{"id":35832,"date":"2014-04-02T17:27:53","date_gmt":"2014-04-02T16:27:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reaseheath.ac.uk\/?p=35832"},"modified":"2019-09-30T18:13:20","modified_gmt":"2019-09-30T17:13:20","slug":"young-bakers-cakes-are-fit-for-a-queen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reaseheath.ac.uk\/young-bakers-cakes-are-fit-for-a-queen\/","title":{"rendered":"Young bakers\u2019 cakes are fit for a Queen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Budding bakers from across the region were crowned winners in a hotly contested schools challenge laid down by Reaseheath\u2019s food department.<\/p>\n

Just ten entries from a total of 120 made it through to the final of Reaseheath\u2019s Year 9 Schools Bake Off Competition, which was held in our specialist Food Centre last week. Contestants had to bake a cake or pastry with a royal theme.<\/p>\n

The judging panel, made up of professional chef Brian Mellor, Cheshire WI judge Mary Hignett and Peter Wright, Chairman of sponsors the Wrights Pies Food Group, were looking for originality, presentation and taste.<\/p>\n

The competition attracted entries from 45 secondary schools in five counties. Teams of our food technologists selected the finalists after visiting schools throughout Cheshire, Staffordshire, Manchester, Wirral and mid Wales to view and taste the cakes and to test the knowledge of the young bakers. These contestants had already won through from a first round consisting of a mood board with photos of the finished product.<\/p>\n

\"Winner

Winner Charlotte Parton with her entry \u2018Fit for a Queen\u2019<\/p><\/div>\n

Overall winner was Charlotte Parton, 13, from the Grove School, Market Drayton, who won a \u00a3100 cash prize plus two iPads for her school. Charlotte\u2019s entry \u2018Fit for a Queen\u2019, was a Victoria sponge decorated with hand crafted butter biscuits shaped like soldiers and topped with a sugar crown. Second place went to a coconut and cherry cake made by Megan Glover and Louise Brown from Stockport School and third was a sponge decorated with roses made by Sam Platt and Lily Peachment from Cransley School, Northwich.<\/p>\n

\"Stockport

Stockport School\u2019s Megan Glover and Louise Brown with their coconut crown<\/p><\/div>\n

Other finalists were Charlotte Hesketh from Sandbach High School, Alex Thacker and Nicola Stockdale from Manchester High School for Girls, Izzy Burton and Anna Davies from The Marches School, Oswestry,\u00a0 Elain Wyn and Elin Evans from Llanfyllin High School and Fiona Collins from Cheadle Hulme School.<\/p>\n

Styled on the hit TV programme \u2018The Great British Bake-Off\u2019, Reaseheath\u2019s competition was so popular that we plan to repeat it next year, this time with a savoury meat theme.<\/p>\n

Mary Hignett said: \u201cWe have just witnessed the bakers of the future, all of whom have very good technical ability and excellent skills. Their cakes had wonderful textures and flavours. The standards were so high that it was very difficult for us to select the top three. \u00a0In our opinion, all the finalists were winners.<\/p>\n

\u201cReaseheath\u2019s food department should be congratulated on running such an inspired and exciting competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reaseheath Food Curriculum Manager Nick Blakemore, who led the project, said: \u201cWe were amazed at the pupils\u2019 novel ideas. It was a very hard job to select the finalists because each entry had something to bring to the table. It was even harder to select the winners!\u201d<\/p>\n

Charlotte, a keen home baker, said: \u201cI wanted to make my cake original and I tried out lots of ideas at home and at school. The competition was brilliant fun and I got great feedback from the judges. It\u2019s made me even keener to look at food science as a career.\u201d<\/p>\n\n