Budding bakers have bagged a big haul of more than twenty medals for University College Birmingham at one of the baking industry's top national competitions.

Students on our college and university bakery courses scooped a total of 22 awards at the 2022 Alliance for Bakery Students and Trainees (ABST) Competition, held for the first time in three years following the disruption of the Covid pandemic.

Held as part of the ABST's annual conference at Alton Towers in Staffordshire, the contest saw students and trainees from around the country compete across a wide range of baking challenges and categories, from making cakes, bread, biscuits and pastries to sugar craft, cake decoration and innovation.

A group of 47 students from University College Birmingham took part, amassing a haul of ten gold medals, four silvers and four bronzes as well as four 'Highly Commended' awards.

Among those taking the top prizes in their categories were Bakery and Patisserie Technology BSc (Hons) student Sophie Jones, who won in the Renshaw decorative class as well as taking silver in the Goldex sugar flower competition.

The latter competition was won by fellow degree student Jonah Street, who also took a bronze in the sourdough challenge won by Bakery and Patisserie Technology FdSc student Joel Chadwick.

Bakery Level 3 student David Thane was another to claim two medals, winning gold in the Harvester breadmaking category along with a bronze in The Horton 800g white loaf category, which was won by bakery lecturer Ross Jones. Another Level 3 student, Sophie Guy, took gold in the fruit loaf challenge as well as bagging bronze in shortbread.

And there were further gold medals for Molly McCarthy (Devon Rose Bowl light fruit cake), Jessica Tennant (Presidents Cup), Thomas Simpson (The British Society of Baking Trophy) and David Gray (Lob the Cob).

See the full list of winners below

The students stayed at the Alton Towers Splash Landings resort throughout the weekend of the event, which ran from 9-11 June.

In addition to the competition day itself, the group attended a food-themed fancy dress evening, met with industry representatives at the ABST's annual conference and heard from guest speaker Mitch Turner MBE, founder of the Little Venice Cake Company.

The students were later presented with their awards at a ceremony and formal dinner before spending the final day of their weekend enjoying an outing at Alton Towers Theme Park.

University College Birmingham students have enjoyed plenty of success at the ABST Competition over many years, with this year's ten gold medals exceeding the eight won at the last competition in 2019.

Our students have also excelled at other industry competitions and awards, including a string of winners of the Baking Industry Awards (BIA) Rising Star award and the ABST Presidents' Cup.

Find out more about our range of bakery courses within our Birmingham College of Food.