“OUR Saltcoats bakery has never seen the like,” said Scottish Baker of the Year 2016, Stephen McAllister, of The Kandy Bar, as his bakery played host to the new face of the competition, Michelle McManus, and a host of other well-known faces for the launch of the 2017 search for the Scottish Baker of the Year.
Singing sensation and the new face of the Scottish Baker of the Year competition, Michelle McManus, along with World of Sport champion wrestler, Grado, took on STV Glasgow’s Live at Five presenters, David Farrell and Jennifer Reoch, in a bake-off with a difference.
Under the eagle eye of champ, Stephen McAllister, and competition ambassador, couture cake queen, Mich Turner, Michelle, Grado, David and Jennifer:
* Jammed and iced Empire Biscuits
* Creamed and jammed a strawberry tart
* Applied cream filling to Cream Yum Yums/Donuts
And the ‘icing on the cake’, the Mich Turner technical challenge, saw our contestants buttercream a cupcake to her exacting standards!
Michelle said: “Today’s competition has been fierce.
“David came in with back-up and he was in it to win it; it would have been a shame to show him up, so I let him win.
“But, that said, I am so proud of my team today, Grado’s suggestion of decorating a cup cake with the design of a car was genius, it’s just a shame he couldn’t pull it off.”
STV’s David Farrell said: “I am delighted to have been here today to go head-to-head with Michelle again and the competition was fierce but I am so proud of my team and what we achieved today.
Added Jennifer Reoch: “I am so pleased David brought me along today.
“I am a mad keen cake eater and I knew he needed experts on his side today; so, to win is great.”
But Grado joked: “It’s a disgrace. No way were their yum yums better than ours. Just look at our cup cakes? How much creativity did the judges want to see?”
We have a feeling we will be seeing Grado again!
Voting is now open and runs until 8th March so there is not much time to vote by logging on to www.scottishbakers.org/vote2017 – voting automatically enters you into a draw to win one of six Apple watches.
The Scottish Baker of the Year Awards are the brainchild of Scottish Bakers, the trade association for bakers in Scotland who decided to search for the best baker in the land in 2012.
Now in its sixth year, the competition celebrates our love of a tasty treat from our local baker and aims to crown just one hard-working bakery, Scottish Baker of the Year.
“With thousands upon thousands of pies, scones, loaves, savoury items, morning rolls, individual cakes and biscuits sold in Scotland every day, our artisan bakers work hard to keep us all going,” says Scottish Bakers’ Alan Clarke.
“This competition is based on real votes from real customers so we urge customers to vote for their best bites, every vote really does count – your local baker could take the title!”
2016 winner, Stephen McAllister, of The Kandy Bar, said of their win: “Ee were extremely pleased to be recognised as Scotland’s best baker.
“We have an ethos that we must make everything ourselves from scratch and this, along with our consistently high product quality, was recognised by the judges.
“Since winning, our business has gone from strength to strength and we have been able to share our success with all of our customers by continuing to provide the best baked goods day in and day out.”
Scottish Bakers was established in 1891 and since then have represented and promoted the interests of the bakery trade in Scotland.
They aim to be an integral part of each member’s business by providing support for bakers of all sizes.
They provide a valuable source of help, advice, information, assistance and skills development for bakers throughout Scotland.
Most importantly, Scottish Bakers belongs to its members and exist for their benefit. They are proud of their motto, ‘for the good of all’.
Facts about the competition:
The voting for this year’s Scottish Baker of the Year Awards 2017 will begin on Thursday 23 February and voting will run through to Wednesday 8th March 2017.
Winners will be announced at the Scottish Bakers national conference on the 5th and 6th May 2017 at the Crowne Plaza, Glasgow.
As part of the competition, we will be awarding the best scone, bread, savoury, individual cake, morning roll and biscuit in the land.
Our aim this year is to encourage more customers to vote online – scottishbakers.org/vote2017
This year sees the introduction of a new business category – the Bakery Café of the Year Award. The winner of this new category will then compete alongside the winners of the Craft Baker, Retail Craft Baker and Wholesale Baker of the Year, for the title of Scottish Baker of the Year 2017/18
We will also again feature our Manufacturer of the Year category, enabling bakers to vote for their favourite bakery manufacturer.
Notes to editors:
Scottish Bakers was established in 1891 and since then we have represented and promoted the interests of the bakery trade in Scotland.
We aim to be an integral part of each member’s business by providing support for bakers of all sizes.
We provide a valuable source of help, advice, information, assistance and skills development for bakers throughout Scotland.
Scottish Bakers manages both the World Championships Scotch Pie Awards each year and The Scottish Baker of the Year Awards, to recognise and celebrate excellence in the sector.
But most importantly, Scottish Bakers belongs to its members, we are all there for their benefit and are proud of our motto, ‘for the good of all’.
www.scottishbakers.org
ENDS
MEDIA RELEASE issued by Fourcade Communications. You too can share your stories (aka press or media releases), on allmediascotland.com. Email here for more information.
Check out twitter.com/newsdipper for your very own media releases feed…
Check out too twitter.com/allFoodPR.
Stay connected with our various twitter feeds: Charities, Drink, Education, Energy, Fashion, Film, Food, Gardens, Legal, Motors, Music, Outdoors, Property, Science and Sports. And not forgetting Finance, Theatre, Travel, Festivals, Visual Arts, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Perth and Stirling.
To catch up on all the media releases recently posted on to allmediascotland.com, you need only click the link icon that you see towards the bottom right of our two media release ‘gateway boxes’.
It’s this icon, here. It’s your route straight into the rich archive.
—
Fourcade Communications contact details…
Contact: Julie Fourcade
Email: julie@fourcade.co.uk
