Cakes at the Eastern Idaho State Fair

Well, all of the cakes at the Eastern Idaho State Fair are something to behold. Amazing designs and most of them look pretty delicious. But you actually don’t want to bite into any of these cakes since they are all filled with Styrofoam. This is done to preserve the cake over the period it is on display, but even though it’s not real cake inside, there’s a ton of work that goes into production

“The inside of all the cakes in the room are Styrofoam so that they can be on display all week without going bad,” baker Lanae Workman explained. “But all of the stuff that’s on the cake is all decorate in sugar, so the flower, the leaves, all decorated in sugar.”

And although there is no real baking involved in the display there’s a considerable amount of time that goes into each cake.

“Probably close to 65 or 70 hours of work that goes into one cake,” Workman said.

Lanae knows a lot about these cakes because she’s been making them since fair first started holding the event.

“They started in 2007,” Workman said. “I’ve competed every year since the very beginning.”

But this year is a little different for Lanae.

“I have a few ribbons and things from different ones, this is the first time I’ve won the whole show, best in show.”

She was the winner, but she was impressed by many of the other cakes on display as well.

“A lot of them are absolutely impressive. There’s so much work that goes into this stuff and people don’t really realize it when it’s on a cake and they are just going to eat it for a birthday or a wedding, there’s so many hours that go in behind the scenes, that most people don’t even know about.”