A Halloween Treat from Food Network Challenge: 'Extreme Urban Legend Cakes'

"Extreme Urban Legend Cakes" will be the theme of the Halloween edition of the Food Network Challenge, scheduled to air on Sunday, October 31 at 8 p.m. There will be repeat broadcasts November first and second, so there's no excuse for missing the show.

Four professional cake designers will vie for a $10,000 prize to be awarded by a panel of judges which includes urban legend expert Lynne S. McNeill, PhD, currently an adjunct professor of Folklore at Utah State University, where she teaches both online and traditional courses. She also serves as the reviews editor for the premier academic journal devoted to urban legend studies, Contemporary Legend.

As I learned during a brief email exchange with her, Lynne brings not only the requisite expertise to the judges' table, but a contagious enthusiasm for the topic as well. I asked her to share her reflections on taping the show (without divulging any spoilers, naturally), and this was her reply:

Judging urban legend-themed cakes is by far one of the most unique applications of a folklorist's skills that I've ever been asked to make, and it was easily one of the most fun. I was thrilled that the Food Network recognized that a folklorist would make a good guest judge for this topic (or even that they knew there was such a thing as a folklorist at all — many people don't!), and I'm hopeful that this recognition is a trend that catches on in popular media.

While I know next to nothing about baking or decorating cakes, I have spent time considering other visual representations of urban legends, and so I was hopeful that the skills would translate. They certainly did, but what I didn't anticipate was the frantic nature of the competition, where design elements were often sacrificed for the sake of time. Urban legends are ripe for visual translation because they often feature detailed tableau scenes, where all the elements of the narrative come together in a climactic moment. The key to communicating a sense of narrative in a single visual representation is to have enough recognizably symbolic motifs that the details of meaning — and their relationship to each other — can emerge. Under the pressure of the clock, the competitors had to make snap decisions about which elements of their original design would make the cut, which provided an opportunity for narrative success or failure.

With urban legends, the meaning we're looking for is usually something about current societal anxieties. Legends are distinguished from folk or fairy tales by virtue of being told as true ("This happened just down the street, to my neighbor's nephew" vs. "Once upon a time, in a land far, far away"), and so when we hear and share legends we're often getting or giving commentary on some contemporary aspect of reality that people are thinking about. I found myself looking for this quality in the cake designs — not just a representation of what was happening, but why it was happening, and what the significance of it was. I'd never have thought of it, but it turned out to be a great exercise in legend analysis!

One of the most enjoyable aspects for me was simply to be on the set and get swept up in the excitement of competition and filming. I think I spent an enormous amount of time simply gaping at the creations; I had no idea what kinds of things were possible with cake design. I had to remind myself to look at the cakes as visual narratives, and not simply as stunning confections.

One of the trickiest things about the experience was negotiating the nuances of strict academic folkloristics with the much more fluid understandings used in the show. The word "myth" was used interchangeably with "legend" at times, and while that wouldn't fly in my classroom, it seemed wise to let it go on the show. And try as I might to emphasize that something could be an urban legend and still be true, I'm not sure I managed to convince anyone. I got to hear lots of stories about past contestants and judges, and I'm pretty sure I observed the formation and spread of some Food Network legends in the process.

I have no idea how much of what I had to say about urban legends will appear in the final cut, but I'm looking forward to seeing the finished episode. Here's hoping they have another folklore-themed challenge in the future — I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

— Lynne S. McNeill

Again, the "Extreme Urban Legend Cakes" episode of Food Network Challenge premieres on Halloween night (Oct. 31, 2010) at 8 p.m.

Learn more:
• Dr. Lynne S. McNeill on Facebook
• Food Network Challenge: 'Extreme Urban Legend Cakes'