CEIST Odlums All Ireland Bake-Off winner Sarah Clifford from St Mary’s pictured with her Home Economics teacher Anne-Marie Buckley.
Sarah Clifford from St Mary’s Secondary School in Mallow has been named Ireland’s ’Best Student Baker’ in the junior category at the ‘CEIST All Ireland Bake-Off’, supported by Odlums. Sarah beat off stiff competition from finalists from 13 secondary schools across Ireland for her a white and pink bunny cake, decorated with swirls of pink, blue and purple icing.
The aim of the ‘Bake-Off’ is to encourage a new generation of bakers, with students asked to design, plan and bake a novelty cake.
The ‘CEIST All Ireland Bake-Off’ has two categories, Junior (1st-3rd year) and Senior (4th-6th year). While students in the Junior category were asked to design, bake and present a cake based on a theme of their choice, students in the senior category were required to design, bake and decorate a cake around the theme of ‘Family’. Hundreds of submissions were received from schools nationwide and these were whittled down to just 14 finalists who took part in the ‘Bake Off’ final in Ardscoil na Trionóide in Athy, Co. Kildare. Seven junior finalists and seven senior finalists worked hard to create their cake in front of judges, including Odlums ambassador Catherine Leyden and Great British Bake-Off contestant Imelda McCarron. For three hours the finalists mixed, whisked, baked and iced their cakes to create their shortlisted designs.