As you may recall, about a month and a half ago we closed the entries for the cooking contest we created (BOOM! Alliteration!). Finally, after some unexpected delays, technical difficulties, and deliberate deliberation (boom! more alliteration!), the judges have come to a conclusion:

First we'd like to mention a couple of entries that (despite not winning) were extremely well-done. The first was entered into the "By the Book" section, by Resdreamer (Sehsis). She recreated almost the entire meal served to Shasta in Tashbaan, which took her hours (and was definitely not inexpensive!). *applause for Sehsis* The following is Sehsis's introduction to her entry.

Resdreamer: "Shasta's Calormene Dinner" (minus desert) (by the book)
It was a fine meal after the Calormene fashion. I don't know whether you would have liked it or not, but Shasta did. There were lobsters, and
salad, and snipe stuffed with almonds and truffles, and a complicated dish made of chickenlivers and rice and raisins and nuts, and there were
cool melons and gooseberry fools and mulberry fools, and every kind of nice thing that can be made with ice. There was also a little flagon of the
sort of wine that is called "white" though it is really yellow.

So, for my entry I have decided to make the dinner Shasta had at the Narnian embassy, the dinner that is. Not the desert parts because it turned
out expensive enough as it is. A few subs were made and these were Chicken for the snipe because they're both birds, mushrooms for the truffle
because they're both fungi and prawn for the lobster because they're both crustaceans.

And here are the sources that I used for inspiration: http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/article ... otine.aspx
http://www.kitchenofpalestine.com/maqluba/ As for the rest...I couldn't possibly say, I watch so many cooking shows I just pick stuff up.

Another well-done entry was by Sir William, for the "Out of the Hat" category. Here is his entry *applause*

The apples come from the feast prepared for Eustace, Jill, and Puddleglum near the end of the Silver Chair. The Unicorn made from apples is just my own highlight, but the roasted apples with the raisins stuck into the cores are from the book. They have varying amounts of brown sugar and maybe some other things that I can't remember, but they are on the whole very simple to make. Raisin with a little water and brown sugar stuffed in the cores of apples and baked with the apple until they are roasted.

There can only be two winners though. For the By the Book[ category,, the judges are pleased to congratulate Narniac101 for her entry of Tumnus' Tea.

Mr. Tumnus' Tea

And it really was a wonderful tea. There was a nice brown egg, lightly boiled for each of them,
and then sardines on toast, and then buttered toast, and then toast with honey, and then a
sugar-topped cake. ~The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, page 15.

As seen in the pictures above:
Toast (and butter, and sardines)
Tea, sugar, and cream
Lightly boiled brown eggs
Lemon slices
Apples
Candied orange peels
Sugar-topped cake, Tumnus style

The recipe used for this cake came from The Narnia Cookbook:

Sugar-Topped Cake ~

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) butter
3/4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 cup raisins, chopped
1/2 cup currants
1/4 cup candied orange peel, chopped fine
1/4 cup blanched almonds
1/4 cup candied cherries (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease an 8" x 2" round pan, and line the bottom with a circle of parchment paper or waxed paper.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
3. With an electric mixer or by hand, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. Add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar alternately with the milk, beating just until mixed.
5. Fold in the fruit and nuts.
6. Pour the batter into the greased pan.
7. Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes. Remove to a rack and cool completely. Remove the cake from the pan, and frost with sugar cake frosting. Decorate with candied cherries if desired.

Icing ~

1 cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla.

References: The Narnia Cookbook, Douglas Gresham and Pauline Baynes
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis

Photo credit goes to ProfessorThatcher for basically hanging from the kitchen chandelier to get practically perfect pictures of this entry.

For the Out of the Hat category, we are pleased to congratulate Ariel of Narnia on her victory for her entry of a throne cake! Pictures will be posted as soon as possible.

The cake itself is a homemade confetti cake (recipe here:
http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2013/03/19/easy-homemade-funfetti-cake/ ).
The icing (unseen except for the small yellow boarders) is mock cream (recipe here:
http://www.all-about-cupcakes.com/mock-cream.html ).
The "stained glass window" is made from melted chocolate and homemade hard candy
(tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBwnSZU5Vgo ).
The fondant and colouring are store-bought (Wilton's Decorator's Preferred Fondant,
Wilton's Icing Colours, and Wilton's Edible Markers).
The cake consists of two 9" round cakes, cut in half horizontally and trimmed in the back to form the stairs. This is covered in pale peachycoloured
fondant in my picture, but feel free to play around with colours.
The thrones are fashioned out of white fondant and stand a little under two inches high. Each one is engraved with a simplified version of the
movie thrones' images. A little yellow edible marker helps the "halos" pop out a little. The cushions are also fondant and coloured according to
the film's props.
The stained glass window is roughly fashioned to look like a peacock, though certainly not true to the film's design. This sits in a slit cut into the
top of the cake.

Congratulations, all of you! You have really done some lovely things! *applause*