Beenleigh Show’s cookery competitors are gearing up to show off their baking skills, for the chance to compete at the Ekka this year.
Held in the exhibition pavilion, the cookery competitions have been a staple of the Beenleigh Show for decades, with categories ranging from cakes and biscuits to jams and preserves.
Beenleigh Show’s Chief Steward, Katrina Davidson said there is a new competition in the mix this year.
“Our bigger events are the dark rich fruit cake competition which we have been doing for a number of years and our newest competition which is the Anzac biscuits,” she said.
“The Anzac biscuits is a new initiative from the Next Generation sub-committee and will be open to 18 to 40-year-olds.”
“The winners will be eligible to enter the sub-chamber final held at Beenleigh in April and the winner of the chamber final have the chance to represent their region at the Ekka.”
Next Generation is the Queensland Chamber of Agricultural Societies youth steering committee. The committee is passionate about agricultural shows, local communities and continuing the legacy of iconic Queensland events.
Ms Davidson said the Anzac biscuits competition was brought in last year, to attract a younger demographic to the show.
“The cookery section has been an older demographic for quite some time, so it was a committee idea to get a younger demographic more involved in the show and in the competitions,” she said.
“We also have cooking categories for girls and boys under 13 and ages between 13 to 17 and a competition for prep age kids and under 8s to decorate bought bikkies.”
“That’s just a bit of fun from the cookery perspective and they get great enjoyment out of it.”
Ms said on of the Beenleigh shows most popular cooking category is the preserves, jams and homemade sweets.
“We get a lot of entries for this one, especially the jams,” she said.
“It’s simpler in terms of cookery because you can cook it way in advance, unlike the baked goods, you can cook jam weeks before even, which lets all the flavours meld together.”
“Strawberry jam is our most popular category, which makes it hard for the judges who have to judge between 9 to 10 strawberry jams.”
Ms Davidson said while entries have closed “you are welcome to contact us if you are looking to enter”.
