Napa, here I come!

Remember this?

{ Pretend there's salt on top... this was the first shot I took and I neglected
to add it.  But it's the best one I got of the slice and the cake together! }

Salted Caramel Apple Cheesecake.  I haven't talked about much else over the last few weeks. { Sorry about that. Sometimes I have a one track mind. }

Well, thanks to you and your votes... this recipe and I are headed to Flavor! Napa Valley to compete in the Biscoff Bake-Off finals in just two weeks!  State Farm guy and his Pumpkin Cheesecake are going, too.  The third contender should be announced on Monday.

All three finalists' recipes will be judged by a panel of food and wine experts, including Michael Chiarello.  Look familiar?

He's on the latest season of Food Network's Next Iron Chef, hosts Easy Entertaining { LOVE! } and has a fabulous restaurant: Bottega Napa Valley.  Michael's been a judge on Top Chef and Top Chef Masters, too.  I can't wait to { hopefully } shake his hand.  And maybe eat at Bottega!

And Michael isn't the only recognizable face involved.  Flavor! includes a ton of other folks I'm sure you heard of:

• Richard Blais of Top Chef and FLIP Burger Boutique here in Atlanta... oh Krispy Kreme milkshake and Butcher's Cut burger, how I love you.
• Tyler Florence of a zillion things, including the Great American Food Truck Race.
• Masaharu Morimoto, whose name I feel like should always be preceded by "Iron Chef".

... just to name a few.  The foodie portion of my brain is pretty much jumping up and down like a three-year-old on Christmas just at the prospect of seeing these people and maybe tasting their creations.

I was all worried about where we'd be baking our entries.  Envisioning like a BBQ Cook-Off with an oven in a tent.  Not exactly the ideal conditions for a cheesecake.  But my worry was for naught, because we'll be at the Culinary Institute of America!  Be still my heart.

Not gonna lie, though.  I'm a little intimidated.  Yours truly has zero formal training.  I mean, given a henny penny and whatever's in that secret seasoned coater I could make a Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich, but that's the extent of my formal culinary training.  The rest comes from watching my family.  Heck, I put too much brown sugar in the Monkey Bread Muffins I experimented with for breakfast this morning and there was definitely a little smoke in the oven when a few of them overflowed out of the pan.  It happens. : )

I was even nervous to serve my cheesecake to some of our foodies at work... worried their refined palates would find something off about it.  But everyone raved and I guess the folks at Biscoff and Delta want a taste, too. : ) Just making it this far is more than I'd dreamed would happen.

So now the biggest question is... what's a girl to wear to something like this?!?