By Dean LaBerge

The junior high expert foods class at Swan Hills School finished up on a tasty high note with a bake-off competition that put their skills to the test.

Over the last quarter of the school year, the expert foods class learned how to make a variety of dishes from scratch, including ravioli, perogies, and tomato sauce. Most of these dishes required a couple of classes for the students to complete. Just before starting this final challenge, the class learned how to make a black forest cake. While learning how to make this fan-favourite dessert is an excellent accomplishment, the students were also learning the foundational skills of baking and decorating cakes.

For this final challenge, the expert food teacher, Cara Callihoo, had printed off a stack of recipes for different types and flavours of cakes and icings. The students broke off into groups of two or three, and each group got to decide which kind of cake they would like to bake, the type(s) of icing they’d like to make and use, and how they would like to assemble and decorate their masterpieces.

In the course of two weeks, the students had four classes to bake, assemble, and decorate their cakes before the big bake-off on June 18. School Principal Sherry Pfannmuller, Associate Principal Kara King, Junior/Senior High Teacher Sheila Gardiner, and local reporter Dean LaBerge judged the competition, scoring each cake on taste, texture, presentation, and creativity. The winners would share a bag filled to the top with all kinds of junk food and tasty treats to enjoy over the summer holidays.

On the day of the bake-off, the students added the final touches and details to their creations before the judges entered the room, and each cake was plated to perfection. The students were all standing across the room from their showpieces to keep the identities of the cake’s creators anonymous.

Allyza Dinos and Dylann Stafford’s Lemon cake
took the win

The judges inspected the cakes and scored them on presentation and creativity before having a chance to sample each cake in turn as a group and scoring them on taste and texture.

It was a very close competition as all of the cakes were incredible, but in the end, Allyza Dinos and Dylann Stafford won the bake-off with their lemon cake, complete with candied lemons.

What an excellent (and delicious) way to wrap up a wonderful class for the end of the school year!