Madison Bulford designed, baked and decorated this cake to earn gold at the 2020 Skills Alberta competition (photo provided)

By Liam Verster

Bake Off

Grande Prairie high schooler wins gold in 2020 Skills Alberta baking competition

Jun 9, 2020 | 1:51 PM

A Grade 11 student at Peace Wapiti Academy has claimed the sole gold medal for Grande Prairie at the 2020 Skills Alberta competition.

The competition featured over 300 students from across the province, competing in a range of skill-based competitions from carpentry to robotics, graphic design to hair styling.

Madison Bulford brought the sole gold medal back to Grande Prairie after beating 15 other competitors and earning the win in the baking event.

The competition was held via video conference, as the COVID-19 pandemic had forced the events to be held virtually rather than in person.

Bulford says she had an hour to design, bake and decorate a cake all on her own that had specific criteria.

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“The theme was Canadian Indigenous Art. So we worked on a design, and it was a one-hour competition where you had [to bake] a cake that weighed under 500 grams, a butter-cream icing to cover it, a fruit-cream filling, and the decorations had to be made during the one-hour video conference out of fondant.”

She says that it was nerve-wracking to make the cake in the time allotted, which according to Bulford, flew by, and to do it in silence while the judges watched online added an extra level of stress.

In order to meet the theme of Indigenous Art, Bulford designed a dream catcher to be featured on her cake.

“I was looking at some ideas, and I thought feathers and beading would be a good idea. So I started with a circle of fondant, and it kind of just looked like leather. Then, after talking to my teacher, I thought ‘well, a dream catcher would be a good idea’ and she thought that was a good idea too, and a quick design that I could get done in an hour.”

After winning the event, Bulford received a personalized congratulatory video message from another Alberta gold medalist, Olympic Bobsleigh champion Justin Kripps, in which he spoke about competition and winning.

“It was really cool to see that, and kind of have it personalized. It was nice to see that there are other people out there who are going through this too and understand the pressure.”

Bulford says she’s been baking since she was really young, and that she really enjoys the creative outlet in designing cakes. She says it’s possible that baking could be something she follows through on as a future career.

“I think possibly baking or culinary school, or maybe having a small business or something.”

She adds that the competition was fun and challenging, though somewhat stressful, and that if she could, she would do it again.