Very disheartened about the Illinois State Fair's decision to change the awarding of culinary championships.
Both of my decorated cakes won blue ribbons (1st. place) in their respective classes. However, I was shocked to see there was no champion in the division when we went to the fair yesterday. The fair has decided to merge 'decorated cakes' with another division competing for championship.
I came home and dug out the premium book and saw that it was true and that I had overlooked the information when I sent in my entry fees. Others might have noticed, as there were only about 50% of the usual number of entries this year.
Based on this change, I may not be entering any cakes again. I view it as not exactly unfair, but not worthwhile. Decorating a dummy cake is rather expensive compared to baking a batch of cookies. The cake forms run $5 to $20 each. The fondant covering is around $25 and I have probably invested $200 in decorating tools.
Thanks for letting me rant.
= new reply since forum marked as read
As for the competition, yeah, putting decorated cakes with plain baked goods doesn't seem fair at all. Even fancy baked goods aren't the same. Can you petition the fair, hopefully with other decorators? Maybe they'll see how it affected the number of competitors.
That is a great accomplishment 
I'd talk to the state fair board when you can and find out why they changed the divisions.