The Scottish Baking Awards is the brain child of Helensburgh born Melanie Andrews, and has just hosted its fourth ceremony. Melanie owns four businesses, three of which are Tearooms and is the writer of multiple recipe books.
Last year The Wallace Tea Rooms won Scottish Home Baking Award and a place in this years final despite being open only 7 months.
Gearing up for the event its self provided some new challenges as Kym Fletcher juggled long hours at the Tea room with working on her own entry into the sugar craft category.
Judges included the famous blog writer and recipe chef Christina, Cecilia Young chairman of the British Sugar craft Guild for the past 27 years, Ali and Fredrick Gower from the Chocolate Tree in Edinburgh. This year our host was previous MasterChef winner and Scottish recipe book writer Sue Lawrence.
The big day dawns, freezing but all the promise of clear sky's and its all go for the wonderfully imposing Mar Hall. On a side note; that many speed bumps on the incredibly long long drive way are ridiculous with a delicately balanced cake in the car.
An outstanding Marquee structure greeted us after our champagne reception in the hotel annex, great venue for a wedding or just showing off in general.
With the Best Tearoom being the first category announced there wasn't long for the tension to develop fully, though with our junior ranking we really didn't hold much hope at all. However the mystery shops and testimonies of our customers told a different story. The first winner announced was us!
As a collective we were pretty astounded, unbelievably grateful but definitely shocked. The rest of the ceremony passed in quite a haze.
The half way point was a welcome break, with the amazing afternoon tea (especially the fantastic scones!), we were able to take in the news.
Another great added bonus was the audio backdrop of Scottish band Reely Jiggered. with Fiona McNeill, Alison McNeill, Scott McLean and Em Watson. The tartan clad quartet were a great choice with their uplifting music, girls were lovely and bubbly all smiles. 
As for the scrummy drummer Scott, he was kind enough to let me take a picture (much to the amusement of my cohorts) and lets just say my better half nearly lost me to the world of groupies!
Second Award of the day went to theMountain Cafe Aviemore for " Scotland's Best Café".
Third Award of the day went to Arlene's Coffee shop on the Isle of Mull for " Scotland's Best Coffee Shop".
Fourth Award of the day went to Venachar Lochside for " Scotland's Best Restaurant ".
Fifth Award of the day was for " Scotland's Best bakery and this went to Biggar Flavour in Bigger near Lanark.
Sixth Award of the day went to Sonnda Catto from Hautecake for "Scotland's Best Baker from Home".
Seventh Award today was the most Nominated Person/Place online and this was an overwhelming majority vote for the very popular Francis hill at Muneroy in Campbeltown.
Eighth Award of the day went to the Perth College UHI student - Willow Thomson for " Up and Coming Baker ".
Ninth Award of the day was presented to Sainsbury's in Drumchapel for " Scotland's Best Supermarket Bakery".
Tenth Award of the day went to the most amazing group of Cancer Support Volunteers in the Macmillan Coffee Shop in Perth. Julia Palca -The Chairman for Macmillan cancer Support made a special journey to present them with "The Outstanding Achievement Award".
The last Award presented on the day was to Fraser Chalmers from Aberdeen College who won over Melanie Andrews earlier this year with his take on a " Sticky Toffee Pudding and Sauce ". He is now the proud recipient of the " Melanie Andrews Special Recognition Award ".
Whew for those still with me, be sure to visit the lovely establishments and great personalities that won this year. I'll run by the list of cake award winners in the next post with lots of lovely pictures of all the great cakes!
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