Winner: David McClymont

New product development

Lightbody Celebration Cakes, Hamilton, Lanarkshire

A former steel worker, David McClymont studied bakery when he was made redundant. He has worked at Lightbody’s for 16 years, designing and developing celebration cakes for retailers.

David’s art deco-themed Moonlight Over Manhattan cake features a flapper girl, modelled from Mexican paste and hand-painted, wearing a fringed dress and sporting an Egyptian-influenced ’bob’. Lying on the sugarpaste covered cake, she is surrounded by brush-embroidered flowers in red, purple, black and white colours favoured by art deco designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh. New York’s Chrysler building inspired McClymont to create his coloured chocolate replicas of its silhouette, positioned around the cake.

The judges said his entry showcased his skill level to the maximum, demonstrating his attention to detail and all-round neatness.

Finalist: Jayne McWalters

Sugarcraft chargehand,

Waterfields (Leigh), Leigh, Lancashire

Jayne McWalters joined Waterfields straight out of college and has been working in the celebration cake room for 18 years.

Her cake is resplendent with colours typical of, and accurate to, the art deco era purples, reds and blues and shows an iconic sunburst on the backstand. Two flapper girls are joined by a sleazy gangster, all modelled in sugarpaste and overpainted supported by strands of linguine. McWalters cites its crowning glory as the Bakelite radio, made from a moulded cake covered in sugarpaste, and featuring speakers made with Royal icing piped onto sheets of gelatine, painted with edible gold and then bent into position. The sides feature fans run out of Royal icing and sprayed with an edible pearl colouring. The cake sits on a reflective black Perspex board.

Finalist: Julie Black

Confectioner

Terry Tang Designer Cakes, Liverpool

Julie has been at Terry Tang’s for three years, where the team of three produce around 60 celebration cakes a week.

"I found the theme really exciting, I love art deco," she says. Her two-tier cake is covered in sugarpaste and features the two iconic colourways of the period: black and gold on the front and strong primary colours to the side. The black and gold oval panels were hand-piped, as were every one of the beads on the flapper girl’s dress! She herself is made from pastillage and supported by pastillage sticks, and her face and hair were hand-painted. She stands against an oval ’sunburst’ panel, featuring bold primary colours. The panels were influenced by 1920s architecture, particularly US skyscrapers. The top tier is supported by a hand-painted glass vase, which lights up.