VALDOSTA — “Imagine sitting in a rose wallpapered cottage located in the English countryside, the sun shining through lace curtains, as you sip a spot of afternoon tea and enjoy a special dish of trifle. If your imagination really runs wild, picture yourself dining with the Queen and being served trifle in a crystal dish after supper. This is the quintessential British dessert, although many cultures have created their own versions. My grandmother, (the late Alice Green of Madelia, Minn.) who migrated from Boston, England, to Boston, Mass., in the early 1900s, and mother (Lois Bower of Winnetka, Ill.,) made this for years using homemade pound cake as well as custard from scratch ...”

Those lovely words were from Claudia Holliway of Lake Park as she entered Grandma Alice’s English Trifle in the 42nd annual Valdosta Daily Times Cookbook Contest. The second entry was from Marie Wood of Valdosta.

The contest will continue through the month of April. Deadline for entering is April 30.

Readers may submit one recipe each in Appetizers, Salads, Breads, Vegetables, Meats, Desserts, Cookies and Candies (one category), and diet foods. To enter, simply e-mail your recipes to vdt.recipes@gaflnews.com. Adults 16 and above may enter as many as eight recipes while those 15 and under may enter one recipe in the children’s category.

The nine categories will be judged for Creative Design Winner and Runner-up.

Among the judges are Harold Chambers of Austins Cattle Co. and Brenda Anderson of Two Friends Cafe & Market.

Grand Prize will be awarded $300, the Grand Prize Runner-up $200, the remaining eight first places $50 and 10 second places $25. Centerpieces will be given to the third places.

A total of $1,200 in cash prizes will be given in the contest.

When you enter, be sure to include your daytime phone number as well as your mailing address so we can inform you if you have been selected as one of the 50 contestants to bring your already prepared dishes to the June 5 Taste-off at Valdosta Technical College.

Claire Spriggs-Marr, 2000 Grand Prize Winner, will serve as mistress of ceremonies.

Holly Wheelis of Valdosta joins Nancy Stalvey of Hahira in the cake-decorating portion of the contest, which features a “Gone With the Wind” theme in honor of the Crescent and Georgia author Margaret Mitchell. Brenda Diah, former pastry chef and baker at Amelia Island Plantation and current advertising representative for The Valdosta Daily Times, will be the sole judge of the cake decorating portion of the Taste-off.

Following are the cake-decorating rules:

1. Each contestant will have his or her own table.

2. OPTIONAL: Contestants may decorate their cakes in the kitchen on the high counters and have access to the fridges and the sinks. Then they can move them to the display tables in the main room. NOTE: This rule will depend on the place where the Taste-off is held.

3. Each contestant may have one helper as long as she or he doesn’t decorate.

4. The cakes must be brought in with no icing. The icing should be done by the decorator. There should be no decorations on the cake that were not made by the decorator. An exception is crumb coating. See the following Web site for more info on this (http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-crumb-coat.htm) — It is meant only to keep moisture in the cake and seal the crumbs — not meant as a final layer of frosting. With three hours to prepare the cakes, this is a helpful step that can be done ahead of time, but does not show on the final product. And, if the cakes are baked a few days ahead of time, or a few weeks ahead of time and frozen, then this is a crucial step.

5. One judge alone will be appointed to monitor the cakes and to announce the time to begin and end with a reminder of the halfway point. That judge, who has a background as a pastry chef and baker for Amelia Island Plantation, will determine the winner.

5. Decorators will have three hours to work, from 11:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m.

6. The rules will be sent in a letter to each contestant in the cake decorating contest.

Those interested in competing in cake decorating should send pictures of the cakes they have decorated, along with their names, addresses and daytime phone numbers to elizabeth.butler@gaflnews.com, and I will inform you if you have been chosen.

All participants chosen for the Taste-off will be featured in the award-winning cookbook, which is a part of the July issue of the Valdosta Scene magazine.



Elizabeth Butler is the Lifestyles editor of The Valdosta Daily Times.