Booyah! (I can’t believe I just said that). Chocolate layer cake lightening can strike twice and it did this past weekend as my son’s entry at the Los Angeles County Fair won First Place in chocolate layer cakes and Best of Division for all layer cakes!

Coming off our victory from the OC Fair in July, we thought, just for fun, to go for the big daddy of fairs and around these parts it’s the LA County Fair. The fair is HUGE in size, exhibits and culinary entries. Since we had to travel about an hour to drop off the cake I also entered extra wedding cookies that I made for my niece’s wedding back in May. They won a ribbon too and no, they weren’t sampled but considered edible art.

A couple days before the fair, we dropped off our goodies. There were so many people bringing in entries (over 400) we had to stand in line for awhile to check in. I decided not to box up the cake but thought it would have a better chance at arriving unscathed if I placed it on a piece of the anti-slip material one puts under a rug. If you ever needs to transport something in your car I highly recommend it. This little trick to transport anything in the car has never failed me. Ever.

Eventhough I was certain the cake itself wasn’t going anywhere during the drive, I still held my breath as we opened the back of the car upon arrival. We had banked on off-ramp curves and inclines and since the cake was iced right before we left home I was half-way expecting to see the top layer separated from the bottom but as you can see all was well and delish.

When we arrived at the fair on Sunday as spectators, my husband saw the cake behind the display glass immediately and said, “It won”! It was so much fun to see my son’s face with his name on the card to receive the official recognition he deserved since my name was on the OC Fair registration though he made that cake too.

At first I didn’t recognize the cake because they put all the entries on ceramic plates and the green plate kind of threw me

Oh yes. My cookies won second place in the edible arts division.

A spectacular fondant cake with airbrushing, sugar art and obvious superior talent rightly came in first. You can see just the top of the octopus’ head peeking underneath the basket in the photo above. I wasn’t expecting to win anything this time around since there were many more entries than the OC Fair so actually winning a ribbon of any place was a nice surprise.

Since all these photos were taken with a shaky phone I’ll post the cake recipe after I take better pictures this weekend. The recipe will also be published in the fair’s cookbook.

I don’t know the monetary awards we won at the LA Fair but we won $200 at the OC Fair. That was a nice perk.

We definitely hit a culinary home run this summer and speaking of home runs, the four of us went to an Angel’s game a few weeks ago where it was announced everyone in section 420 would win Jumbo Jacks for an entire year if one of the Angels hit a home run in that particular inning. Up steps rookie Peter Bourjos (rhymes with ‘gorgeous’) who hits one out of the park. We now refer to him as “Burger Boy” and he is doing great this season.

So thanks Peter, for the year’s supply of burgers x4! There’s a college boy I know who bakes award winning cakes that is feeling very lucky that his apartment will be a couple blocks away from his home run hamburgers.