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Edible art

Allie Dilldine, 13, poses near awards she’s amassed for cake decorating. Allie’s awards include a grand champion ribbon she won at the 2011 Colorado State Fair.
Bridget Manley





Allie Dilldine, 13, poses near awards she’s amassed for cake decorating. Allie’s awards include a grand champion ribbon she won at the 2011 Colorado State Fair.
Bridget Manley

While other young artists work in oils or pastels, 13-year-old Allie Dilldine prefers to work with a more mouth-watering medium.

She’s a champion cake decorator whose creations have two appeals, she said.

“People love it because it tastes really good,” the Craig Middle School eighth-grader said. “ … They like it before and they love it after.”



Judges at the 2011 Colorado State Fair apparently were of the same mind. They awarded Allie a grand champion ribbon in her division for a cake she fashioned to look like a dollhouse.

She’s been decorating cakes since before she can remember, she said, and has entered gingerbread house contests in downtown Craig several times.



It also helps that her mother, Kandee Dilldine, knows a thing or two about the fine art of frosting.

Kandee co-owns KS Kreations Craft Store and Bakery at 523 Yampa Ave., where Allie spends much of her time.

“Her creativity is her biggest strength,” Kandee said about her daughter.

Allie is able to concoct decorating ideas on the fly rather than simply following an illustration, her mother said.

“She can come up with all kinds of neat things,” Kandee said.

Working without a template is one of the reasons Allie enjoys the work.

“I can do whatever I want and there’s no rules, no nothing,” she said.

There’s another advantage to working with frosting rather than more traditional art forms.

“You can eat it,” she said.

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