Everyone’s a winner at the OHCE Pie and Cake Fair

An elderly woman walks across the parking lot of the McMahon Tomlinson Nursing and Rehabilitation Center with two cakes in hand. Exiting the building is a young boy with his mother. Seeing the struggling woman, he runs to help her bring them in.

Politeness isn’t the only thing being served at the Oklahoma Home and Community Education (OHCE) Pie and Cake Fair.

People from the general area come every year to the fair, Carol Hart, OSU Family and Consumer Science Educator for Caddo and Comanche counties, said. Some of the contestants came from OHCE, the local 4-H, the general public and the McMahon Tomlinson. Thirty-two pies and cakes were entered in Tuesday’s contest, including a Dirt Pie Cake, a Pineapple Upside-Down Bundt Cake and a Berry Fruit Pie.

At 9:30 a.m., contestants registered their desserts. At 10 a.m., the judges started to decide the winner, which took about an hour and a half. At the end of judging, everyone sampled their choice of pies and cakes.

Daniel Litchford, Hospice Chaplain at Comanche County Memorial Hospital and one of the judges, said they judged the desserts based on three qualities: appearance, flavor and texture.

For siblings Olivia, 12, and Logan Carnahan, 9, this was their first time competing in the fair. Olivia and Logan each registered two pies, a raspberry fruit pie and a lemon custard pie for Olivia, and a dutch apple pie and chocolate custard pie for Logan.

Letha Seibold won three times this year for a strawberry cream and coconut cream pie and a German chocolate cake. She said she enjoys baking and it was fun to compete. She got the recipe for her strawberry crust from her grandmother. Her coconut cream came from a Betty Crocker cookbook she got when she was married. She plans on using the prize money on her kids and grandkids.