‘Death by chocolate’ takes the cake in ECGC Baking Competition

“Death by Chocolate” was the highlight of the 2013 ECGC National Baking Competition.{{more}}

The Eastern Caribbean Group of Companies’ (ECGC) annual baking competition came to a close last Friday, when the award ceremony was held at the Kingstown Methodist Church Hall.

Second time competitor Zoe Millington walked away with first prize for her exquisite cake entitled “Death by Chocolate”.

“It feels great. My hard work paid off,” Millington declared.

The baker’s winning masterpiece consisted of four layers of chocolate cake with chocolate cream inside and chocolate chips and almond nuts adorning each layer.

Millington, who is currently employed at National Insurance Services (NIS), has been baking for as long as she can remember and has only recently been dabbling in catering.

“I do small catering. In the future, I will like to take it a step further and enhance my skills and do it full time,” she stated.

Millington also won two of the category prizes for Best in Cake and Best in Pastry.

This year, officials introduced a second prize into the competition. However, because of the high quality displayed by participants, a tie for second place resulted when judges could not decide on just one person.

Last year’s winner, Janine John of Camo’s Local Cuisine and Cheryl Craigg of Tetto Rosso in Mustique tied for second.

Each of the women won a category prize; John won Best in Bread, with her carrot wheat flatbread, while Craigg won Best in Specialty Flour, with her ripe breadfruit cake.

Martin LaBorde, marketing manager for ECGC, noted that he was quite pleased with what he saw presented during the competition. Additionally, he pointed out that there has been an increase in participants over the years, there being 31 participants this year.

“Of this 31, 13 are repeaters. It means that these repeaters see some virtue and value with regard to participation,” he said.

“What this does is provide an opportunity for all the participants to showcase their product and to showcase their talent…their ability”.

Minister of Agriculture, Saboto Caesar also addressed the participants on Friday and stated that he was very proud to be the Minister of Industry in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Caesar noted that if one were to do an analysis on the national food consumption bill, they would realize that large amounts of food were being produced in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Drawing attention to foods that are imported in the country on a daily basis, such as pastries, the minister stated that “we are doing ourselves a great disservice, because I would prefer to know that I’m eating a cake from Zoe Millington than I’m eating a kiss cake from San Juan, Trinidad.

“We have to promote local food. We have to buy local and we have to eat local,” Caesar stressed.

Interestingly, the minister highlighted that he had done six months of training in culinary arts before he attended law school.

Although he did not finish his final course, Caesar told LaBorde that “if the minister of industries is allowed, he would like to participate next year.

“I want us to take great pride in what we do,” Caesar said. “We want to see them on the supermarket shelves…this is a year of production and productivity. More of us have to come together and produce”.

This was the fourth installment of the ECGC National Baking Competition.(BK)