JULIE Lindner loves baking for the show.
As long as she could remember, Ms Lindner and her Mum walked the baking section of the Wangaratta Show looking in awe at the creativity and fine arts that had gone into to baking the extravagant cakes.
"One of my aunties used to cook a lot, she was a really good cook so I started having a go myself and it was fun," she said.
"My auntie gave me a book when I made my first fruit cake, she sent me a Country Women's Association (CWA) cook book which showed tips in the back of it back in the 1980s and I've still got that book."
Ms Lindner's long–time enjoyment and passion for cooking reached an all–time high a few weekends ago, when she won the state final for the Victorian Agricultural Shows' (VAS) carrot cake competition.
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Starting here at the Wangaratta Show late last year, Ms Lindner went on a journey of representing the North East show group against six other region representatives at the state final.
Throughout the three stages of competitions, entrants had to follow a strict recipe and bake three different cakes for each of the competitions.
The cakes were then sent off to be judged.
Ms Lindner couldn't attend the official judgement of the state final due to work obligations in her role at home and community care at the council, but she was pleasantly surprised to have learnt that she had won the competition.
"I didn't really expect to win, I mean I knew it was a good cake but you never really know until it's cut," she said.
"The hardest part is always working out when to take it out of the oven when it's actually cooked.
"If you've made carrot cakes before you usually follow the same principle, same method and to take care when you're cooking it."
The recipe for the cakes didn't give away too much information according to Ms Lindner.
The preparation of the ingredients took her two hours alone for her state final cake submission.
"When you're doing it at home you can just slap it together and it'll still turn out alright and taste good," she said.
"But to get a really good texture you've got to grate the carrot by hand and neatly chop everything that has got to be chopped, mix the eggs, the sugar and the oil together long enough so it dissolves.
"It took me a fair while, I was thinking when I'd done it 'gosh, that took me half the day'.
"My son just took the last piece [of the cake] and he seemed to like it."
Ms Lindner has entered various baking competitions including for fruit cakes, biscuits, slices and scones.
"Most years I put a few things in, I've been doing it for a fairly long time," she said.
"I just enjoy doing it, it's fun just putting things in the show."
Ms Lindner said fruit cakes were her preferred cake to bake, even coming third in the fruit cake state final competitions back in 2012.
She finds enjoyment in watching cooking shows such as MasterChef, and became one of Julie Goodwin's biggest fans.
"I like watching MasterChef, but I could never do that... too much pressure," she said.
As part of her award for winning the competition, Ms Lindner received a trophy in the shape of Victoria and $250 in prizemoney.
She plans to continue the enjoyment passed down from her family of baking in competitions, with Wangaratta Show this October on the calendar again.
