Big Birthday Bake-Off

Grammy Fulmore loves a challenge and birthdays are one of her favorites.

At the Olympic birthday party we dressed in gym clothes and competed in balance, endurance and strength events.

At the Election 2008 party we each had to prepare and present campaign speeches, then vote.

And at the reality TV party we played Deal or No Deal (this is the only time you will see this picture...)

Grammy keeps raising the bar. So this year when Olivia requested a Bake-Off for her 12th birthday (and Dampa's 60th), we had no idea what to expect. This weekend we found out.

Inspired by Buddy from Cake Boss, Grammy collected a bunch of supplies, assigned celebrity judges and the contest began.

First, the cake baking.

Then, the fondant (how do you pronounce that??! check here). It was our first time working with fondant.

"Buddy makes it look easy. All he does is roll it up and knead it. But this is so hard!" ~ Olivia

"It's kinda feels and looks like a huge Laffy Taffy bar!" ~ Hannah

"I don't know why you'd want to eat this stuff." ~ Grammy

Once we finally got it rolled out nice and thin...

and laid over the cakes (chocolate and red velvet)...

We got to decorating.

The theme was golf -- Dampa's a huge golfer!

Team #1: Olivia.

Team #2: Grammy, Hannah and Tanya

(You probably can't make it out, but it says Welcome To ... then a pebble ... and a "beach" made of frosting and gold sprinkles)

Team #3: Jason, Miranda and Dampa

The caption -- "May All Your Scores Be in the 60s"

The Judges:

Bubba "Lou" Watson
Amy "Sally" Adams
Kim "Mazie" Cattrall (with her assistant Tootsie)

Judging Criteria --

1. Taste
2. Appearance
3. Personality

And the winner was

Not sure what she'll dream up for the next party!