Blue-Ribbon Bakers
Meet the winners from this year's area county fairs (and don't count up those calories)

By Walter Nicholls
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 20, 2006

A successful county fair judge needs both a sweet tooth and a cast-iron stomach. Or so it seems. Sampling pies then cakes, preserves then pickles, may sound like a fun feeding frenzy, but there are inherent risks.

At the Prince George's County Fair, which closed Sept. 10, judges gathered around a long brown-paper-wrapped table covered with a broad assortment of breads, cookies and jars of jam, each bearing a numbered tag.

"Some can be really good. Some can be really bad," said St. Mary's County resident Ann Richards, who, like her fellow judges, is a member of the Maryland Association of Agricultural Fairs & Shows. These tasting volunteers travel from fair to fair around the region each summer. The berry jams may look enticing. Still, "you really take a chance tasting canned goods," said Roseanne Fitzgerald of Montgomery County.

Aside from an occasional grimace, the competition went smoothly this day. "Next, we have a questionable plate of cupcakes," said a skeptical Richards. Oddly, half of the chocolate frosting was missing from each cupcake. "At least they're not burned and don't taste bad," said Queen Anne County's Pearl Haussler after a suspenseful nibble.

But when talk turned to a certain Bundt cake, tasted earlier that morning, there was immediate agreement and smiles all around. "With the amount of work, I'm thinking this is number one," said Richards as she cut herself a fresh slice. "It tastes good. It looks good," said Fitzgerald. And then, after a second bite: "It keeps the tradition alive," said Haussler with a nod of the head.

Tradition and the fun of competition, essentially, are what county fairs are all about.

* * *

And now, after three hours of sampling and judging, it's official. The best-in-show ribbon for food preparation and baked goods at this year's Prince George's fair went to Becky Moyer for her moist and fine-crumb pineapple-coconut Bundt cake.

"I was speechless," says Moyer, 18, a home-schooled special-needs student who lives in Bowie with her parents, Ray and Frances Moyer. For the past four years, Moyer has entered the baking competition, but this is her first best in show. She chose this particular recipe because "I really like coconut."

At this year's Prince George's fair -- Maryland's oldest fair, established in 1842 -- there were eight categories of baked goods including more than 100 food categories in all. For example, the Cookies category comprised 13 classes, among them Brownies Not Iced and Diet Cookies. In the Cakes category, Moyer entered the Other Cake class as there wasn't a Bundt class. (D.C. residents are also eligible to enter Home Arts at the fair.)

After judges award first-, second- and third-place ribbons in each division, an overall winner, a best in show, is chosen for all baked goods. This year, Moyer was that winner.

Across the United States and Canada each year, more than 3,200 county, state, regional and provincial fairs are held. Traditionally, in addition to baking competitions, there are farm animal, horticulture and agriculture contests. Modern fairs have monster trucks, carnival rides and sideshow games of chance.

Such fairs go back to biblical times, according to Jim Tucker, president of the International Association of Fairs and Expositions, headquartered in Springfield, Mo.

"It's a showcase for a community, a place where you bring what you've grown, made, groomed or baked -- your pride and joy," says Tucker. "You offer it to the community and say, 'What do you think?' "

Winning bakers at fairs across the region have their own ways of beating the odds.

Clarksville resident Jane Radford relies on the law of averages. Radford entered 68 baked and canned items in this year's Howard County Fair and won 51 ribbons. Best in show went to her Italian Coconut Cream Cake.

"It was quite a shock. I didn't think it was up to the level of competition," says Radford, 48, who works for a construction firm. Months before a fair, she will browse through grange, Junior League and regional church cookbooks looking for ideas. "They have the tried-and-true recipes," she says.

At most fairs, baking competitors can create an original recipe, use one that has been passed down for generations or simply select one from a cookbook. Bread and cake mixes, with a few exceptions, are not allowed. And because refrigeration is not available, fillings and frostings may not contain uncooked dairy products.

Arlington County Fair grand champion Phyllis Treadway is quite familiar with the rules. She has entered baked goods every summer for more than 15 years and has taken first prize five times. This year she won the top spot for her Parmesan cheese pepper bread.

"I thought it didn't look too good on top and didn't rise right," says Treadway, 71, a retired day-care provider who comes from a family with 15 children and many fine bakers. "But everyone really liked it." For inspiration, she leafs through cookbooks "until I read a recipe that sounds really good, and I go from there."

Norma Jean Nelson, the best-in-show winner at this year's Prince William County Fair, says an easy way to join in the fun of a fair is to enter a cookie category.

"They don't take a lot of time, and you enter just four," says Nelson, 50, a professional cake decorator and administrative assistant at a Manassas church who has participated in the fair for 25 years. "Cakes take so much time."

Her winning blueberry cream cheese Danish found a fan before it even got to the fair: "One of my son's friends tried it and said, 'This is the most delicious food I've eaten in my life.' "

At the Fairfax 4-H Fair, held annually at Frying Pan Park in Herndon, Ryan Marlow was judged grand-prize winner for his pecan pie.

"I don't cook much, but I'm pretty good at it," says Ryan, 16, a junior at W.T. Woodson High School in Fairfax.

Buoyed by his blue-ribbon win last year for a cucumber and tuna sandwich in the shape of a clover, Ryan entered a ham salad sandwich, a berry cobbler and ginger cookies this year, in addition to his nut pie.

He says his secret is that "I don't use corn syrup. The flavor in my pie comes from butter and brown sugar."

For bakers contemplating the competitive baking world, Carolyn Gurtz of Gaithersburg has a suggestion: "Go with simple."

"If you're starting out, enter, say, just white rolls or bread. And then once you get the feel of it, branch out to sticky buns," says Gurtz, 58, who has been entering the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair every year since 1972. This summer she had 18 baking entries.

The walls of Gurtz's Gaithersburg kitchen hold nearly 200 blue and championship ribbons. For recipes, she relies on her more than 500 cookbooks. This year, for the first time, she took home best in show; her winning entry was a pecan pie. From experience, she should know what judges are looking for.

"They look for little details, like pastry leaves on a pumpkin pie," she says.

Over the years, she has seen a lot of entries that are either overcooked or undercooked. "So calibrate your oven," she says.

Gurtz also suggests buying new baking powder, because "old powder has a nasty taste."

And don't try to get away with using a cake mix. Says Gurtz, "Judges will know."

Recipes, Page 5.