College wins at Scottish Baker Awards

City of Glasgow College has won a number of prizes at this year’s Scottish Baker of the Year Awards.

Representing the college, Alastair McAusland, a baker for the college’s City Market Bakery, won both national and regional silver awards for his salt and pepper sourdough with oats.  

Two of the college’s level 6 NQ bakery students, Diane Cleland and Cameron Mearns, took regional silver awards for both their Scottish morning roll and Bolognese pie with grand Padano crumb. They also won the regional bronze award for their caramel apple crumble pie. 

“The Scottish Bakery Awards and Conference are the highlight of the annual baking industry calendar,” explained Alastair. “Just having the opportunity to get shortlisted for a prize and attend the awards ceremony was exciting in itself, never mind City of Glasgow College coming away with four awards.

“The event is attended by some of the best bakeries across the industry in Scotland, so it was a real opportunity to showcase the talent of the College, raise its profile and promote the skills and knowledge being passed on to our amazing students, who could become their employees of the future.”

The college’s City Market Bakery, a welcome addition to Glasgow’s Cathedral Street, offers a selection of baked goods, salads, sandwiches, pastries, barista coffees, cold drinks and ice cream for sale.

As part of their coursework, the bakery students support Alastair in creating a range of cakes, scones, pastries, bread and rolls for the market.

“Our bakery provides the ideal testing ground and learning experience for the students,” added Jason Ross, lecturer in bakery and sugar craft, who worked with both Diane and Cameron during the competition.

“They have to turn around real-world baking within a specific time and to a consistently high standard, and they are seeing immediate results when people not only buy their produce but return and become regular customers.”

Almost 500 products from 57 bakers entered the Scottish Baker of the Year competition, with each product assessed for appearance, quality of the bake and taste.

Alasdair Smith, chief executive of Scottish Bakers, who organise the competition, said: “With 50 industry professionals on hand during our annual judging day to put each product through its paces, our winners can be justifiably proud of their achievements.”