Circa 1913, Buffalo Bill cuts a
birthday cake for his young fans.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to our wrap up of the 2021 Buffalo Bill Birthday Cake Contest held on-line Sunday, February 28th in celebration of Buffalo Bill's 175th Birthday!

This event was produced by the ICFA's Reunion Committee in response to the postponment of our 2021 biennial reunion due to the pandemic. Recognizing the membership's convivial desire for social activity, committee members Terry Cody lobbied for an alternative event and Dwight Cody inspired the Cake Contest concept.

Our own ICFA Vice President and Chair of our Reunion Committee, Kevin Cody emceed the competition while contestants competed for prizes and recognition for the most decorative and creative Buffalo Bill Birthday Cake.

Backstage, our Video Director, Deborah Gordon set up the Zoom meeting, ran the waiting room, ushered in our guests, coached them to add their names to their video feed and muted their audio on arrival. During the contest, Deborah managed the voting and without her expertise, this event might not have occured!

Once the audience was assembled, as Master of Ceremonies, Kevin Cody kicked off the show by welcoming the attendees. After mentioning author Steve Friesen's work as a Director of the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave at Lookout Mountain, he identified himself, his sister and contestant Kellie Edwards, their cousins Paul Cody and Philip Boal are all direct descendants of Buffalo Bill. Later, genealogist Paul Marquez, announced himself a direct descendant of Pat Garrett, captor of Billy the Kid!

Emcee Kevin Cody, Bethlehem GA	Video Director Deborah Gordon, Woodside CA	Carmen Wendt, Scottsdale AZ	Author Steve Friesen
Bill & Jan Hagel, Lawrence KS	Kellie, Kylie & Andrew Edwards, Cody WY	Genealogist Paul Marquez, Golden CO	Mark Gleeson, Pinner GBR
Paul & Winnie Cody, Davao City PHL	Philip Cody Boal, London GBR	Nancy Piver, San Luis Obispo CA	Roxana Reid, Spring Bay ON
Joshua Robertson Family Firestone, CO	Scott Thornton, Red Deer AB	Terry Cody & Janet Owens, San Diego CA	Dwight & Ina Cody, Cape Cod MA
Allan Cody, Boston MA	Harold & Dolores Thornton, Calgary AB	Vicki McCarty, North Platte NE	Larry & Judy Schoch, Wausau WI
Tyler Cody, Bethlehem GA	?	Mom & Girl

Continuing, Kevin reviewed the seven entries by spotlighting each one as he read the contestant's description of their entry.

Entry #1 It is a Buffalo Bill Stetson Hat which he liked to wear and it has the Indian Chief Bonnet, Covered Wagon for settlers and Buffalo for namesake and Rifle for Pony Express. The cake is a carrot chocolate cake with royal icing all pieces were made with icing, no molds, all hand done, not a chef, just an everyday cook.	Entry #2 This cake entry consists of (2) 10" and (1) 6" yellow cake layers, frosted with chocolate buttercream. There are various characters from Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show like Annie Oakley, Chief Joseph and a few other characters familiar to his show. The top tier has chocolate boulders with the famous Mounted Cowboy image riding high, as it does in Cody, Wyoming near the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. It has rolled out and sliced caramel around the base border of the cake and down the back of the cake to look like Buffalo Bill's beloved fringed jacket. At the base of the top tier I created a star out of caramel representing Buffalo Bill's Medal of Honor with "175" piped into the medal.	Entry #3 Our granddaughter Naomi and Buffalo Bill have the same birthday so we thought we would celebrate together.
Entry #4 The Deadwood Stage was a feature of Buffalo Bill's Wild West, here embodied as a cake with molasses cookie wheels and marzipan trim! Entry #5 This cake is the "Black Buffalo Bill Belt Buckle Birthday Bake!" The baker says they spent only 10 hours on this cake. Since the store ran out of silver cake spray, so vanilla-flavored black frosting dyed black was substituted. The turquoises are blue jelly beans and everything is 100% edible! It'll be shared with friends after the contest. Entry #6 Entitled "Home, Home on the Range", this cake depicts Buffalo Bill's Scout's Rest Ranch where he lived from 1878 to 1911, that's located in the contestant's home town, North Platte NB. The cake has green grass made with coconut, the stream is blue frosting, with a pretzel bridge and the bushes are broccoli florets. A granddaughter helped with the video. In the video, the contestant plays Annie Oakley so the Ranch is very important. Entry #7 The Contestant chose this cake design to highlight one part of Buffalo Bill's successful life. This cake is fully edible including the "Happy Birthday ribbon"!

After a review of all the Entries, Kevin called for a vote which resulted in a clear win for the Best Cake and a tie for Second Place. He then called for a second round of polling to break the tie and finally announced our winners.

In First Place, as the Best Cake, we have entry #2 created by the Joshua Robertson family of Cody WY, lately of Firestone CO! Joshua grew up in the house Buffalo Bill built for his family when he pioneered the town of Cody WY!



In Second Place we have entry #5, Kellie Edwards with her "Buffalo Bill Belt Buckle" Cake!



And close behind, 3rd place goes to Vicki McCarty of North Platte NE for her "Home on the Range" Cake depicting Buffalo Bill's Scout's Rest Ranch!



Once the winners were announced, Kevin showed videos of the winning entries with a voice-over commentary by the contestants themselves.

With the contest completed, Kevin played a 'hip hop' Buffalo Bill Happy Birthday tribute while some in the audience boogied down to the groovy sound!

Click here for Buffalo Bill's 175th Anniversary Birthday Song!

After the audience settled down, Kevin interviewed some of the attendees, asking about their interest in the ICFA and Buffalo Bill.

Then Kevin called for a word from our ICFA President, Allan Cody who thanked everybody, especially Director Deborah and Emcee Kevin for making this such a success and reminded us all about the upcoming MineCraft Challenge, promising to announce the event by email and to publish the Cake Contest and the MineCraft Challenge in the next Review newsletter.

With that, Kevin thanked everybody for coming, invited them all to the MineCraft Challenge and after a round of applause, Deborah closed the Reunion Committee's first on-line event!

Thanks to all the Contestants and Attendees who joined us for an hour to cast their votes for the best cake!

The top 3 best cakes will all receive the Cody Publications edition of "The Last of the Great Scouts", a softback book by Buffalo Bill’s sister Helen Cody Wetmore, plus a signed, limited edition, poster size print of "Buffalo Bill and the Indians on the Beach" by artist Thom Ross. A surprise ribbon will also be awarded for our top 3 winners and an Honorable Mention for all the participating contestants!