Finishing Second

Daniel's scout pack held its annual Blue and Gold Ceremony last Saturday and as part of it, they had a dessert contest.  There weren't really any rules and the whole thing was just supposed to be fun.  Last week, we were still recovering from illness and the blizzard that hit Tuesday night so the Blue and Gold was the last thing on my mind.  It wasn't until Thursday that I remembered the dessert thing and wanted to make something.  I only had two days to come up with an idea and make it.  Here is what I did:

It was really very simple but turned out rather cute.  The theme for the event was "backyard BBQ."  The hamburger buns are made from yellow cupcakes cut in half with brownie circles for patties.  Red, yellow, and green icing were supposed to be ketchup, mustard, and lettuce.  I could not find any jelly bellies at the store so I used candy covered sunflower seeds to make the corn on the cob.  My sister-in-law had the idea for Boston Baked Bean candy.  When we left the house, I forgot to take the Jello lemonade but I think the whole thing worked without it.

There were seven categories and certificates were awarded to the top three entries in each.  The categories were best decorated, least decorated, least homemade, best Blue and Gold, best on theme, scout favorite, and family choice.

Here's what some of my competition looked like:

My dessert won second place in three categories:  best decorated, scout favorite, and family choice.  The cake that took first place in the same categories as well as best on theme, for a total of four first place awards, was this one (sorry for the blurry photo, my hands must have been shaking at the sight of such craftsmanship):

Here's the fun part:  The woman that counted the votes is the same woman who made the winning cake.  Really.  I'm going to sound like a sore loser but look at her cake.  It's a green sheet cake with teddy grahams and a blue Jello swimming pool surrounded by gum.  Mine may not have been the best but I'm pretty sure it was better than this one.

So, how do I like finishing second?  Well, this makes for a much better story than if I said I won a first place crappy printed-off-a-home-computer-printer-with-an-ink-cartridge-that-needs-replacing certificate at a Blue and Gold scout ceremony.  I mean, it's not like it was Cake Boss or something.

Oh, and the story gets a little more interesting.  On the way home, my husband said he overheard the son of winning cake woman say that his car was the only one from the pack to advance to the Pinewood Derby District race.  Not sure if that's true but it might be.  His father, winning cake woman's husband, is Committee Chairman for the pack and was running the time clock at the Derby two weeks ago.  Really.

Let's recap:  Woman counting votes wins 4 times.  Only 3 other categories she didn't win were least decorated, least homemade, and blue/gold.  Woman's son's car possibly only car in the pack to advance to district.  Woman's husband is pack committee chairman and ran time clock at race.  Something smells funny.

I like the idea of a Cub Scout Conspiracy.  Much more fun than winning first place.

My brother had the best reaction:  "Is there an anonymous tip line for the Boy Scouts?"

P.S.  If you find out that the Derby part is not accurate, don't bother telling me.  It would ruin my fun.