School caterers, Educaterers, have announced the winner of their first ever ‘Bake Off’ competition, which saw the creation of festive cakes that would ‘wow’ even Father Christmas!
Last month, with Halloween approaching, the school caterers invited colleagues from their own catering teams and from the schools to which they provide meals to send in videos of them baking their very own sweet or savoury Bonfire Party Cakes to try and impress the competition judges.
From the video competition entries, Educaterers selected three talented bakers to compete in an exciting live final – in which they would need to create a ‘showstopper’ Winter Wonderland cake - to be crowned ‘Educaterers Bake Off Champion 2021’.
The final took place on Thursday 25th November at Boughton Leigh Junior School in Rugby, who kindly donated their facilities for the event.
Siobhan Adams, a mobile catering assistant for Educaterers, who became a competition finalist with her tasty bonfire party pumpkin bread, made an amazing three-layered lemon and caramel cake decorated as a snowy scene with white chocolate Christmas trees and detailed snowflakes in the final.
Sylwia Lepianka, from Paddox Primary School in Rugby, entered the competition with an incredible strawberry and caramel bonfire cake, and went on to make a Raffaelo coconut cake with a skier stuck in the snow in the final.
Emma Beasley, a teacher at St Margaret’s C of E Primary School in Stoke Golding, Leicestershire was selected to be a finalist after making a sparkling ginger parkin, and then went on to make a Norwegian style city scape ginger sponge with gingerbread houses and honey and cinnamon buttercream.
The judges had a tough choice to make, but after careful deliberations they decided that Emma Beasley’s Norwegian city scape cake was the winning ‘bake off’ creation on the day.
Headteacher at Boughton Leigh Junior School, Paula Duynstee, said, “When you looked at the cake you expected it to taste just like Christmas, and that’s exactly what it tasted like.”
Lead judge, Educaterers’ Managing Director, Caroline Alexander said, “When we decided to hold this competition, we knew we had some amazing bakers out in our business, but I never imagined we would end up with three such incredible finalists who delivered the most spectacular and delicious showstopper cakes.
“The competition has been such a success that we plan to make it an annual event and look forward to showcasing the baking talents of our amazing school cooks for many years to come.”
Matt Johnson from the competition’s sponsor, Blakemore Foodservice, was on hand to present the three finalists with shopping vouchers in recognition of their achievements.