The 2023 Great Bloggers’ Bake-Off Awards Go To …….

First of all, I just want to give a big round of applause to EVERYONE who participated in this year’s 2023 Great Bloggers’ Bake-Off. Everyone did an amazing job. There were so many fantastic entries and everything looked FABULOUS!!!!!! It made my job as judge very difficult indeed. But, I have made my decisions and it is now time for me to share them with all of you.

Let’s start with Most Improved Baker. He started as a novice baker back when we first started this event, and he just keeps getting better and better every year. I am so proud of all his efforts. This is his 2nd time for this award, and deseredly so. He is well on his way to being Star Baker one day. This award goes to Gary Metcalf from https://bereavedsingledad.blog/ for his Sponge. This looks so good and so moist too. Perfectly delicious!

Well done Gary!

This year, because we had 3 different flapjack entries, we have a special flapjack category too. These are British flapjacks. In America, flapjacks are another name for pancakes. Flapjacks in the UK are totally different. In the UK flapjacks are cereal bars, oat bars, or oat slices) are golden oat-packed, hand-held triangles, often enjoyed for breakfast or as a snack. So, our award for best Flapjacks go to Jacob Nyamak for his Tropical Flapjacks. You can congratulate Jacob at https://jakeinthecity.wordpress.com/

AWESOME job Jacob!!!!!!

Our next award is for Best Cookie. If I could, I would give you the moon and the stars, but I don’t have too. Babitha has already done that for us with her fantastic moon and stars cookies for Ramadan. Babitha from My Peppermint Kitchen at https://mypeppermintkitchen.wordpress.com/ These crescent moons and stars are orange laced soft crumbly sugar coffees.

WHOOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!! I LOVE cookies!!!!!!

Next we have our bread category. I LOVE bread; breads of all kinds. This bread is a sweet bread made with Bischoff, which is something I had never heard of before. Again, it is a British thing. Bischoff is a creamy spread, similar to the consistency of peanut butter from what I can tell, with hints of the winter spices of cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. It is a spread made from crushed speculoos biscuits. The texture is similar to smooth peanut butter but with a spicy cinnamon flavor. See, even old dogs like me can still learn something new. 🙂 Our speculoos or Bischoff Bread comes to us from Nadine Briars. Again, you can congratulate her via Mel at https://crushedcaramel.wordpress.com/

This beautiful snowflake bread is just in time for the first snow (at least in my neck of the woods, although we still have patches of last year’s snow way up in the mountains right now). It even looks like it is dusted with snow. YUMMY! Congrats Nadine.

No baking contest would be complete without pies and tarts, and yes, we had plenty of those too. Everything looked so good. As with all of our other delectables, this was a hard choice to make, since I could only choose one. The award for Best Pie goes to Michiel and Jeen, the creators of Cook and Drink at https://cookanddrink.org/ for their Pear and Almond Pie. In a word, this pie is PERFECT! Michiel and Jeen are all about using the best ingredients and techniques in their foods, and it definitely shows too. C’est manifique!

Our next category is for savory baked goods. Again, oh my! There was some fierce competition. I think I actually have a tie here, since I had two totally outstanding recipes. First is Kevin’s Spicy Veggie Strudel from A Different Kitchen at https://adifferentkitchen.org/2023/05/24/spicy-veg-strudel/. Oh yum! I could easily eat this whole strudel all by myself. Oh, was I supposed to save some for you? 🙂

And next we have our creative genius and event planner extradonairre, our very own Mel from https://crushedcaramel.wordpress.com/ for her Courgette and Mint Tart. Isn’t this tart gorgeous????? Each one of these courgette or zucchini spirals is rolled and placed in the tart individually. I have never seen something like this before, but I guarantee I will do my best to replicate it soon. It’s almost too pretty to eat. Almost. 🙂

Hats off to both Kevin and Mel for their beautiful creations of edible art.

Again, there was some very fierce competition here. Everything was AMAZING!!!!!!

Our 3rd Runner Up is Annette, aka Lady Lewis, for her Umami Streak Torte. Annette describing this decadent cake in her own words – Annette said she thinks this bake shares a little of her character – generally sweet, lots going on (roasted hazelnuts, an abundance of dark and milk chocolate, miso, Biscoff, bourbon biscuits, gold lustre spray) – just enough trendiness without losing her respectability, a little bit bling bling without over doing it, generous and warm, not really minding that she has an umami streak – where people don’t know if she is being serious or teasing them.

Congratulations Annette. What a decadently gorgeous torte.

Our 2nd Runner Up award goes to Robert Lewis for his Torta Caprese with Amaretto cream. HMMMMMM! There is definitely a little husband and wife baking rivalry going on at this house, and a lot of chocolate. 🙂 As you can see, both Robert and Annette are amazing bakers.

This is a flourless cake, made with roasted whole almonds that have then been blitzed in a food processor (Robert insists that means a very different taste from buying a packet of ground almonds) melted chocolate, cocoa, eggs, and more.

Our 1st Runner Up is Reuben for is Baklava Cheesecake. Apparently Reuben is shy and a bit on the modest side, which also makes him mysterious. I don’t know anything about Reuben except that he is a very creative and talented baker. To find out more, you need to contact Mel at https://crushedcaramel.wordpress.com/. Maybe she knows a bit more about our mystery man Reuben. 🙂

And now ….. the moment you have all been waiting for …. Who will be this year’s STAR BAKER?????

Our Star Baker for the 2023 Great Bloggers’ Bake-Off is Sheree from View From The Back athttps://viewfromtheback.com/ for her Classic French Frasier. A Frasier cake is a classic French strawberry cake made with two layers of genoise sponge, simple syrup, Crème Mousseline and the iconic strawberry halves along the sides. Sheree made if for the birthday of a friend. It is such an elegant showstopper of a cake. Seriously, the French really do know how to do showstopping cakes – don’t they! On her website, Sheree shares some stunning French desserts including the FRAISIER, so do take a look – it will make you super hungry though!

Sheree has been here before, a couple of times, actually. She is hard to beat. She is extremely talented, and someone I am lucky enough to call “friend”. If only she would save some of her desserts for me too. 🙂 Sheree won our first ever STAR BAKER award back in 2019 and also scooped up another STAR BAKER award in 2022 for her vegan phenomenon.

Once again, AWESOME JOB Sheree!!!!!!!

And thank you to ALL of you. We had so many amazing entries this year. You all did a FABULOUS JOB!!!!! CONGRATULATIONS and a big round of applause to all of you for a job, or jobs, very well done. This is possible every year because of all of you, your efforts and your support. We all got into the world of blogging to help support each other and this is a spectacular way of showing our love and support for all our fellow bloggers out there. Let’s keep this annual tradition going. I look forward to seeing all of your creative efforts once again next year. Keep up all your great works in the kitchen!

And special thanks to both Mel from Caramel https://crushedcaramel.wordpress.com/ and Gary Metcalf from Bereaved Single Dad at https://bereavedsingledad.blog/. There is so much work and effort that goes on behind the scenes to make this wonderful event happen. Mel and Gary both spend countless hours putting all of this together and they do a fabulous job. Every year it just keeps getting better and better, thanks to both of these two working tirelessly behind the scenes.

Thank you once again for allowing me the great honor of being the judge for this fabulous annual event. Even though my job gets harder and harder each year, because each year we we get more and more scrumptious, mouthwatering entries, I LOVE every bit of it. I am already looking forward to next year and all the delicious treats that we will see. Until then, stay safe, stay well, and I will see you again soon. ‘Til next time, Jeanne.