The Great Brussels Charity Bake Off Final: And the winners are…

Brussels bakers whipped up a storm of sugar paste confections for the fourth edition of the popular baking competition at ING Marnix on Monday 27 March. A total of 17 teams baked, iced and piped in a bid to win the superhero/villain-themed contest.

With some of the capital’s top chefs judging the colourful showstoppers, competition was as fierce as ever. Following a donation of €3,100 by organiser British Chamber of Commerce in Belgium to CHS chair Geoff Brown, the chamber’s young networking wing Brussels New Generation chairman Joseph Lemaire announced the winners.

Superheroes: 1st place Whimsy Cakes; 2nd St Paul’s School Bakers; 3rd Justicing League
Supervillains: 1st place The Rippers from Line 5; 2nd Fabulously Iced Pastry Ravaging Amateurs; 3rd Captain America
Overall winner: Whimsy Cakes

Behind the successful Whimsy Cakes team were two colleagues, Nadia Flecha Guazo and Sophie Sahlin from the Brussels office of US global legal firm White & Case. Sahlin, an associate at the company, explains the inspiration behind their winning chocolate sponge Minions cake: “We wanted to make a superhero who was fun and not too serious, but we also wanted there to be a message. All of us want to be a superheroes but we also have to deal with our inner demons, which relates to the charity CHS.”

Alex Joseph, award-winning chef of Rouge Tomate in Avenue Louise, says he was definitely judging on taste, “favouring flavour and simple execution over more complicated bakes”. Fellow judge Nicolas Decloedt was impressed by the line-up: “Wow, for amateur bakers, well done,” says the chef of the organic veggie dining and drinking experience Humus X Hortense in Flagey. Anaïs Gaudemar of floral cake workshop and boutique Cokoa in Ixelles, praised the effort and technique of many of the cakes. “As you would expect from transatlantic baking, there are a lot of rich cakes, heavy with sugar and buttercream, but a few really stood out,” she says.

For the second year in a row, proceeds were donated to non-profit Community Help Service’s 24/7 English-language hotline, which is reliant on fundraising. The mental health centre and educational assessment service operates from Avenue des Phalènes in Brussels. Geoff Brown thanked the British Chamber and Brussels New Generation: “It’s was even more kind of them to do this again for CHS this year and there were an amazing number of teams doing some wonderfully creative things.”

The judging panel consisted of the following Michelin-starred chefs and pastry chefs: David Martin (La Paix), Alexandre Dionisio (Villa in the Sky), Giovanni Bruno (Senzanome), Salem Sassi (Dandoy), Patrick Aubrion (Antoine Sweets), Nicolas Decloedt (Humus X Hortense), Kenny Bernaerts (Studio Bern), Yannick Van Aeken (Humphrey Restaurant), Pierre Balthazar (The Restaurant), Anaïs Gaudemer (Cokoa), Alex Joseph (Rouge Tomate).