Bakers vie for top fig honors at Fig Festival

By Connie Leinbach

As the fig cake judges were sampling the entries in the Fig Festival Cake Bake-off competition in the Berkley Barn, Kristi Reichard was already contemplating her entry for next year.

Reichard was the winner again this year in the innovative category of the bake-off, the signature event of the annual Fig Festival.

All entries are numbered for the blind tasting and the winners’ names are revealed after the judges have chosen.

Her pistachio fig cake bombs topped the other 12 entries in that category.

“There were so many different visions at play in this category,” said one of the judges, John Simmins, “but when we saw these pistachio bombs, they really just blew our pants off.”

The green cakes had a white cake bottom layer infused with fig simple syrup, topped by a layer of fig preserves and fresh figs and topped with a pistachio cheesecake dome with a fig center and covered in white chocolate ganache.

“I have a competitive streak,” Reichard said as she and her family watched the judging, but this event is the only one she competes in. “This (contest) is just fun.”

Reichard won the innovative category in 2023 and was tied with Michele Thornell for first place last year.

Islander Debbie Leonard came in second this year with her fig cupcakes.

In the seafood category, three entries were judged by guest chef Dean Neff.

He chose “Figalicious pickled shrimp” in a jar by Cindy Davia of Beaufort, Carteret County.

“This was surprising,” he said about the dish. “It caught me off guard and it was just delicious.”

This was Davia’s first win.

“I had a recipe for some pickled shrimp, and I just reinvented it because I like things that are kind of the savory-sweet, and it just came to me,” she said.

Her grandson Walker Raeburn, 12, and his friend Brayden Morris, 7, both of Beaufort, captured first place in the youth entries with a strawberry fig preserves cake with lemon cream icing.

Walker has been baking fig cakes since 2019, winning first place in 2021 and second place in 2019.

In the traditional category, Thornell of Emerald Isle captured the top prize out of four entries.

Second-year fig preserves entrant Angela Cox of Darlington won top honors for her jalapeno preserves, judged in a people’s choice way on Friday evening.

It was the second time her preserves won.

“It surprised me,” she said, noting that these preserves are popular at home. “I can’t make them fast enough.”

Next year, she will have a booth at the festival.

A fig barbecue sauce by B.J. Beasley captured first place.

Fest goers who want to taste the preserves pay a nominal fee to do so and proceeds of that go toward a new Ocracoke School scholarship in honor of the late John Simpson, who, with his partner Trudy Austin, enjoyed making fig preserves and fig barbecue sauce, for which he won prizes.

Festival Organizer Sundae Horn said more than $2,200 from the barbecue sauce tasting and festival proceeds will go toward the scholarship.

She was happy with the three-day event that began with a fig dinner on Thursday night, featuring fig-smoked Cheshire pork ribs with hot sorghum and pickled figs by Neff.

Although a downpour hit the area Friday evening, outdoor events, such as a staging of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by the nonprofit Mended Wing Theater Company, under whose aegis the event occurred, went on inside the Berkley Barn.

Among the festival volunteers were Debbie Leonard, who created the fig fest dinner dessert of a snickerdoodle fig cookie with vanilla ice cream on top and fig caramel sauce with candied pecans.

Sara and Mark Hannum and Margaret Siegal helped each day, Horn said.

Next year’s festival will be Aug. 7 to 8.