In June of 2009, Pat Jacoby, owner of PattyCakes in Highland, IL, was chosen to be a lead decorator on a new show for TLC. The Learning Channel selected some "unknown" decorators and some who had competed on The Food Network Challenges. Pat had assisted Ashley Vicos on the Disney Princess challenge on The Food Network.

Pat selected Steven Stellingwerf, of South Dakota, a long time friend, to be her lead assistant. She asked Eric Woller of Florida to be on the team, as well. She knew Eric from Facebook only! Eric posted some of his amazing sculptures and Pat knew he was going to be the best person to construct the framework for this cake. Lastly, she invited Ruth Rickey to assist her. Ruth was thrilled to be on board.

The theme was to develop a cake for the Fourth of July Celebration at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Air Force One Museum. The cake had to be 5 feet tall and serve at least 150 people. The show aired on September 14, 2009 at 9 pm Central.

We Won!!!!

Pat Jacoby led her team to victory! We successfully completed our cake in 8 1/2 hours (since we had to sit out for 30 minutes thanks to the Yellow team!). All of our mechanics worked and each of us gasped when we saw the cake. We were truly excited that we all were part of this cake.

The next day, we were up early and showed up on set to load the winning cake for transport to Simi Valley, an hour away, for the presentation at the Ronald Reagan Library. Thank goodness the network hires a team of professional movers to transport the cake! We followed behind and then touched up details on the cake before presenting it to the crowd at the Air Force One Museum. The cake was a perfect fit in the room and we see why the Deputy Director chose our cake as the winner. Later, we got to tour the Museum and to tour Air Force One. What a great experience with some of the best decorators in the world!

View pictures of the cake and the event here.

Find out more on the official TLC Ultimate Cake Off site.