This weekend was the Faydwer Faire in the city of Kelethin. This was a celebration of the changing of the seasons from the winter to the spring. There were many events going on throughout the entire weekend in the Greater Faydark that everyone could join in on. They had a bardic competition, champions of the faydark challenge, archery competitions, date auctions, and even some jumping competitions. So many competitions, races and the like that no one could be bored if they wanted to.
The one event that perked my interest was the cookie competition. Being a baker by trade, I was very interested in participating. This being my first bake-off so I was very scared and not sure I would do well but it was well worth the effort and the experience. Looking around there was a lot of onlookers and commotion. I was one of six participants that signed up for the contest. The rules were simple make a batch of cookies with the secret ingredient. There were two timed rounds to bake and after each round our cookies were to be judged by the three judges. One of the judges seemed to have a bottomless pit of a stomach, but with such delights well who wouldn’t.
The first secret ingredient was Faeberries. There were some bumps in the road for all, preparing the berry, cooking times, and even getting used to the ovens. Each person made their best cookie, one was a fae cookie that was a little over done, and another was the judges faces on them. One cookie looked like the judges were puzzled at its taste but however did their best to judge fairly. Thinking about all the possibilities of the faeberry, taste texture and the like I decided to make a rendition of my frostfell cookie, Chocolate faeberry cookie with a cream cheese frosting. I tried my best to display the sweet taste of the faeberry and the slight earthyness of the Jum by adding my secret ingredient in. The judges took each cookie pondering the taste, texture and sheer use of the berry. Upon everyone getting judged we had a few moments to clean our stations before starting the second round.
Shortly the announcer asked if we were ready for round two, with excitement we all exclaimed that we were ready. The second secret ingredient was Jum Jum, now I thought I kind of had an unfair advantage as this ingredient was something I work with every day. After methodically taking apart the Jum my thoughts raced as to what I was making figuring I wanted to go all out I decided to display the different earthy yet sweet pleasures of the Jum. I worked my way to a chocolate chip cookie with added Jum and glazed it with a chocolate glaze and adding candied jum in the shape of smily faces for decoration.
After creating my cookie I looked at the others, There was some talent in this round like no other a snowman looking cookie, peanut butter no bake, spider crunch with Jum added, a singing palette cookie and a few others. During judging there was some… what I could consider as mishaps. The first round went great little issue or mishaps but the second round I couldn’t help but to smile. I felt bad about the participants and little more for the judges. However with both rounds completed the judges huddled to make their decision.
While the judging was taking place we all were bitting our nails, and cosuling each other on our mistakes and celebrating our successes. After what seemed to be hour, they announced that it was a close battle between all of us. Winning second place for best cookie (and RP) was Pluf. The best RP was Noelly and the Best tasting cookie was Santinea…. Wait that is me. I couldn’t believe that my first go to a competition that I would win the best tasting cookie. My jaw dropped and I was in disbelief I couldn’t believe that I had won such a competition, everyone was great and did their best.
I think that come the Festival of Unity I may take a stab at the next cooking competition. I have found it is a great way to meet new friends, compare recipes and find job opportunities. You never know you will meet at the faire, and who knows you might get a job offer there.
For more information on this festival go to their website, www.faydwerfaire.com.
