Icebreaker - Pure Merino

Following a fantastic bake off in our head office in Wellington last year, yesterday we held the 6^th annual Great Icebreaker Cake Bake Off.

This years competition was our biggest event yet with 15 cakes entered, and the standard of the entries were truly scrumptious.  Entrants had gone to huge lengths to take out this years title and trophy (a wooden rolling pin with winners names engraved on it).  Cakes were baked just prior to submitting so they were warm; there were beautiful cake stands, decorations and name cards designed; and one entrant even spent half of his Sunday testing and getting his cake ‘just right’ for judging!

Congratulations to the following Wellington staff members (as judged by the famous NZ chef Ruth Pretty):

1st PLACE – Rebecca Toomer and her Lemon Drizzle Cake
2nd PLACE – Heidi Anderson and her Schwarzwälder Torte
3rd PLACE – Tracey Davies and her Caramel Apple Cupcakes
BEST PRESENTATION – Christina Stanley and her Magpie Meringue Cake
PEOPLE’S CHOICE – Di Clapperton and her Sticky Date Cake

Congrats to all who entered, bring on next years comp!

Recently in head office a star was born.  We had the 4th annual ‘Great Icebreaker Cake Bake Off’, and we found the next Nigella Lawson.

There were carrot cakes, raspberry drenched chocolate cakes, cheesecakes, Swiss apple cakes, and even a ‘Dolly’ cake.  It was spectacular.

All entries were judged meticulously by the famous chefs Steve Logan and Al Brown (from Wellington restaurant Logan Brown and stars of the TV series ‘Hunger for the Wild‘).

Our design project manger Sarah took out the top two awards – her apple and date cake was voted # 1 by Steve and Al, and she was also the People’s Choice Winner.  What a star!

We’ve put a challenge out to the rest of the Icbreaker offices around the world to see if they can bake cakes tastier than head office.  So far we’ve got one entry from our Christchurch office, the Pengu cake – we love it and can’t wait to see what everyone else will bake.