And the winner is: South Korea. Yeon Sunheum and Han Doyoung who unreservedly deserved and won “The iba.UIBC.CUP of Confectioners”, which comes with a gold medal for confectionery and was held live at the trade fair. The participating confectioners’ challenge? Creating sweet artworks on world class level based on this year’s competition theme “The Animal World”.
One theme, eight top talents from four countries and a tons of confectionery skill: participants of “The iba.UIBC.CUP of Confectioners” showed their sweetest slights of hands on Thursday 26 October. There were confectioners from Taiwan, Germany, Korea and Norway, ready to impress the international panel of judges with their craftsmanship. With strong competition and very limited time, the teams of two achieved the tasks assigned to them on the theme of “The Animal World” with distinction. They had to create a showpiece, an iced cake, three different types of petit fours, pralines, sculpted figures and theme-based sweet baked goods. All the ingredients had to be edible and all the decorative elements had to be created on site.
Sweet works of art in front of the panel of judges
Alongside the panel of judges, trade fair participants could follow every step live in the glass show bakeries in hall A4. The international competition was once more a highlight and magnet for visitors in 2023. As the competition days progressed, the panel of judges judged and tasted the works of confectionery while the contestants were being cheered at by a large number of spectators: “I am so delighted that four international teams took part in this competition at iba. It was a great opportunity to give a live demonstration of the fine art of confectionery, to promote an exchange of ideas and creativity in this skilled craft,” said chair of the judeges’ panel Bettina Schliephake-Burchardt. The following criteria were assessed: appearance, taste, variety and creativity. In the end, Yeon Sunheum and Han Doyoung from South Korea won the gold medal. They accepted the coveted award in the iba.FORUM at 4 pm on 26 October, thereby becoming the winner of the Cup of Confectioners. Second place went to Victoria Gravdal and Xiao Juan Peng from Norway, third place to Min-Yu Teng and Peng-Yi Lin from Taiwan.
The participants:
Leonard Will (Germany)
Savanna Schmidt (Germany)
Yeon Sunheum (South Korea)
Han Doyoung (South Korea)
Min-Yu Teng (Taiwan)
Peng-Yi Lin (Taiwan)
Victoria Gravdal (Norway)
Xiao Juan Peng (Norway)
About iba:
iba – The world’s leading trade fair for the baking and confectionery industry is held every three years in its usual rotation at Fairground Munich. The trade fair brings together all the products and technologies that are relevant to bakers and confectioners of all sizes, decision-makers from the bakery and confectionery industries and food retailers. The range of topics includes from raw materials, ingredients and frozen bakery products through production and packaging technology, process optimization and information technology to complete interior design of bakeries, pastry shops or cafés. More than 77,000 trade visitors from around 170 countries came to iba 2018. In total, over 1,300 companies exhibited. The next iba is to be held at Fairground Munich from 22 to 26 October 2023. In order to continuously offer the baking industry a stage, iba will already take place from 18 to 22 May 2025 once again, then at the Fairground Düsseldorf. From 2027 onwards, iba will again be held every three years in autumn at the Fairground Munich.
