So as CookieCon was winding down at the end of September, another esteemed sugar show was just ramping up some 1,200 miles away in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Yes, it was none other than the Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show (aka OSSAS), the brainchild of master cake decorator and Food Network star Kerry Vincent. Not familiar with it? Well, if you're a sugar arts lover, you should be! It's the largest juried cake competition in the United States with nearly 80,000 people in attendance, and for the last four years, it has also been home to a growing cookie decorating competition, which I've had the distinct pleasure to sponsor and judge. Much to my surprise (and honor), the competition was dubbed "Julia Usher's Creative Decorated Cookies" contest this year, so I am more heavily invested than ever in its outcome! 
That being said, this week I'm putting a twist on our usual Saturday Spotlight by recognizing the first, second, and third place winners in this contest, each of whom jumped through a crazy number of hoops to get to the top! You see, for this competition, entering one cookie is not enough. Just to qualify, each entry must be comprised of at least 12 cookies in a coordinated set. And then to place, an entry must receive high marks (from a panel of leading sugar artists, no less) on several dimensions including originality of design, number of techniques used, difficulty and mastery of those techniques, and overall artistry. Yeah . . . phew! There's a lot to it, but there's a lot to be gained too. This year, the combined prize value topped $1000, and, thanks to my generous underwriters, winnings included an airbrush, a wide assortment of gorgeous plaque cutters from Cookie Cutter Kingdom, and sets of natural, regular, and airbrush colorings from Chefmaster - and that was just the icing on top! But, as grand as those goodies were, there was no bigger prize than the sharpening of skills through the rigors of healthy competition - reason enough for all of you to enter next year (nudge, nudge)!
Okay, so are you ready now to meet these OSSAS artists? I thought so! In addition to sharing their winning cookie photos, I wanted you to get to know each cookier a little more personally. To that end, I've included photos of each in her "cookie element" along with mini autobiographies, pieced together from their answers to a series of cookie questions posed by me.
Enjoy! And please take a moment to congratulate these courageous and deserving competitors!
Meet Anastasia Conyers, First Prize Winner
Photo by Caitlin Frasier
I can't really remember a time when I didn't bake - as a child, I made little dinner rolls for my Barbies out of mom's flour with a little bit of salt and water. But it [baking and decorating] really all started while stationed in Japan about 15 years ago. I wanted to create something special for my kids for Easter, but didn't have much in the way of extra income. I had seen some really neat cookies in a home and garden-type magazine that a friend had and thought why not do that to an egg. Well, the eggs were a hit, but the kids had seen the cookie pictures and then started asking for them whenever there was a special occasion at school. Now, most of their friends call me "the cookie lady."
I've worked both as a full-time decorator and as a sideline hobbyist for friends and family. Now that I'm retired, and Oklahoma has passed its home bakery act, we are in the process of building a kitchen at home from which I will be able to work. Even though it can sometimes be scary being the one to make all the decisions, it's still more exciting to know that I have the ability to do what I want.
It really was you and Chef Blount [who inspired me to start cookie decorating]. I was maybe three months into culinary school, and Chef needed sugar cookies for an event that the school was supporting. Ever the overachiever when it comes to learning, I just had to be part of it. She had a good sugar cookie recipe that didn't spread too much . . . but more so she recommended I read your book, Cookie Swap. It has been one of my go-to reference books ever since. After reading it, I looked at things differently . . . especially once I realized that I am not confined to flat cookies and started contouring and shaping cookies. [EDITOR'S NOTE: Wow, Anastasia! I'm flattered and thrilled that my book helped solidify your interest in decorated cookies!]
For me, the biggest challenge [with cookie decorating] is the size factor. Not everyone can miniaturize what they envision. It sounds simple; if you can do it big, just make it smaller. But sometimes it's harder . . . to minimize a design because it just becomes too muddled, so you end up having to change what you wanted to do.
I have been to the OSSAS as a spectator many times since I’ve lived in Oklahoma, but this was my first year as a participant. I wanted to create something I had not seen in the show before, and being a fan of very frilly, lacy, and kind of girly things, I hoped to get out of my comfort zone a little. I really like the Victorian side of steam punk, and it seems to be emerging again in popularity, so I thought what better way to display multiple techniques. I knew I wanted lots of gears and cogs, but I also wanted them to be pretty! [The most challenging part of my OSSAS entry was] definitely the brown contoured cookie with the gears balanced off the side. It was a mistake that I had made in the first stages of planning and baking, but I liked the way it looked. I probably burned through about a dozen or so cookies trying to reproduce it the way I wanted. One thing I have found in doing contoured cookies is sometimes you just can’t make the dough do what you want, so you have to adapt and improvise or change your design. Since I wanted the cleanest canvas to start, I just kept at it until I had it [the dough] right, so I wouldn’t have to cover mistakes with icing.
