Tinapayan Cake Decorating Competition 2012: Easter in September

The Tinapayan Cake Decorating Competition once again delighted mall goers at The Atrium on a jam packed afternoon. With six competing teams at the helm, the much anticipated cake decorating contest in Iloilo City once again has thrilled Ilonggos young and old last Friday, Sept. 21. Now on it's 3rd year, the contest opens up the bakeshop's annual 5-week long Chocolate Festival which starts Monday, Sept. 24.

A total of six eye catching chocolate cake designs were created under the theme "Easter" that made the audience saw a lot of bunnies, eggs and other accents related to its modern celebration. Using plain chocolate cakes as base provided by Tinapayan, others were then transformed into beautiful and yummy works of art that one would regret eating them.

This year, "technical" considerations were given as they contestants must incorporate ganache, as their final icing before decorating them fitting the occasion. Also, they must give their cakes flavour by concocting flavours that would blend in with chocolate. Also the creative use of the Tulip Chocolate will earn additional points in the competition

A Cherryful Bunny

Team Decadence created this cake overloaded with decors signifying Easter. I was near this cake when the ganache was poured and it looked good then. But when I started seeing the marble inspired design thin chocolate "panels", I feared the worst and had a deja vu. It was alike a garden on top of the cake where in a bunny just hopped in during an Easter egg hunt and revealed the most coveted prize, an ostrich egg! For me it was overly decorated and they concentrated more on the use of the sponsor chocolate for extra points. It was filled with cherry - sauce, preserves, etc, in between giving a familiar choco cherry combination that I instantly loved. It eventually was declared as the grand prize winner of the competition.

Missing Easter

Team Sacher Torte created the most visually appealing cake with almost everything in perfection. The color combination was in harmony and the cake was of the right height to grab your attention and inspect it closer. But most wondered, where the "theme" of the competition went? Easter as it is, there wasn't any symbol of it on the cake. Maybe the team went on an abstract symbolism that few, not even I, could recognize right then and there. It had a delectable peanut butter and banana filling that I had to get a big slice so I can savor its awesome goodness longer. As expected this was adjudged as the runaway Voter's Choice but seems it settled for silver because of the missing Easter representation.

Angry Golden Eggs

Team L'Opera had a great ganache finish - very smooth and as if you won't ruin it. But their depiction of Easter - golden eggs meet angry birds, seemed to have ruined it. It looks unfinished and messy, plus I have no idea why there were golden eggs in the first place. On top the cake is an angry bird, and true to the team's name, it is positioned as if singing an aria, mostly associated with operas. It seems the bird brought the house down as the stage it stood on looked as if it crumbled. But I really loved the taste of the cake for it had an apple based filling, which had a nice subtle sweetness and it's combination with chocolate was heavenly. But it only garnered third place in the competition.

Bunny Paras

Team Sans Rival had a chocolate bunny growing on top of a chocolate pineapple. So there's Easter, ganache and use of the sponsors chocolate. The ganache looks okay but there's room for improvement, the chocolate trimmings in my opinion clashed, they could have taken out the colored and the white mesh. It would have been classier and much better if they only had those brown trimming or maybe created white chocolate and alternately place them on both the large and small cake, maybe just the bottom cake. It doesn't look bad but not good either. The filling was the saving grace since it was caramel custard.

It's so bunny

Team Passion figuratively tells us that rabbits multiply so fast. Indeed their's had so many rabbits all around. It was among the most visually attention-seeking cake as it was the most colorful. Personally, it would have been better if they ditched that brown bunny base and made that basket cake. The concept is good - simple and enticing but the execution somewhat flopped - their ganache created quite a mess. Actually this cake is actually two entries - the white yet colorful basket and the rabbity base. Combining them both makes a overly decorated cake. Actually, even just the basket with all the eggs around (that's minus the base and the rabbit on top) plus a smooth white ganache would have been perfect. But again, it tasted better than it looked like for it had a simple cream filling - I like how it was very subtle in sweetness but still has the sweetness. And they even let us tried the choco eggs- thanks. Just remember, simplicity is beauty.

Leaf me Alone

Team Tiramisu maybe got lost in the forest with it's leaf covered cake. Just add a bunny and it could almost look like the Cherryful Bunny Cake. Another overly decorated cake but if i were to suggest, take everything on top and place the big egg in the middle. Then if they are good in drawing they could have etched on the big egg surface the Easter theme and randomly place small eggs at the base. The side would have to be simplified maybe more eggs randomly placed. This is the only cake which I didn't like the the filling - I almost didn't recognize it until it was said to be mango. But it didn't really taste like the usual mango. Maybe they blended in some other flavours to make it blend with the chocolate cake.

Another Tinapayan Cake Decorating Competition has come and go. And even though how harsh I have been above, congratulations to all of the contestants for handling the pressure and still having a finished product to present. This would served as a training ground for them in other competitions both here and in other parts of the country.

Getting ready for a taste test of the entries with Tinapayan Owner Evelyn Que (right)

and Chef Miner del Mundo, organizer of the competition.

Winning entry from Western Institue of Technology

More photos here and here.

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