Baker of the Year Award — The Cake Professionals

The Baking Category

LET’S FIND THE BEST BAKES IN THE UK!

The heart of the cake business is the bake.

Enter this category for the possibility of winning a prestigious Gold, Silver or Bronze award for your most delicious cake flavours.

The top ten bakers will have the chance to win:

The national ‘Baker of the Year’ title,
£1000 cash prize
Having their recipe published on Tate & Lyle’s ‘We Love Baking’.
A hosted tour of Tate & Lyle’s sugar museum.

Entries in to this category cost £45 and you can enter as many times as you want. Each flavour of cake is one entry.

Enter now!

Entering a bake

Entering the awards is really easy. Just click on the entry link below, fill in the entry form, pay, and you are all set!

In January you will send in your cake samples for tasting by our expert panel.

Every entry is eligible to win a gold, silver or bronze award. Out of all the gold awards the top 10 bakers will have one bake put forward for the title "Baker of the Year"

Bake Entry Eligibility

To enter a bake your business must:

have business insurance.
have a food hygiene rating of 4 or more (if your local authority issue ratings to cake businesses)
be based in the UK.

Nominees to be regional winners will be contacted to provide proof of these before they are awarded the regional win.

The bake itself must also meet the specification set out in the entry form which has all the detailed information.

Baker of the Year Judging

Judges will judge each of the bakes on the basis of flavour, texture and appearance.

Judging Process

When the judges receive your samples they will be completely anonynous. Each bake will be judged purely on merit.

The judging will be in 3 stages:

1. Individual awards - Each entry will be rated from:

- No award - sorry try again next year.

- Bronze – great flavour and bake. (Another slice please!)

- Silver – fantastic flavour and bake. (Can I have the recipe?!)

- Gold – outstanding flavour and bake. (Will you marry me?)

2. Top Ten

From the gold winners 10 finalists will be selected to be put forward for the Baker of the Year award. The finalists will be announced shortly following the tasting day in early 2020.

3. Baker of the Year

The Baker of the Year winner will be announced at the Awards Celebration on March 2nd in Reading, England.

Baking Category Judges

WILL TORRENT

Will Torrent is one of the leading pastry and chocolate experts in the UK with an award- winning patisserie background. Will has worked with top chefs including Heston Blumenthal, Jamie Oliver, James Martin and more. Will is a Consultant Pastry Chef for Waitrose, board member of The Academy of Chocolate, Ambassador for Christian development agency Tearfund as well as being a member of the Craft Guild of Chefs and the Guild of Food Writers and judge for the Academy of Chocolate Awards, World Marmalade Awards, Quality Food Awards, Great Taste Awards and National Chef of the Year .

KATHRYN CUTHBERTSON MVO

Royal Pastry Chef to HRH Queen Elizabeth II from July 2006 to December 2017, Kathryn has dedicated a lifetime to pastry and the culinary arts.

Kathryn is a member of The Royal Academy of Culinary Arts and was awarded a Bachelor of Arts in International Arts from the University of West London in 2010. During her 27 year professional career, Kathryn has been fortunate to work alongside some of the industry’s leading chefs, pastry chefs and hotel general managers.

In 2017, she was awarded a Member of the Victorian Order (MVO) by the Queen in the New Year Honours List. Highlights of her time working for The Royal Family include creating and executing menus for state occasions, Royal Weddings and Royal Christenings. Examples of some of her work can be seen in the two Royal Collection publications ‘Royal Teas’ and ‘A Royal Cookbook’.

SARAH FRANKLAND

Winning numerous awards during her career, including the Academy of Culinary Arts Awards of Excellence in Pastry in 2008, in 2012, an Acorn award by The Caterer magazine recognising 30 chefs under 30 for their work in the hospitality industry and most recently named Pastry chef of the Year 2019, by the Craft Guild of Chefs.