I Won a Dessert Competition

Dear friends,

Some of you might have noticed my absence in the community for the past 10 days. I wasn't even sure if I wanted to appear today as well. These last few days of my life were a rollercoaster. I experienced such mixed and unstable emotions that I lost my focus and wasn't able to create any content.

The euphoria at the beginning of the week turned into chaos as some precious lives were lost in a tragic event. It has left me and all those who knew those people heartbroken.

Anyways, this post wasn't meant to share my sorrows, I have to deal with them on my own. I am here to share the exciting competition that I won. Here it goes,

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Few weeks ago, I was informed that there's going to be a Salad & Dessert Competition in our Ladies Club. I usually don't participate in such events because I don't have time for such stuff. Although, I truly enjoy it.

This time, when I was asked to participate, I couldn't say no. However, I was sure there's no chance of winning as there were some very good competitors. Besides, I am not a dessert person and I am not good with presentation but I guarantee delicious flavors.

I chose to make Blueberry Cheesecake for the competition. It's a No-Bake cake and pretty easy to make. I have prepared it several times but it was years ago. I was a little nervous but took the challenge.

The thing with this cake is that I use specific ingredients to ensure the best flavors. The items are not available usually in local markets. For the competition, I had to get the items from Islamabad's top grocery store. I needed a specific cream cheese and fresh blueberries which are not very common in Pakistan but luckily I got them from Islamabad.

I made the cake one night before the competition. As on the actual day, I had to set up the table too in a presentable manner.

The cake was an easy job, what kept me on my toes was plating. I was asked to make a cake only but it was my idea to do three single plates for three judges. Now the question was how to do plating?

There was a time, I used to watch Masterchef Australia and got my inspiration from the show. But that night I was just blank. I searched Pinterest for hours and finally decided to do something simple and went with the saying, "Less is More."

Like a professional pastry chef, I prepared fresh blueberry syrup and carefully applied brush strokes of that syrup on plates. The strokes made me smirk, they were looking quite good and restaurant-like. I put mini-cheesecakes along the line, added some crumbs, berries and fresh flowers. I was satisfied with the result and decided to make similar fresh plates just before the competition.

^{Sample Plate for Judges}

Next morning, I wasn't fresh as I stayed in the kitchen until midnight and had been driving the whole town in search of food color and decent crockery. I hurriedly did the breakfast and went to the competition place with a friend. We first checked my designated place and then went to the market to buy some table accessories. We set-up the table and then I dropped my friend on my way back to home.

I had a severe headache and still had to do the plating. There were just two hours left in the competition and those hours were total chaos. I finished the plating first and then got ready and it was quite a task to take the plates and cake to the competition place.

^{I don't like the look of the cake as I have done it better before but I had to do what I was asked to do and excuse me for the blurry picture, I was in a hurry.}

My beautiful plates were a mess when I reached the destination. Berries were falling out of plates and crumbs were all over. Only the cake was intact. There were 2 minutes in the judging time. I rearranged the plates as fast as I could and placed them on my table.

We were supposed to go to the other hall during the judging and on my way my jaw dropped as I scanned the whole room full of exquisite desserts and salads. I was sure I wasn't going to get any position.

After half an hour, the judges came into the hall. I was relaxed and sure that it's not going to be me. Soon the host started announcing the names of salad winners. I clapped for my friends. They did an amazing job. Then it was the turn of dessert winners. Third winner was also a friend, I congratulated her and was very happy for her. Second winner wasn't my acquaintance but she did a marvelous job too. First winner was ... wait ... it sounded like my dessert and my name. There was hooting and shouting by my friends, still surprised, I walked to the chief guest and received my prize.

My head was still pounding but the excitement made me forget it for sometime. We all went to the food hall and tried each others' desserts and salads. I received so many compliments that day and many people asked for the recipe.

Just like that a memorable day ended.

I will share the recipe in another post and conclude this post here.

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Masterchef ,
event-horizon