On May 17th I was entered in the service IQ Battle of the Pans competition at Onehunga High School. It was great looking at the new facilities there and watching the other students make their entries during the live cooking portion of the competition. There were entries for sandwiches, burgers, pasta and coffee as well as static entries for cakes and cupcakes.

I made honey cupcakes with lemon icing garnished with a white chocolate beehive, I had developed this recipe as part of my level 2 project development assessment in Food Technology. Three judges looked and tasted the static entries plus observed the live cooking entries. In cooking competitions, competitors all start with 100 marks and lose marks for mistakes. Depending on your end mark, you can be awarded a bronze, silver or gold award.

At the awards ceremony, I was pleasantly surprised to have gained the highest marks in the static competitions and received gold. It was a great experience and I enjoyed the opportunity to represent the Hospitality Department at the competition.