Veronica Seta entered the Milan Cake Festival with this romantic wedding cake. Read on for more about her competition experience as well as a closer look at her beautiful cake.

1) What were the criteria or the guidelines for this competition—the theme, the rules, etc. Do you have to provide a tasting cake? If so, what was the flavor?

The competition had different contests, from live ones such as CDIF competition with Cakes judged for their design and their taste and the competition I decided to take part in, which is “I wanna be a Cake Designer,” divided into 9 categories where cakes were judged just for their design.

The categories were: Celebrative Cakes (Birthday, birth, Christmas etc), Sculpture, Painting, Royal Icing, Flower arrangements, How a flower blossoms (one type of flower represented in every phase of its life), cupcakes (12 cupcakes designed with only two different decorative techniques), Wedding Cake and I love my country (cakes celebrating one’s own country and its traditions).

Every technique was allowed for every category, there were  just restrictions about the dimensions of the cakes, the board should not be more than 40 cm and no restrictions for the height.

My category was Wedding cake.

2) Why did you settle on the design you did? Were there other designs you considered?

Since the beginning my design was fixed in my mind. I wanted not a classic Wedding Cake, the one with the bride and groom on the top but a cake which should be a bride’s gift to her groom, a mixing of British romantic tradition and Oriental one. And a touch of Shabby Chic I always love to insert in my designs such as the writing and its frame.

3) Anything that was particularly tricky/new/unusual for you with this design? Anything you changed in progress or at the last minute?

At the beginning I wanted the bride’s skirt to be full of small roses, then I decided to change it alternating layers of ruffles and lace, leaving four small roses and their leaves at the bottom. While working on it I thought it would be more elegant to focus the attention on a few roses.

4) Any difficulties with transporting the design? Any last minute repairs needed?

I had to reach the location in Milan by flight and the journey was 1 hour 15 minutes far from Naples, where I live.

The cake transporting was very difficult. It was big and I decided to split it into two pieces and put it in boxes wrapped in transparent plastic sheets.

The crew on board was very kind with me helping me in transporting it in total safety to the destination.

My husband followed me as ever to help me and support me in this experience.

Unlikely the day we left there was a terrible rain and when we got to Milan I was afraid my cake got wet and was destroyed.

I was terribly anxious on how to get to the location without ruining my design and actually it was a miracle that no repairs were needed at the end when presenting my cake.

5) How many designs were entered in this competition? How was your design received—by the judges? by the attendees? Are there any comments you can share?

In my category there were 14 designs. Unlikely I do not know how the judges received my design because they just chose a winner commenting on their choice of the winner and not on the other Cakes participating but I received many compliments from the attendees who admired it and took some shots to take with them. It was judged as very detailed, a perfect mixing, beautiful and elegant. They really liked the writing and its frame.

6) What did you gain out of participating in this competition? Will you compete again? Anything you’ll do differently?

Every competition is a way of looking at your experience from a different point of view. It helps you to know new people and new designs and new techniques and you have the chance to grow as a designer and as a person. I can truly tell I am not disappointed by the fact I did not win because I took home all the admiration of a public I did not think to have, people who stopped me at the airport on departure and on arrival to look at my design, to make questions, to comment, to wish me the best. People who stopped before my cake at the festival in admiration and people I met the following days in shops who recognised me and stopped me to tell they really liked my designs. These competitions are the chance to find out how many friends, relatives and colleagues support you in these experiences hoping your dreams come true, because they love who you are and what you do. And that is the best award ever.

Veronica Seta is based in Naples, Italy. You can see more of her work here.