Cake International Birmingham 2015 – All the cakes!!

Three times a year the crème de la crème of the cake industry descend on an exhibition centre in the UK to show off their cake decorating skills and learn new ones at Cake International. On 6th November it was the Birmingham NEC that played host to the cakey spectacular, seeing more than 1000 amazing works of sugar art on display amidst demonstrations by some of the top names in baking and cake design.

As well as large collaborative exhibits there were 18 competition classes each showcasing a different area of sugarcraft ranging from sugar flowers, to decorative exhibits, carved cakes, wedding cakes, cupcakes and children’s categories. At every show the competition is fierce and of an incredibly high standard and this time was no exception.

The entries were loving delivered and set up first thing on the Friday morning by cake artists who had travelled from every corner of the country and indeed the world to enter the prestigious competition. Then relieved that they had managed to get their entries there in one piece, they started the agonising 24hr wait to see how what the judges thought of their work. A panel of expert judges then spent all day Friday painstakingly marking each of the 850+ entries before placing award cards in front of them for people to see when the show opened it’s doors on day 2.

Entries are judged on creativity, visual impact, workmanship, degree of difficulty, proportion, colour & class criteria and if they score a high enough mark are then awarded a merit, bronze, silver or gold award according to their score. From those that achieve a gold award in each class, a 1st, 2nd & 3rd place is then chosen as well.

Having entered the cupcake and wedding cake classes at the London show in the past and won bronze and silver awards I was thrilled to find out that I won my first gold award for my ‘Lest we Forget’ cupcakes. They were 100% edible and handmade and unlike the other categories, the cupcake class is actually tasted as well, so it was equally important that I made sure they tasted as good as they looked. I opted for lemon & poppy seed for the poppy cupcakes and apple & custard for the soldier ones.

As I was feeling nice I took photos of every single entry so those of you who couldn’t make it can get to see them 🙂

The quality isn’t great due to the lighting conditions and how busy the show was but it still took me flipping ages!!!!