I had SO much fun this past weekend for my appearance at the OC Fair! I was a featured artist, where guests of the fair watched me make 3 full-scale cakes in real-time. The first day I made a cake in this year’s exhibit theme, which was “Live, Eat, Grow.” The Exhibit Promenade was adorned with beautiful foliage and had an amalgam of a modern, yet retro, shabby, urban, organic vibe to it. I love-love-love it: totally up my alley. My section had wooden doors as my back wall, picnic table to work on, fencing with misplaced lawn chairs mounted on them, an air-stream trailer, and beautiful umbrellas suspended in the tall ceiling of the 22,000 sq. foot hangar. It amazes me with how much creativity the universe is gifted with. These people are amazing! Speaking of these people, I was hosted by some of the greatest people. I had the pleasure of working with Renee Fontes, Richard Fontes, and Chef Louise Mellor. They were very accommodating and made my experience at the fair a lot of fun. I wanted the first cake to be very lively, green, organic, but with a modern design twist to it. Of course it had to be colorful with some of my signature techniques, like painting and making figures. I carved out a tree trunk made of rice cereal treats and cake as my base and a full-tiered cake to go on top of that. I had ’til 9 o’clock every night to finish a full cake. I didn’t get a chance to do everything that I wanted, like add more veggies, foliage and branches around the cake. Despite all of that, my vision was met and I was very pleased with it. It turned out to be a whopping 6 feet tall!
The second day I made a modern wedding cake. Guests learned a lot of techniques they could easily do themselves, such as stenciling and making bows out of gum paste. The colors were black, white and gold. I placed two cameos of a husband and wife on the top tier, which I love doing on cakes. It’s my modern/current take on a wedding topper.
The third day I made a signature “Greggy Cake.” My vision was inspired by a mixture of Aztec patterns, Gaga, the Eighties, current fashion trends and Punk Rock. I did a lot of painting on the cake with horizontal lines, some animal print and airbrushing in gradient colors. These kind of cakes make me extra happy. Pretty much every teen that passed by said they wanted it for their birthday: which is the exact response that I love to hear. I have quite a few fans who are kids and tweens, but I think I found my SUPER FAN. Her name is Sam. She cried when she saw me and couldn’t believe I was there. She came back to check my progress on the cake and I surprised her by putting her name on the top tier. She just about died. haha. I have video down below.
These three days definitely go in the books for one of the most memorable moments in my life. I was immersed in a sea of amazing, creative, nice, and genuine people. I had strangers come up to me and say, “You look like the happiest baker there is.” I had another guy say, “You look so happy doing what you’re doing. Good for you. That’s the key to living a great life.” Kids being curious, in awe and asking me questions about everything. Or strangers simply looking right at me and smiling: I love that. Moments like this are priceless. This is what makes my job so rewarding. I’m so grateful and blessed to be living my dream and doing what I love to do.
Other than that, the Cowabunga Corn Dog’s are pretty awesome. I ate my booty off, surprised I didn’t get a heart attack. The art exhibits’ are killin’ it with the amazing art. The OC Fair is definitely worth the visit. Oh, and by the way, my cakes will be on display throughout the entire fair, (July 15- August 14) so you should definitely go and check it out.
Below are some of the very few pics that we took. For more information, you could check out the fair’s website at http://www.ocfair.com/2011/
