Guest Blogger: Wes Talks About the Honda Bake-Off

Today we have a GUEST BLOGGER!

Remember Wes?

Today he's going to blog about a Bake-Off competition he participated in at his work.

Since Halloween is approaching, I thought it fitting to repost one of my favorite photos of Wes!

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Hi FOODjimoto’ers,

I'm Wesley, Karolyn’s nephew. 

A month ago, a co-worker of mine, Dale Ogami, asked me to join his baking team called The Beachside Bakers. The team was formed to compete in The Honda Ultimate Bake-off. The Honda Ultimate Bake-off competition was held to raise money for the charity, The Power of Pink, which supports women’s health.

Dale recruited me and 2 other Honda engineers: Corey Taguchi and Garett Chang. With 4 guys on the team, we were only missing someone who could actually bake! We enlisted the help of Kimiko DeLaVega aka The Beachside Baker. Can you guess where we got our team name from? Kimiko works with Dale, Corey, Garett, and I on the Torrance campus of Honda corporate headquarters.

Having an expert baker now helping the team, we next needed to figure out a theme. Kimiko recently stumbled upon a recipe from “The Misfit Baker” for Cotton Candy Cookies and improved on its ingredient proportion to derive a Bake-off contest’s winning recipe.

Q: So what does cotton candy remind you of?

A: Carnivals of course!

Being a team of engineers, we decided to over-achieve and enter all 4 categories of the contest.

We themed our team with all things carnival, hoping to win the Favorite Décor and Theme category.

Here's what we made, with links to Kimiko's recipes.

Cotton Candy Cookies, which we entered in the Favorite Cookie category.

Candy Apple Cupcakes, which was entered in the Favorite Cupcake or Cake category.

Chocolate Bacon Brownies, 

Which we hoped would win the Favorite Brownie or Bar.

The Sunday before the event, Dale, Kimiko, my wife Connie, and I started baking the goods.

This is Dale and me in his amazing kitchen, which was built and equipped for making great food.

The kitchen was well organized, with organizational labels and at least 2 of everything. Every good kitchen needs back-up tools (inspired from the race team).

Connie filling cupcake wrappers.

Team members Corey and Garett started on our carnival themed decorations. This even included sewing of our team jackets!

 “Step right up folks, c’mon and get your Cotton Candy Cookies here!”

The judges were employees of Honda. We didn't win in terms of the Bake-off, but we did win by contributing to a good cause and making lasting memories.

The event raised over $500, and no one walked away without a ‘cupcake high’, a win-win situation!

Plus, it was a LOT of fun working on this project with my co-workers outside of the office!

BIG thanks to Kimiko, The Beachside Baker, for sharing her expertise and recipes!

Here's a link to a video of the Honda Bake-Off Dale made.

http://vimeo.com/30776981

Please go to The Beachside Baker for printable recipes.

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