#SuperLuckyStories part 2: fabulous food

Following on from Part 1: product placement, here’s the second installment of wonderful winning creative entries from SuperLucky blog readers – this time the #SuperLuckyStories are all food related!

There was a time when compers wouldn’t consider entering foodie competitions – in the past they were mainly advertised in magazines, and were competitions where you submitted an original recipe and shortlisted entrants were invited to a terrifying cook-off. This type of competition is still around, but thankfully most promoters want to encourage more entries and make it a little easier for amateurs and shy chefs to take part – in fact, a lot of recipe competitions require video entry now which is great if you make a mistake, as you can re-record it! Instagram is also a fun way to run a food photography competition – last year I won several prizes with photos of my home-cooked meals on Instagram, including competitions from M&S, Tesco and Discovery Foods.

Now, let’s move on to those #SuperLuckyStories…

After my own prize trip to Noma in 2012, I was excited that all four finalists in last year’s Cool Cookery recipe/video competition were SuperLucky readers, and in the end it was Rebecca who won the trip to Noma for her cooking mad son Daniel – you can read his fabulous blog post about the experience here.

Katy was one of last years big winners and won a fabulous £3000 cash with her amazing savoury herb profiteroles filled with Tabasco cheddar, the winner in the Tabasco & Long Clawson Dairy recipe competition. I could eat these right now!
 

 
With Pancake Day next week, now is the time to come up with some suitable wild ideas for photo competition entries. These prizewinning pancakes – also from Katy – are amazing! Keep an eye on the blog as my annual pancake comp linky will be up later this week.
 

 
Jayne won Filippo Berio goodies with her pancake owl!
 

 
Food animals are a recurring theme for competitions (currently you can win a £500 home cinema system from Tots100 with your ‘Foodimal’ photos!) and Rebecca won a DSLR camera by rustling up this #foodselfie for a Yahoo Twitter comp!
 

 
Here’s another winning fruit & veg creation from Claire at Yet Another Blogging Mummy – her son won a kids cookery set with this fun sweet potato head man!
 

 
Claire also won a £300 hamper for blogging her delicious flapjack recipe!

Kids lunch boxes can be brilliant for photo comps too – how about this fab Angry Birds lunchbox which won Grainne a €400 voucher and a scooter in 2 separate comps!
 

 
And there’s no doubt at all that this fabulous Gingerbread Nativity scene castle was a deserving winner of £250 cash from Sykes Cottages and well worth Jenny at The Brick Castle staying up all night to decorate!
 

 
Kellie‘s fab ‘Hot Stuff’ photo won her a BBQ, meat & bread hamper and wine – Kellie’s other hilarious ‘hot stuff’ themed photo will appear in a future blog post!
 

 
I love these sausage and egg tarts from Lynn – such an original idea, and it paid off too as she won 3 different competitions with these, winning £500, a year’s supply of Lurpak with a recipe book, and £25 cash. Lynn also created the luscious chocolate cake, which won her a spa day and afternoon tea in London!
 

 
Liz did ever so well with her recipes last year – this Whisky & Marmalade Drizzle cake won her a food processor and blender, and she picked up smaller prizes for her chocolate orange cake, lemon cream white chocolate melts, cheesy winter vegetable bake and chargrilled mexican style vegetable tortilla wraps in other comps too. It makes me sad that I don’t live near you any more Liz, I wouldn’t mind popping round for lunch! 

 
Gill met celebrity chef Jo Pratt when her spiced beetroot risotto won top prize in Tilda’s recipe competition last year, and she also enjoyed Sunday lunch cooked by Phil Vickery with the family courtesy of Shloer! 

 
I think one of the best tips we can pick up from the winners here is to keep hold of your recipes and photos – there will usually be several different competitions you can enter with them! You could even email the photos to women’s or recipe magazines too, to give yourself the best chance of picking up prizes! I usually take a photo of my dish featuring the promoter’s product (eg. Green Giant or Heinz Ketchup) and then take another without the product, so I can use it again in a different comp! Make sure to check the T&Cs first though – some will state that photos/recipes can’t have appeared or been submitted elsewhere.

The next installment of #SuperLuckyStories will be ‘Family fun’, where we’ll see what your talented kids have been up to! Thanks again to everyone who’s got in touch to share their creative wins – and good luck for 2014’s foodie comps!