Amanda Colwell has been a CWA cookery judge for more than a decade

There is a buzz of anticipation in the country hall as hopeful gardeners and cooks carefully deliver their fresh produce, baking and preserves to the Gulgong Show.

Committee members and stewards busily sort through the paperwork and trays of baked goods are organised and placed on the shelves, ready for judging.

Cookery judge Amanda Colwell stands before a full table of cakes with her calm and experienced manner, and the judging commences. Amanda’s eyes quickly and discreetly assess any cakes that on the surface do not meet the judging criteria. Visible cooling rack marks and dents made by baking paper are considered flaws and any cakes showing evidence of this are graded for further consideration. Each cake is carefully picked up and the exterior surface is examined before it is swiftly cut in half. After an examination of the interior, a tiny wedge of cake is cut from the middle.

Amanda considers the colour, texture, taste and aroma while checking that the cake is cooked correctly. Quick but thoughtful comments are made, the steward is notified of the winning entries and the cut cakes are whisked away to be covered and displayed. Knives are wiped clean, the crumbs are brushed off the table and the next section is presented to the judging table.

Amanda shares tried-and-tested recipes for carrot cake, berry jam, radio biscuits and honey joys here. Article continues below. 

Amanda, 63, lives on the family property, Binya, between Coonamble and Walgett in the Central West of New South Wales, with her husband, Ken.

After leaving school, Amanda deferred her intentions to do an art teaching degree and spent a year working at the Bank of New South Wales in Coonamble while she saved money to pay for her studies. During this time she met Ken, and instead of going to university she chose love and a life on the land. They have three adult children, who have all moved away from the local area, and four granddaughters.

When she was a child, Amanda’s father had worked in banking and they moved often. This led to them living in Fiji for three years and later Amanda spent three years at boarding school in Armidale, New South Wales.

“I would only visit my grandparents occasionally, due to the distance, and both of my grandmothers went to a lot of effort to make my visits memorable. My strongest memories are of the special cooking, the good crockery and tea sets, the polished silver and intricate tablecloths,” she fondly recalls.

Her paternal grandmother, Catherine Fuller, lived in Inverell and was a champion baker in local agricultural shows as well as at the Sydney Royal Easter Show, where she also judged cookery. “Nanna would always have a variety of biscuits, cakes and slices stored in stacked aluminium cake tins in her kitchen ready to be enjoyed. She travelled to Tamworth before every competition to buy special flour for her biscuits,” says Amanda, “although I never did learn the secret of what made that flour special.”

Following in her grandmother’s competitive footsteps was not really on Amanda’s agenda until a friend asked for help with stewarding the handicrafts and cookery at the Coonamble Show.

“I’d avoided competition cookery up to that point,” Amanda says, though she was eventually persuaded to enter a few jars of jam and a jelly. “When my jelly won the champion rosette, that was all the encouragement I needed.”

As she became more involved in competition cookery, Amanda found it to be a very supportive and friendly community and her network expanded further when she joined the Coonamble Country Women’s Association (CWA) branch in 2009. Amanda held the office of president of the Coonamble CWA branch from 2014–2017. She then acted as branch secretary for four years, and in 2024 she again took up the presidency. She is also the Cookery Officer for the Macquarie CWA Group and a member of the CWA State Cookery Committee. She qualified as a cookery judge in 2014.

“To qualify as a judge, participants must achieve an 80 per cent pass on a rigorous written examination and practical demonstration before other judges,” Amanda explains. “Prior experience stewarding at local shows and CWA competitions as well as working with judges and stewards is fundamental. Assisting at shows gives exposure to a wide range of baking styles and products, as well as an understanding of entrants’ abilities. Being a competent cook is also helpful.”

When Amanda is judging she likes to keep her feedback supportive, kind and sympathetic. “I love to give encouragement to the entrants in the children’s sections at shows,” she says. “It is the key to keeping cookery competitions strong: these youngsters are future adult competitors.”

Amanda wants to encourage all cooking, for competition or at home. “A certificate or ribbon is always rewarding; the competition rules may seem tedious but there is a reason they are so specific — to make it fair for everyone who enters.” She also wants to teach people how to make the best use of their time and ingredients so they have reliable results, whether for a child’s birthday cake, a competition or a school cake stall. “The rising cost of ingredients can be prohibitive to experimental cooking that may end up being fed to the chooks.”

“As well using as a reliable recipe, good baking tin preparation, understanding your equipment and willingness to practice are important aspects of competition cookery success.”

The Gulgong Show has been running since 1888 and, judging by the variety of entries and the number of young competitors, the spirit of country shows is thriving in this historic town. As Amanda says, “Competition is all about taking pride in your product and consolidating community connections, not just taking home the champion rosette.”