Triple Threat Throwdown - Round 1

Lourdes, one of my labmates, recently challenged me to a bake-off. Of course, I was up for the challenge - any excuse to bake! We put various categories into a "hat" and Jiejin, the official Throwdown Director, drew the category at random. Round 1 = A Delicious Simply Decorated Cake. To make it more interesting, I recruited a third competitor, Elise. And so it became the Triple Threat Throwdown!

Coincidentally, all 3 of us made a variation of a chocolate cake! Here's Lourdes' cake - Chocolate Decadence with Luscious Mocha Frosting (Cake 1).

Elise's cake was called Chocoholic's Dream Cake (Cake 3). I have to give a shout out to Elise who competed in the throwdown with a 5-month old baby at home AND the baby got sick the night of the throwdown! Talk about multitasking!


And my cake was Strawberry & Chocolate Delight (Cake 2):


Each person received a plate that looked like this:
Each person also received a ballot where they rated each cake up to 5 points in each of the following categories: Presentation, Texture, Taste, and Overall Balance. In all, there was a possible 20 points from each person and, since 13 people voted, a total possible value of 260 points.

And the results:
Third place = My cake with 213 points
Second place = Elise's cake with 222 points
First place = Lourdes' cake with 235.5 points

Congratulations Lourdes! Soon we'll be drawing for the category for Round 2. A new group of judges (ones that aren't so partial to Lourdes...all 13 voters knew Lourdes while only 4 knew Melanie and 1 knew Elise) will be invited and it will be held at either Melanie's or Elise's houses! Also, a special thanks goes out to Thomas and Jiejin! Jiejin did an awesome job preparing the ballots, creating the award certificate, counting the votes, and directing the throwdown! And Thomas was a terrific assistant director! In fact, here's a picture to show how seriously Thomas and Jiejin took their votes!


And last, but not least, here's a shot of the 3 competitors - Elise, Lourdes, and me.