Once again, Singapore takes the center stage as the host for Cafe Asia 2014 and International Coffee & Tea (ICT) Industry Expo 2014 held at Marina Bay Sands Singapore from 6 March to 8 March 2014. I went for this exhibition last year and sampled many cups of coffee and tea, heehee, feel free to read my previous post here.
This year also marks the launch of Sweets & Bakes Asia 2014 and I'm excited to be back again. Thanks for the invites. In total, there were 98 exhibitors from 20 countries and regions and it marks the largest gathering of the tea, coffee and bakery industry players in Southeast Asia.
I first headed to the Sweets & Bakes session and everything looks so nice.
I went on the last day and it was already the result announcement segment for the Singapore National Bakery & Confectionery Championships 2014. This is the first time they held this competition.
The happy winning faces. Top row are the participants from the bread category and bottom row are the participants from the cake category. On top of cash, trophy and a cert, the top winner even receive a chance to fly to California for live demonstrations. CONGRATS!
ENTRIES FOR THE BREAD CATEGORY
A total of 5 entries were submitted for the bread category. To ensure that the judges scoring is not bias, the names of the bakers were not shown. Just the bread presentations and the number. This also means that we didn't know which bread actually won!
Just looking at all these breads makes me really happy. I love eating bread especially those fresh from the oven ones. Warm and soft.
California Raisins were used in all the breads shown. I went to their website and there's a whole lot of recipes for those who loves to cook. I'm starting to enjoy cooking so next time I will share my recipe here too.
ENTRIES FOR THE CAKE CATEGORY
9 entries were submitted for the cake category. Each has their own uniqueness. Definitely not easy to pick the winner. For me, cake 5 leaves the deepest impression would be the chicken! It was so glazed until it really shines just like the oil of the skin. Cake 4 and cake 8 are my top picks. Cake 4 is a creation of the bee hives, so there's also the detail patters on the surface of the cake. The detailed dragon on cake 8 makes the cake comes alive. I'm really curious which cake caught the judges eyes and won out of the 9 entries.
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I went over to the other part of the exhibition hall where another competition is going on. The big stage is divided into two part. On the left is the Singapore National Barista Championship 2014 and on the right is the Singapore National Latte Art Championship 2014.
Participants take turns to showcase their skills and prepare their cups of coffee to the judges under a stipulated time. For latte art, the judges will judge based on a lot of factors. Creativity, Contrast, whether the baristo can create identical patterns for different cups, whether the pattern is symmetric to the handle, etc.
Ryan Tan from Strangers Reunion performing his skill for latte art.
Beautiful!
Stayed on to watch the whole presentation of a baristo. First she introduces the ingredients that she will be using for her citrus beverage. After that, she went on to prepare her first cup of drink which is the Orange Dark Chocolate, it has a bitter dark sweetness and dry cocoa finishes. Next drink is cappuccino, dark chocolate with a little bit of caramel.
All the participants for a group photo.
Such a big group calls for an Oscar Selfie!
Winners for the Latte Art Category. Ryan Tan got the first prize.
The champion for the Barista category. First time a lady won and representing Singapore. Good Luck winners!
The participants, winners and judges group photo.
Ending the post with a selfie of myself. The only selfie I took at the exhibition today.
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