Ray K. Erku/Post Independent
Liliana Ruiz is big into flowers. And when she incorporates them into her passion, designing cakes, she blossoms.
With the Garfield County Fair and Rodeo right around the corner, the incoming Rifle High School sophomore and 4-H junior leader is currently preparing younger peers yearning for grand champion results. But this isn’t for heifers, swine or goats. Cake decorating is the name of the game.
“It gets me stress-free,” Ruiz said of cake design. “It keeps me moving, and I do them for my family and they’re like, ‘Oh, my God, you did a great job.’
“That motivates me to do more.”
Last year, Ruiz triumphed when she entered an ombre flower cake into Garfield County Fair’s cake decorating competition. Wooing the judges, her entry won reserve champion, which qualified her for the Colorado State Fair. There, her baked masterpiece then nabbed grand and reserve champion honors.
Ever since, Garfield County’s 4-H program is using Ruiz’s skillset to teach others. Under Ruiz’s tutelage, younger 4-H members are treated to cake decorating classes once a month.
Local 4-H Youth Development Specialist Taylor Ruckman said Ruiz, now a 4-H council vice president, has become highly successful in teaching kids who are a lot younger than she is. Meanwhile, among the 278 local 4-H members, there aren’t a lot of adult instructors. Which means 4-H junior leaders, like Ruiz, have continued to step up.
Ruckman said Ruiz has been so helpful over the past two years and that she’s come out of her shell.
“She’s a good leader,” Ruckman said of Ruiz. “She’s very helpful to the younger kids.”
Ruiz originally signed up for 4-H just before the COVID-19 pandemic, she said. Later on, she discovered that baking cakes is in fact her passion and that making them feeds her creativity.
“You’ve got to have a bit of patience and passion and use your imagination to make the cake,” she said, adding that it takes a lot of pre-planning to bake. “It’s just seeing how it turns out and sketching your design beforehand so you can make it.”
“And if it doesn’t turn out, I keep practicing and practicing until I get it right.”
Ruiz has so far designed between 20-30 cakes since participating in 4-H. The experience is becoming conducive to her thinking about what she wants to do later in life.
“I mean, it’s not what I planned out, but I feel like that’s one of the things I want to do when I grow up,” Ruiz said. “I have a whole wall of awards that I’ve received.”
In addition to her oven creations, 4-H participation has led to Ruiz quilting and scrapbooking. At school, she also participates in volleyball and soccer.
“For quilting, that was the very first project that I did when COVID struck and all that. It just took my mind off things and got really focused on it and made some really cool patterns with,” she said. “I have other things I can do, but I’m really glad I got into that because right now I’d just start finding out new things and just keep on doing sports.”
Asked what kind of cake she’ll be entering for this year’s fair, like a magician who doesn’t reveal secrets, Ruiz only provided a hint.
“That’s all I’m going to reveal,” she said. “Flowers.”
POULTRY IS BACK
This year’s Garfield County Fair and Rodeo is slated for July 22-30.
According to Ruckman, one feature competition is making a return: poultry. Last year’s poultry competition was canceled due to bird flu concerns. The poultry return also includes a peacocks competition.
Ruckman said there’s already 61 kids signed up to compete in poultry.
“So far, within all the species in breeding and market, there’s 208 birds,” Ruckman said.
In addition to 4-H poultry, this year’s fair also includes horse and dog shows, a robotics contest (Ruckman’s personal favorite) and more.
“It’s exciting and daunting at the same time,” Ruckman said about preparing for this year’s fair. “But we’ve been planning it for a while.”
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