Cakes galore at 10th annual Cake Bake Competition
More than 30 freshly baked cakes did not fail to deliver on excellence at the annual Benoni City Times Mother’s Day Cake Bake Competition.
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This year marked the 10-year anniversary of the cake bake competition, which was the brainchild of City Times sales manager Heila Brophy.
Entrants started bringing in their cakes from 7am on May 4, to be on display at Cherrylane Gourmet Café, on 14th Avenue, Northmead.
The cakes were categorised as professional, tarts and tartlets, fun bake, special dietary and cupcakes.
Entries were judged by Loraine Krugel, Berry Legg, Xanthe Weissnar, Wendy Bernhardt, Moira Wall, Paul Smith, Shawn Govender, Dejané Poil and Charmelle Retief, based on presentation, covering and texture, degree of difficulty, creativity, execution of techniques, edible ingredients and taste.
The professional winners are:
1 Sadiyya Asmalji
2 Bianca Greyling
3 Sonja Smuts
Legg gave feedback to the top three winners in the professional category.
She said Sadiyya’s cake was “lovey”, the sponge was good and there was balance of taste.
“However, we recommend that less is more. The cake was busy and it doesn’t appeal to everyone,” said Legg.
Legg said the second place winner, Bianca, is one of the most talented bakers in Benoni and scored 10 in most of the categories, saying she is “exceptionally gifted”.
“I want to encourage her to look into her sponge and rather work with a lighter sponge,” Legg added of the piano cake.
“The sponge was heavy and that’s, unfortunately, what brought down her marks.
“Words cannot describe the amount of work that was put into making the cake.
“Bianca is truly a cake engineer.”
The third winner, Sonja, baked a profile of a woman which she “beautifully executed”.
“She is extremely gifted; I’ve never seen a cake like that before in my whole career,” Legg said.
Legg said the cake was moist, but that she couldn’t differentiate between the chocolate and the pink flavour.
Special dietary category winners are:
1 Courtney Norquoy
2 Sadiyya Asmalji
“Courtney made red velvet chocolate cupcakes that were gluten-free,” said Legg.
“Courtney made raw cakes that tasted like tahini tarts with dates; I would recommend her to use coconut oil, so it can assist it in its setting.
“Sadiyya made gluten free cupcakes and those were well baked, though I do encourage her to use extra liquid when using gluten-free flour.
“Well done to both of them for trying.”
Cupcakes:
1 Haylee Dennis
2 Kathy Bock
3 Chantelle Papagni
Wendy Bernhardt said the standard was very high and the technique was also excellent.
“Haylee’s cupcakes should have been in the professional category, based on the quality of her decoration. Her cupcakes were not too sweet and the balance between the icing and the cake was excellent,” said Bernhardt.
She said Kathy’s lemon cupcakes were a good effort and the technique was up to standard.
“Chantelle’s cupcakes were also up to standard – the technique was outstanding and the standard of the cakes this year was very high,” said Bernhardt.
Fun bake
1 Moira Taylor
2 Olyn Mutambirwa
3 Cecilia Bredenhann
Loraine Krugel said Moira’s cake was moist, nice and the cream cheese frosting was amazing.
“However, the only criticism are the purple flowers that were used as decoration; the purple and the orange didn’t really sing the song,” said Krugel.
Krugel said the outside of Olyn’s cake was interesting, but the inside was not moist.
“The combination of the lemon, purple and blue berries was interesting.”
Of Cecilia’s cake, she said: “It was very interesting; beautiful and moist. The combination of the chocolate and orange was good. The only criticism is that the outside decoration could have been improved.”
Tarts and tartlets
1 Moira Taylor
2 Viggie Pillay
3 Cecile Cotty
Krugel said there were not many tart and tartlet entries.
“The watermelon tart by Viggie was unusual and tasty, and it really stood out,” she said.
Also read:
Sweet experience at annual cake bake competition
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