PBSS Winners of Cake Masters Best learning Experience Award 2017

What an amazing night at the Cake Masters Awards 2017 held at the Birmingham Hilton Metropole on the 4th of November.

We were welcomed with a champagne reception which provided an excellent opportunity to mix and mingle with so many known faces from the cake industry coming from every continent.

What’s great about this event is that everyone, regardless of who or where they are in the pecking order, is mixing freely with one another. We all know and communicate with so many people on Facebook so this was like Facebook coming to life, but with everyone so very smartly dressed some were more difficult to recognise.

The awards were hosted by Rosie Cake Diva and Will Torrent who brought everyone to life then the award categories started to be announced.

There was a lot to get through, then came the Best Learning Experience category. Paul Bradford Sugarcraft School (PBSS) was nominated along with some amazing schools and artists and having won in 2014 and 2016 we weren’t expecting this one!

As the category nominees were read out the blood pressure was rising and it completely stuns you when you hear your name being read out as the winner. The rush of adrenalin is like nothing else!

Paul and I then made our way to the front just trying to take it all in. On arriving at the stage you jump into the spotlight and find yourself looking out at an amazing audience of 650 cakers all clapping at your success.

It’s a hugely emotional time and Paul wanted to get his thank you speech out before the tears started, which had happened in the previous two wins. He just about managed this time and enjoyed every minute of it and as you’ll see from the pic above he couldn’t hold his laughter in when someone in the audience shouted ‘We love you Paul’.

Paul was also a nominee in the Cake Hero category, but that title deservedly went to Karen Portaleo.

There were some amazing winners and nominees and many more who deserve to be mentioned, but the stand out of the night was when Eddie Spence MBE took to the stage to present the Royal Icing Award. The whole room took to their feet to give this amazing man the standing ovation he rightly deserves.

The after party went on long into the night and I could write another few paragraphs here, but we all agreed ‘what happens at the Cake Masters Awards stays at the Cake Masters Awards’. For some more in-depth goings on of the night check out Cake Masters Facebook page.

Just to finish by saying a huge thank you to Rosie Mazumder and the Cake Masters team for putting on such a professional and well-run show and we hope to be a part of the 2018 Awards and also a huge thanks to our amazing members who support us throughout the year.

written by: David Brice