

Some contestants carried cookies on simple plates -- the rules dictate paper plates and no more than six cookies -- while others cautiously maneuvered elaborate cakes. One cake depicted a river scene, another a leprechaun. Another entry featured a scene reminiscent of the movie “Seabiscuit,” complete with stable, horse and jockey in gingerbread.

Michele Sanchez of Whittier carried one cake, decorated with white chocolate skulls, to celebrate the Mexican Day of the Dead, while wheeling a white frosted birthday cake safely through the crowd in a baby stroller.

Also in the stroller was a confection that featured three of the traditional Day of the Dead skulls, molded from sugar mixed with meringue and decorated with brightly colored foil. She had planned to enter four skulls until she made a discovery the night before.

“Last night, I saw one of the skulls chewed up, like a mouse got it,” Sanchez said. Her 5-year-old daughter later confessed, and the sugar took its toll on her system.

“She was bouncing off the walls, she couldn’t get to sleep,” Sanchez said. “This morning she couldn’t get up. I told my husband that he better let her teacher know about all the sugar she ate.”

Others had an easier time of it than Sanchez.

At 8 a.m., Alberta Dunbar arrived at the fairgrounds with 26 varieties of pies, cakes, cookies, candy, breads, muffins and cupcakes -- all of them unscathed. The downside: Dunbar is from San Diego and started the trek north with her virtual bakery at 4 a.m.

The year before last, she raked in the blue ribbons. She hopes to do the same this year. “It’s really an ego trip now,” said Dunbar, who won the national Spam competition for her savory Spam cheesecake. “I think about recipes all year round.”

Veteran contestant Veronica Longhi of Glendale, holding a meticulously decorated wedding cake, also keeps coming back year after year.

“Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve been baking cakes. I thought, ‘Why not do it for competition?’ ” She smiled and added: “I win every year.”

By the time fair officials closed the doors at 10 a.m., nearly 1,400 baked goods lined half a dozen long tables. The judges sampled the entries Wednesday morning; winners will be on display throughout the fair, which runs through Sept. 28. Other judges will render verdicts on a wide variety of specialties -- flower arranging, knitting and raising rabbits, to name a few -- throughout the fair.

“We’ve had people competing for generations,” said Silvia Bishop, contest coordinator. “There are even families competing against families. It becomes a tradition.”

Even so, Bishop said she has heard horror stories over the years from participants.

“One woman called me, so upset,” Bishop said. “She left the pie out and her husband decided to have a slice. He didn’t know it was for a competition. Others complain that their favorite recipe just didn’t work out.... It’s just part of life.”

Fair officials have suffered their own mishaps. One year, a woman pulled Bishop aside to tell her “urgent” news: Ants had invaded the case where the winning entries were on display. “We sprayed them with ant spray,” Bishop said. “What are you going to do?”