Do your customers go crazy for your chocolate cake? Perhaps your brownies bowl over the competition? Or maybe your celebration cakes knock the competition out of the water. If the answer to any of these is yes, be sure to enter Britain’s Best Cake 2026.
Now in its third year, the competition – sponsored by Dawn Foods, Kluman & Balter, Rainbow Dust, Shuffle-Mix, and St. Ewe Free Range Eggs – aims to find the best cake the nation has to offer.
Taking place on Monday 13 April at the UK Food & Drink Shows held at the NEC Birmingham, the competition will see an esteemed panel of experts gather to judge cakes across nine categories – Blondies & Brownies, Celebration Cake, Classic Cake, Gluten Free Cake, Fruit Cake, Mini Cakes, Modern Cake, Traybake, and Vegan Cake.
Entries are open until Monday 16 February – find out more about the categories and enter your lovely loaves via our dedicated website BritainsBestCake.co.uk.
Here are the cake connoisseurs ready to put their sweet tooth to the test this year:
Amy North, editor, British Baker
With more than a decade of experience as a journalist, including eight years at British Baker, Amy is responsible for leading and developing all aspects of its editorial coverage, from breaking news to in-depth features covering businesses of all sizes across the industry.
Chris Parrington, A1 Cake Mixes technical and development manager, Kluman & Balter
Chris’ 40-plus year career in the baking industry has seen him work at a variety of businesses. He Hughes Family Bakers on a four-year apprenticeship, before moving to a technical role at Rank Hovis, with stints at Sainsbury’s, as well as a pastry chef for P&O Cruises. He spent just under a decade with Exquisite Handmade Cakes in Leeds before joining the A1 Cake Mixes team (now a trading brand of Kluman & Balter) in 2012.
Dan Riley, deputy editor, British Baker
With more than 15 years of professional writing experience, Dan has spent the past three years covering the UK baking industry as part of the British Baker editorial team. In addition to his news articles and long-read features, he has also helped enhance the digital content of the publication with his graphic design and video editing skills, contributing to its rise in readership and engagement across various channels.
Elaine Hamey, owner, Elaine’s Creative Cakes
Elaine Hamey has been a confectioner for over 35 years and started working in a bakery to gain industry knowledge and experience whilst training to be a confectionery teacher. She taught at college level for over 20 years at several colleges around Manchester, including Tameside College. It was while working here that she attained the Confectioner of the Year title at the Baking Industry Awards twice. Elaine now puts her skills to use at her shop Elaine’s Creative Cakes in Urmston, Manchester. She creates everything from multi-tiered bespoke wedding cakes to birthday cakes, as well as cupcakes and scones for local coffee shops. She was crowned Celebration Cake Maker of the Year at the 2024 Baking Industry Awards marking the second time she has taken home the trophy.
Emily Anderson, product development manager, Cooplands
Emily oversees the development of products including cakes, biscuits, sweet and savoury pastries, bread, sandwiches and drinks at bakery chain Coopands. Her first experience of the baking industry was via a school work experience placement in the R&D team at Warburtons bakery. This sparked a passion for food product development and Emily progressed to study Food Science at the University of Leeds. After graduating, she worked at Greenhalgh’s Craft Bakery, before joining Cooplands in 2023. Last year she received the Rising Star Award at the Baking Industry Awards.
Kevin Sargent, senior product development manager, Co-op
Kevin is a seasoned expert in food development, with over two decades of experience driving innovation in the retail food industry. As a senior product development manager – frozen and bakery at The Co-op, Kevin has honed his ability to navigate the complex world of food retail. His deep understanding of customer needs, coupled with a sharp eye for innovation, has led to the successful launch of numerous product lines.
Kyle Rodgers, commercial director, Rainbow Dust
Kyle has over 20 years of experience in the baking industry. Currently serving as commercial director for Rainbow Dust, he oversees strategic growth and commercial operations for the business. His career is defined by a unique ‘ground-up’ trajectory that combines technical mastery with high-level sales strategy. He began his journey in 2005 as an apprentice baker & confectioner at The Kandy Bar, later refining his craft at Bradfords Bakery and gaining management experience at Greggs. He has also held roles at trade body Scottish Bakers, and Carr’s Flour Mills.
Michelle Philips, founder, Mimi’s Bakehouse
Michelle (aka Mimi) is a Scottish entrepreneur, the current president of trade body Scottish Bakers, and a passionate baker best known as the driving force behind beloved independent Edinburgh firm Mimi’s Bakehouse. Michelle opened the first Mimi’s café in Leith in 2010, funding her dream by selling her family home. Under her leadership, the business has grown from a single café to a multi-location, family-run enterprise with several Edinburgh cafés, a production bakery, a thriving online cake delivery service and concessions in East Lothian.
Naomi Griffiths, lead baker & patisserie chef, Iâl Bakery
Naomi has baked professionally for four years now and describes becoming a baker as “the best decision I’ve ever made”. She works as lead baker & patisserie chef at Iâl Bakery in Wrexham and also runs the blog Little Welsh Foodie on Instagram, sharing baking recipes and tips with the wider community. She has racked up the accolades in her career, being named Rising Star at the 2044 Baking Industry Awards, and won the Fruit Cake category at Britain’s Best Cake the same year for her Dark Chocolate, Orange & Ginger Bara Brith.
Nigel Cave, innovation manager, Mademoiselle Desserts
Having trained in patisserie at college, Nigel worked for a few year in hotels and restaurants, before moving into manufacturing. He has now worked in frozen dessert manufacturing for 32 years starting work at Speciality Desserts in 1994, which became Mademoiselle Desserts 2016. Although he has held several positions during this time, he says innovation has always been his passion particularly the ability to create the next exciting new concept, researching an emerging trend and creating the need before the want.
Robin Loud, application chef, Dawn Foods
A trained baker with more than 40 years’ experience, Robin has been a key member of Dawn Foods’ commercial team for the last 11 years. He is involved in supporting customers across all channels on the best way to use Dawn ingredients and providing advice on market innovations and trends. He started his career in the 1980s, working in small craft bakeries as a baker/confectioner before moving to Mountstevens Bakery in Bristol. He has also spent time in NPD at Entenmann’s and Fabulous Bakin’ Boys, as well as time as a technical baker at Macphie.
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