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Who is the best of the best? South Carolina State Fair aims to find out

Judges evaluated hundreds of cakes, cookies and more to decide who has the best of each.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Two days before the South Carolina State Fair is a big day. It's judgment day, at least at the South Carolina State Fair, for those who make food.

People like Terry Robinson lined the halls of the Moore Building as early as 7 a.m. Monday morning to enter their best cookies, cakes, biscuits and more.

“I brought a strawberry cake, four layers, and an orange Christmas cake,” Robinson said. 

While anxiously waiting to turn in the carefully crafted sweet treats, Robinson shared her recipe for success.

“I have won awards the past couple of years, and the reason I’m down here is because I have a daughter who passed away seven years ago, and she always wanted me to bring something here,” Robinson said.

Walking in with her daughter Crystal on her heart, Robinson left her nerves behind in the hallway.

“In the beginning, the first year, I never expected to win, and she kept looking on the internet," Robinson said. "And then she tells me that I won the best of the show and I told her, 'No way.'”

Robinson said after drop off, she doesn’t look back. She and many other bakers leave their creations in the hands of the sweetest taste buds in South Carolina, the judges. 

Nancy Harrison is one of the many judges taking a bite out of the many submissions. She said she’s been doing this for the past 20 years.

“I’m not getting a true flavor from it,” Harrison said as she tried a chocolate pound cake.

Each cake is cut in half, one side for taste testing and the other for giveaway. The Fair donates the leftover cakes to organizations that feed people in need. 

The State Fair has two categories, a blue ribbon for first place and a red ribbon for second, based on specific criteria.

“The coloring, it's basically the same color, even all the way around," one judge said. "Taste is, of course, a driver, but then appearance and texture.”

The judging will continue on Tuesday with refrigerated desserts.

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