And See Her First Prize Cookie Design
[EDITOR'S NOTE: Clearly Anastasia's persistence with the domed gear cookie paid off. It looks fab, don't you think?!]
Photo by Taylor Barron
Meet Lori Mahler, Second Prize Winner
Photo Courtesy of Lori Mahler
I took my first cake class with my mom when I was ten years old, and got back into sweets about two years ago with my husband who is disabled. I love cookies because they are small works of art.
I work full time in the mortgage industry and do cookies and cakes as a hobby. I don't sell or bake for others, but get asked constantly. One day maybe when I retire, I would like to bake more for others. Typically, if I am practicing and bake extras, we donate those items to the local fire department or nursing home.
Kristi Dooley with the Dallas Cake Club [inspired me to explore cookie decorating]. The first [club] meeting was a cookie demonstration, and after that, I was hooked! I love the smallness of cookies, but the most challenging thing about them is also their size. Intricate detail is a lot tougher [than larger cake details], and you need a steady hand.
When the Show's fashion theme* was announced, I immediately thought of camo[uflage]. Walk through any small town in Oklahoma or Texas, and you see men and women in camo everywhere. I come from a family of hunters and fishermen, and their fashion was camo. I thought - green and pink, and instead of Fashion Week, Hunting Week! When I made the cookies [for the Show], I made several dozen. Sanding the bib on the overalls and the bottoms of the waders was challenging, as they kept breaking off. But, luckily, I had four that survived! [*EDITOR'S NOTE: Each year, the OSSAS has a theme, which the cakes entered in the Grand National Wedding Competition need to incorporate somehow. It's not mandatory for the cookie entries to follow the show's theme, though many entrants, like Lori, choose to do so.]
And here's Lori's colorful camo entry!
Photo Courtesy of OSSAS
Last But Not Least, Meet Rosemary Galpin, Third Prize Winner
Photo Courtesy of Rosemary Galpin
I always played around with decorating birthday cakes for my children as they grew up, but I never made decorated cookies. I became interested in royal icing cookies after seeing so many really beautiful examples on Pinterest. If memory serves, I made my first decorated cookies for the special cookie category that you sponsored [at OSSAS] several years ago! [EDITOR'S NOTE: Oh, don't date me - it wasn't that long ago! It's actually only been four small years since I first had the pleasure of participating in Kerry's show!] 
I got addicted to sugar after being dragged by a friend to a Wilton class in 2008. She lost interest after the first class, but I was hooked! I entered my first competition at OSSAS that same year, and won first place and Best of Division for my tiered wedding cake. It was also chosen to grace the pages of Brides 75th anniversary edition! In October 2013, I placed second in the Grand National Wedding Cake Competition at OSSAS, and earned master status. That win helped me decide to quit my nursing job of 35 years in November 2014 to pursue sugar arts full time.
Several extremely talented cookie decorators caught my eye on Pinterest [and spurred my interest in cookie decorating]. Before I knew it, I had hundreds of beautiful cookie examples saved on my cookie board, many of them your work! I used one of your works to create my first entry for Oklahoma, the brightly colored cookie jewelry. I also greatly admire Nadia of My Little Bakery in California and several other extremely talented Russian cookie artists.
Cookie decorating definitely presents its own challenges. Thinking outside the box is a requirement to give cookies, which are traditionally flat, a 3-D look and appeal. Hearing someone say "that's a cookie?" is what motivates me to try new shapes and designs for my cookies.
[Regarding this year's cookie entry . . .] I'm a sucker for romance, so valentines seemed a perfect choice. Exchanging valentines was one of my favorite things back in my school days, so I decided to create the box and cards I shared with others out of cookies. The cut-outs filled with red isomalt were inspired by cellophane hearts of old. I guess the thing that challenges me most is the same with all of my entries: getting them from central Texas to Tulsa in one piece! I kept having visions of finding the large isomalt hearts broken and laying in the bottom of the cookie box. [EDITOR'S NOTE: Ooh, thank goodness for us they made it in beautiful shape, as the photo below attests!]
Rosemary's Lovely Hearts, in Tip-Top Condition!
Photo Courtesy of Rosemary Galpin
And that completes this week's special OSSAS cookie competition roundup! I don't know about you, but I always enjoy seeing the diverse ways that people approach the same cookie challenge. I mean, would you ever have expected three winning entries as different as steam punk, valentines, and camouflage?!
But as wildly divergent as these sets are, they have one thing in common: cookie creators who were willing to take a risk, all in the spirit of pushing themselves. Even if Anastasia, Lori, and Rosemary hadn't walked away with top honors, they'd be winners in my book just for trying!
Here's hoping many more of you will show up for next year's OSSAS. (Heads up! The theme has already been announced, so it's not too soon to start planning!)
Comments (4)