Great Frederick Fair opens with judging of cakes, cookies and much more

Sep. 17—It was just after 10:30 a.m. Friday, and Jane Radford and Claretta Miller were starting their morning with about 100 slices of cake.

They were already more than an hour into their work judging entries submitted at The Great Frederick Fair, which kicked off Friday at the Frederick Fairgrounds.

As Miller cut a thin slice off another entry in the pound cake category, the two examined it with the discerning eye of veteran bakers.

They were looking for proper texture, height, and distribution, and making sure each entry didn't have too many bubbles in it from being mixed for too long.

A cake has to be done all the way through, and have a proper amount of moisture when you eat it, Radford said.

Their work would take about two and a half hours.

"Then you don't want to eat ever again," Radford said.

She's been baking for about 20 years, she said, and entered items in the Howard County Fair and at the Maryland State Fair. Between the two events, she prepared 149 entries, she said.

Miller said she's been judging cakes for about 25 years.

She bakes and cans in her free time.

"I've got pumpkins to do this weekend when I get home," she said.

Nearby, Jeannie Raines and John Main judged entries from 30 categories of cookies.

Raines said she bakes three or four times a week — mostly pies, cookies, and cobblers.

For the entries, she was looking to see that all six cookies submitted for an entry were the same size, and that the butter and other ingredients were fresh.

Brownies and other items should come from the middle of the pan, rather than from the outside sections, where they'll be baked harder, she said.

Bakers should make sure their products are done, but not overdone, Main added.

Across the hall, Kunni Biemer was judging needle arts — cross-stitch, needlepoint, crocheting, and more.

"It's a very broad category," Biemer acknowledged.

Her grandmother got her interested in needle arts when she was young. Then, she took it up again when she was in college.

"I needlepointed through undergrad, and then crocheted through grad school," she said.

The rhythmic nature of the work "keeps me sane," she said.

She'll do complicated pieces if she wants a diversion, or a simpler design if she just wants something to do while she watches TV.

She looks at the difficulty of entries, but also how well they're done, she said.

She pointed out a Best in Show piece — how straight, flat, and even the stitches were.

Another piece was in the running for Best in Show, "but see how big the stitches are?"

People need to see what types of crafts are out there, and the fair is a great way to do that, Biemer said.

The judges are always glad to see how many entries come in each year, she said.

"It does our hearts good to have people enter," she said.

Follow Ryan Marshall on Twitter: @RMarshallFNP