Big Top of Hope Cake, View 2

I am an occupational therapist and had been a cake decorator in a former life. Recently, I began decorating cakes again, for family and work. For the holidays, our hospital (specializing in cancer) held a decorating contest. My department won for inpatient areas with the theme "Big Top of Hope" - we tied cancer, patients, hope and the circus together in a presentation that the whole department contributed to and worked many long hours. I contributed this whimsical cake believing that "feeding the judges" might give us a break and we would be the only department with an exceptional cake to show off. On December 14, 2005 the initial judging was held and on the 16th the final judging took place. Of course we won first place!!!. I am sending more than one picture so that you can see the creation -- including an overflowing popcorn bag, ringmaster's hat and a clown's hat with many, many gold-painted white chocolate cancer ribbons with marshmallow fondant as the icing. The second smaller cake was for eating and the large one was for display. I had many compliments on the cake and the taste ("a great cake"). To top it off, our local Channel 11 photographer followed the judges and my cake was on the 6 o'clock news that night!! We kept the cake and department decorations on display until after January 1. I am so glad so many people enjoyed the cake - both eating and looking!!