TAFE SA student Shania Murphy’s star is on the rise after she was named Champion Baker at the 2022 Bake Skills Australia National Championships in Melbourne.
An apprentice baker, Shania took part in two days of competition baking, held during the Fine Food Australia trade event earlier this month, and created eight products including sourdough bread and brioche.
Undaunted by the live crowd, she says she enjoyed the challenge and was pleased with how her products turned out.
“The competition guidelines were sent in advance and listed the products we needed to make, so each week when I was at TAFE SA I practised making a different product.”
“It’s one of my first competitions so I wasn’t sure what to expect but my lecturers Paul and Ash helped me a lot in getting prepared.”
The Bake Skills Championship is Australia’s premier baking competition for 18 – 24-year-old pastry chefs and bakers.
Shania, who has a Certificate III in Patisserie and is now studying a Certificate III in Baking as part of her apprenticeship, says preparing for the competition taught her additional skills while the event provided an opportunity to network and meet people from the industry.
Best of all, she has won a trip to Germany to visit IBA, the world’s leading trade fair for the baking and confectionery industry, which will be held in Munich in October 2023.
For Shania, who previously worked in real estate, gaining skills in baking has paved the way to a new career which she is finding “very fulfilling”.
“I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to do but I like cooking and baking so I looked up the courses at TAFE SA and enrolled to do the Certificate III in Patisserie,” she says.
“I absolutely loved it, so I followed up with a skillset in bread making and then I got signed up as an apprentice.”
Shania works for Lost Loaf, an artisan bakery at Plant 4, Bowden, where she enjoys baking a variety of products, both savoury and sweet.
“I especially like baking sourdough breads, I find the whole process and the use of the wild yeasts quite interesting,” she says.