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NZ's Best Baker to Compete in Trans-Tasman Challenge

Wednesday 10 September 2014, 7:47PM

By Impact PR

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AUCKLAND

A passionate West Auckland baker has been named New Zealand’s best baker in the Muffin Break Ultimate Bake Off and will represent the country at the upcoming Australasian final of this annual baking challenge.

Alisha Moser, a 21-year-old baker from Muffin Break LynnMall in Waitakere, has taken out top honours in the local rounds of the Muffin Break Ultimate Bake Off, which aims to find the most creative and most passionate all-round best baker.

After being crowned New Zealand’s best - with a tasty score of 97% - Alisha will travel to Sydney later this month to compete against five other expert bakers in the Ultimate Bake Off final to be held at the Muffin Break Head Office Training Academy.

“It was awesome to get such a high score,” says Alisha, a full-time architecture student who works part-time at Muffin Break LynnMall. “I was the only person in the country to get into the top time bracket, which means I got the muffin mixes made, into the pans, and into the oven in less than 13 minutes, which was a big part of my winning strategy.”

Alisha is most looking forward to the chance to present her signature cake recipe to the judges in Australia. “I’m an artistic person, I love creating new things and decorating, so that section of the competition really excites me. I’m really looking forward to the challenge.”

Contestants will compete in five key rounds, including creating their signature sweet or savoury baked dish. They will also be judged on baking 3.5 kilograms of Hi-Fibre Muffins (Apple Cinnamon, Blueberry and Choc Chip) in 55 minutes. The muffins will be assessed on the dome shape, colour and weight of the final product.

The finalists will go on to demonstrate their abilities in decorating a cake, and identifying as many correct ingredients as possible in a mystery product. Alisha, along with the other finalists, will also engage in speedy battle rounds, in which they will go head-to-head in kitchen tasks such as whisking cream by hand, separating one kilogram of egg whites from the yolks, grating carrots, and draining spinach to a specified weight.

Judges will assess the Grand Finalists overall on their baking skills, specifically; Preparation, Time and Efficiency, Food Safety, Kitchen Cleanliness, Creativity and Final Product quality to determine an ultimate winner.

Muffin Break General Manager, Garry Croft, says it is brilliant to see young Kiwi bakers like Alisha represent New Zealand in the competition.

“We’re delighted to have Alisha in the Muffin Break Ultimate Bake-Off 2014 Grand Final and wish her all the best,” says Croft. “We pride ourselves on having top quality bakers here in New Zealand and we are keen to show off their talents on an international stage.”

The Grand Final round of the Muffin Break Ultimate Bake Off 2014 will be held at the Muffin Break Training Academy in Sydney on September 17th and 18th, and the winner will receive a $1000 Visa gift card and a KitchenAid Mixer.

For more information about Muffin Break, visit muffinbreak.co.nz, or check out the Muffin Break page on Facebook; www.facebook.com/muffinbreaknz

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