Community & Business
31 August, 2024
A winning recipe that takes the cake
CUTTING up the cherries for her dark rich fruit cake has proven to be the winning factor for Peeramon’s Maree Hamilton who has been named the winner of a highly prestigious 2024 Queensland Ag Show competition.
Maree is understandably thrilled about winning the Dark Rich Fruit Cake Competition and attributes her victory to changing the way she added the cherries to her family recipe.
It was the son of the chief steward of the culinary section at Malanda Show who gave her the handy tip about the cherries after she just missed out on winning the competition at the local show.
“I was entering the pavilion to pick up the cake when Tom, the son of the chief steward of the culinary section, met me at the entrance and said ‘do you realise how close how close it was between first and second? It came down to the cherries’ and how they were cut finer,” Maree recalled.
Maree changed the way she added the cherries and the rest is history.
While Maree has had local victories, the State title, which was decided at the Rocklea Showgrounds on 3 August, was a real thrill for the seasoned cook.
“I was watching the dark rich fruit cake judging via livestream on our verandah at home,” she said.
“It was very exciting, I waved my arms and called out ‘yahoo’, I was over the moon.”
Maree, who represented the Malanda Show and North Queensland Sub-chamber of Agricultural Societies, said the win was made all the more special because the last time a Far North Queensland cook won the competition was in 2014 by Barb Hapgood, a good friend of hers.
It was Barb’s husband Billy who encouraged Maree to enter the event.
“Barb won the competition in 2014 and sadly she passed away just before the Malanda Show this year,” she said.
“Prior to the 2023 Malanda Show, I took a slice of cake to Billy and asked for some pointers. ‘You’ve won it’, he said.”
But because of the timing of the show that year, Maree had to wait until this year to enter the competition.
Maree’s winning cake was on display at the recent Brisbane Ekka.
