Following Karen McArthur’s win last year in the ever-competitive scone category, the Echuca Moama Show Society has chosen chocolate cake to be the dish on everybody’s lips this year at the November 9 and 10 event.
The competition honours the late Keith and Eunice Hart, prominent show members, and is named the Keith and Eunice Hart Perpetual Bake-Off.
The show society approached their daughter, Gaylene Whitten, to pay tribute to the pair through the competition.
“It’s in memory of my mum and dad, the trophy, who were big on the show,” she said.
“Eunice made a very good chocolate cake.
“Eunice was well known for her scones, and then also her chocolate cake. She was an extremely good cook, and used to enter in the show cooking all of the time, run the pavilion and the showgirls and everything else.”
In 2023, around 15 entrants prepared four scones each for blind judging by independent, out-of-town judges.
Karen McArthur’s scones won her $50 and her name on the Keith and Eunice Hart Perpetual Bake-Off shield.
Mrs McArthur’s top-secret scone recipe was passed down from her grandmother to her mother, and now to her children and grandchildren.
She will be opening up the family recipe book again in 2024, perfecting her chocolate cake before the November show.
“Bring it on,” Mrs McArthur said.
“I saw it on the Facebook page and thought, ‘I should enter that, I’ve always wanted to enter something’.
“I’ve never won a trophy, this is my first trophy ever in my life!
“I was so excited, my husband was excited for me. The grandkids think it’s great.”
Mrs Whitten is delighted to see her parents’ show legacy honoured through the bake-off.
“How lovely is this, that the traditions continue?” she said.
Entries for the Keith and Eunice Perpetual Bake-Off will open around September, as organiser Marg Berryman works on the schedule for the 2024 Echuca Moama Show.
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