Helen with Charlie and Tom and her
winning dishes
Level 3 Professional Cookery Diploma (pastry cooks) students completed a special baking challenge in October, to coincide with the BBC programme The Great British Bake Off.
After only five weeks on the part-time course, each student was tasked with producing two Victoria sponges, a dish containing vegetables, a batch of biscuits and their own signature dish. Catering Lecturers Tom Edwards and Charlie Ratcliffe judged the competition, basing their decision on presentation and taste.
The overall winner was Helen Falconer who created a chocolate cake containing aubergine, plus a batch of pistachio, white chocolate and rose shortbread, salted caramel tarts and the Victoria sponges. She was presented with a ‘cupcakes and bakery’ cookbook.
Tom said: “Some of the dishes were really imaginative, and I could tell a lot of hard work had been put in by the whole group. The winning dishes not only looked professional, but they were also really tasty and had a good balance of flavours.”
Helen currently works in research administration, but has her sights set on starting her own business working with chocolate. She said: “The course is fantastic, I thoroughly enjoy it.”
Runners up prizes of cookery books were awarded to Joan Saunders and Karen Attwood.
Posted 3 November 2010