What is the mystery behind Show Cooking? Why is it different from normal baking? What does it take to win? Can anyone enter?
Come and take a look at the Cookery cabinets at the 2024 Show and have a chat to a Steward to find out! And yes anyone can enter – but the secrets that make a winning entry may not be revealed…
In the same way as any Show exhibit, part of the answer, apart from having a good recipe, is in the attention to detail, showing the very best that you can do. It might sound slightly obsessive but it is no different to cattle breeders washing and brushing their animals, or horse riders polishing their tack until it gleams.
It means measuring pieces of a slice with a ruler so they are exactly the same size, with square corners, or cutting up dried fruit so that every piece in a fruit cake is the same size as a currant.
But for many Cookery exhibitors it means having a go and learning along the way – and maybe becoming slightly addicted to the quest for perfection – whether in the perfect pickle or strawberry jam, the loveliness of a lemon drizzle cake baked in a monstrously complicated tin, or the stunning grandeur of a four-tiered iced decorated cake! Or just the sweet simplicity of a child’s first attempt at anzac biscuits…anyone can have a go – and we would love to see new exhibitors and welcome any questions they might have either to our Facebook page ‘Stanthorpe Show Cookery’ or just phone any steward – our names & phone numbers are in the Schedule!
