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Highlights
Watch a condensed edit of the full interview in under 14 minutes.
1. Full interview with David Close
In this episode of Sweet Talk, David Close, head judge at Cake International, shares his top tips for entering cake competitions.
David spent 24 years in the RAF and had been entering savoury food competitions, but when his brother got married he decided to make the wedding cake. This was in the early 80s so many of the cake products that we now take for granted were not available, resulting in David having to make the sugarpaste from scratch! Being able to overcome those challenges, he then had the bug for all things relating to cake decorating.
In the mid-90s David set up the first BSG in Northern Ireland, which was located in Belfast, then around 2003 he became a judge for the BSG.
David was the head of the Army’s food safety at the DCLPA School of Catering, and also the food safety advisor to the BSG, so the CV was building nicely at this stage. It was in the late 90s when David was judging at the Salon Culinaire that he met Sheila Lampkin. This meeting then eventually led to David becoming involved with judging at Cake International.
David has an enormous passion for the cake industry and the ongoing development of skills in the craft. His appointment as head judge at Cake International in 2019 was a huge honour for him and allowed him to channel his passion through competition entries. Although best known for his role at Cake International, David has been head judge at Fashion Cake Flash Mob, India Homebakers, Sri Lanka cake competition, D’Licious Magazine Awards and is currently working with Incredible India and Cake Artists World.
David’s meticulous approach to judging, and the selection of his judges, ensures that competitors can be in no doubt that their entries have been judged fairly and equally. The stature of the Cake International competitions are in a large way down to David Close and his passion and determination, and that of his team, to keep the art alive and inspire and encourage competitors, while ensuring that the highest standards have been maintained. That said, David is always at pains to express that the success is also very much down to the administration team and his team of dedicated judges.
