The Great WUR Bake off!
By Maria
A few days ago, a truly delicious event took place at WUR’s Axis building. We’re talking here of course about the second edition of the Great WUR Bake Off!
It’s one f the many fun contests we have in Wageningen (you can read about others in this previous blog post!). But back to the sweet stuff—one of our colleagues got the awesome job of being a professional judge (aka cake taster!). Here’s a quick recap of the event. Maybe next time, you’ll join the fun?
Why, When, and For Who?
This tasty competition was organised to raise money for the Food Physics PhD trip. And, of course, it was a great excuse to bring all the passionate bakers at our university together. Do I need to mention the benefits for the judges? 😋
There were about 30 mouth-watering cakes, so many! And even more testers since the place was fully packed. The contest was open to everyone—students, teachers, employees—because, let’s face it, anyone can be a successful baker and who doesn’t like cake?
Professional Jury?
There were two ways you could join as a cake tester. First, you could try 3 cakes and vote for your favourite. Or, if you were feeling ambitious, you could try unlimited cakes (dream job!) and rank your top 3 choices by giving them points from 3 to 1.
The voting system was very well organised. Each cake had a number, and there were matching paper cups for votes. All you had to do was drop your vote in the cup with the corresponding number to the cake you liked. Easy peasy!
Cake tasting for the official jury (taken by Chaya Chutinara)
And the Cakes?
The variety was amazing! From creamy and fruity delights to gooey chocolatey goodness—every cake was a work of art. So many talented bakers at WUR! If you missed this round, definitely join next time, whether as a baker or an official cake taster (both are excellent choices, trust me).
And the winner is….
As there were almost 40 cakes and talented bakers it was nearly impossible to choose only one. Therefore, here we present you the top 5 of all of the bakes that testers and official jury voted for:
- Patteela Prathumars Mango-sticky rice cake with Luk Chup
- Karin Folmer The Amazing Opera of “Eng” Raspberries
- Vera van Lier Blueberry Lemon Cake
- Krystina Korten Chai Apple Crumble Naked Cake
- Lara Anderegg Czech Honey Cake
It is also important to mention the special shoutout to:
- Anna Velebová Chai cake with pear “povidla” (Czech jam)
- Denise Roth & Alice Hamilton Coconut Blueberry Cake
- Daisy Kuang If you like pina colada…
- Benedetta Savasta & Frederica Santus Nut-Brew
I hope this recap gave you a taste of the Great WUR Bake Off! Will we see your cakes next season, or will you step up as a serious cake critic? Either way, it’s bound to be sweet!
Greetings,
Maria
