For 25 years, Kerry Vincent carried the torch for the Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show, held annually in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The 2018 event proved a crowning achievement, with a record $482,225 in prizes ($106,125 in cash and $376,100 in product).

And then to the sad surprise of many, Vincent, the event’s organizer, announced that this would be the final curtain for her show.

“The theme for 2019 is, there is no theme,” she announced during the event’s final day on Sunday, September 30. “For a few seconds I waited and watched the wheels turn. Contestants believed there was an open ‘choose what you like’ theme. Then I announced, ‘The curtain is coming down on the Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show.’ There were floods of tears and disbelief and to this day I receive calls from shattered emotional contestants.”

If one cake is a feast then the Grand National Wedding Cake Competition and the Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show is surely a banquet, Vincent said.

High profile sugar artists from across the globe staged another amazing showcase, glittering sugar magic with a combination of inspired design and technical expertise. Cakes beautifully crafted reached majestic heights of design.

Grand prize winner Susan Trianos of Brampton, Ontario, Canada, won $32,000 in cash and $20,009 in product for her elegant blue and white design inspired by the 2018 theme: “I am a modern classic.”

She runs Learn to Cake with Susan Trianos, an online school with 24-hour access to video tutorials on cake decorating, baking, cookies, and all things sweet.

“Throughout my 24 years in this profession, through all of my transitions, I’ve continued to make custom cakes for a vast number of clients," Trianos says. "I’ve made cakes for movies, billboards, ads and television shows.”