Local bakery out to rise to the top

COMMITTED: 10CC's dishwasher, Krissy Waddington, works steadily on an icing house.

What do a house and a dress have in common?

The Ten O'Clock Cookie Company can represent both using icing.

The Masterton bakery will be competing at the Baker of the Year competition in Auckland on Sunday which is held every two years.

They will enter into four categories to be judged - bread, cake, pastry and a "creative" category.

The bakery's option for the cake category is an impressive two storey house, worked on by Krissy Waddington with the help of Jenna Mangin.

Asked if she was a chef, Ms Waddington said she was the dishwasher at 10CC - but with an artistic bent and a willingness to help.

The creative option the bakery has settled on is the top half of a dress on a mannequin - which 10CC's John Kloeg said is made of delicate icing and "sugar boiled to 170C which sets and goes shiny".

Bakers apprentice Marrisa Laken will compete in a live bake-off covering four categories of baking - best birthday cake, scone mix, "platted loaf" and tart. She is both "excited and nervous" about competing, being her first time entering.

If she wins she will get exposure and a bunch of prizes. "For the winner, it means invaluable industry exposure, a $5000 scholarship, an iPad and iPhone, $2000 worth of travel, plus a bonus prize of $1500 worth of Southern Hospitality vouchers for the employers of the winning trainee."

The Ten O'Clock Cookie Company won the award in 2009.