By Katrina Doran.

On Saturday 1st May 2010 eleven professional bakers arrived at The Ivory prepped and prepared for the inaugural Sugahfix.com Cupcake Challenge.

With so many new cupcake businesses popping up in Northern Ireland The Sugahfix Gals, who are partial to a sweet treat, decided to bring as many cupcakeries together as we could and give them a chance to shine.

We were totally impressed with both the level of entries and the standard of the baking but also with the seriousness with which the cupcake companies approached their craft.

There were three categories of entry; Best Vanilla Cupcake, Best Chocolate Cupcake and Best Innovative Cupcake which allowed the professional bakers to showcase any weird and wonderful creations and an ‘Overall Winner' prize was awarded to the entrant with the highest total score across three categories.

The judging process was completely anonymous and judges chosen from attendees at the Sugahfix.com 2nd Birthday Party.  Marks were given out of 10 on four elements - base, frosting, general yumminess (sponge and frosting together) and presentation so ¾ of the points were for taste alone.

Best Vanilla Cupcake was won by The Sugar Room, Best Chocolate Cupcake was won by J Bird Bakery and Best Innovative Cupcake by The Marshmallow Grove. The overall winner on the night with the highest total score was John McClean, The Sugar Room (pictured above with Sugahfix.com Editor and Cupcake affionado Katrina Doran).

"Wow! I am shocked and completely stunned at winning!!", said John. "There were so many great cupcakeries and bakeries that entered that have been in operation for a long time that I didnt think I had a chance of winning one section never mind the whole competition!

"I wanted to create something that was different to all the other cupcakes out there at the minute, something unusual, visually stunning and luxurious that tasted heavenly, so it feels great that I achieved that , so thank you so much to everyone involved for crowning me the winner".

For more info on the winning cupcakeries  click here  www.thesugarroom.info

www.marshmallowgrove.com       The Marshmallow Grove on facebook

www.jbirdbakery.com       J Bird Bakery on facebook

To find out more about the Sugahfix.com Cupcake Challenge click here.

All photography by Ruairi Drayne.