Winning a prize for something we've done makes us feel proud of our efforts. Molly has just won First Prize in a competition.
Molly: This is the first time I have ever won anything in my life, and I’m so excited. Actually it was the first time I’ve ever entered any sort of competition. I never expected to win anything. I entered just for the fun of it. My mum encouraged me to enter, after seeing the details in a newspaper.
It was a cake baking competition organised by City Gas. It's an annual thing, according to my mum. The brief was to bake a cake - any sort of cake - in an unusual shape. In fact, we had to bake a few different sized cakes and then assemble them into a shape. It was very challenging.
But I love baking. I've been doing it since I was five years old. I always make English Christmas cakes in December for my friends and family. Sponge cakes are my favourite. Butter, eggs, milk, flour. The secret is in the mixing and getting the oven temperature right. My sponge cakes are airy and as light as a feather.
I decided to do something very unusual for the competition. I decided to build a cake in the shape of the Bank of China Tower. I designed it on my computer first. I had to make four oblong shaped sponge cakes and then put them together.Then I had to cut the top section into shape – that was quite fiddly. Then I covered the whole thing with royal icing. It was like plastering a wall.
Next I cut out triangles of dark marzipan, and stuck them onto the outside of the cake for the windows, leaving little white gaps in between. It took me three evenings to construct the whole thing. But the hardest part was transporting the cake to the competition venue in Jordan. Luckily, a friend of my dad's has a small van and he helped us get it there. The cake was a metre tall!
My entry was in the under sixteen category. There were some brilliant cakes, of all shapes and sizes. But when people were walking around having a look before judging began, my cake got the most attention.
When the judges had scrutinised each cake, we had to cut a slice for them to taste. I had built the cake so I could remove the top section easily. I knew the sponge was light and well baked. The judges didn't say anything when they were eating their sample. Then we hung around for about half an hour until the results were announced.
You could have knocked me down with a feather when they said I had won first prize. The judges were very complimentary about the idea of the cake and the taste of the sponge. I will certainly enter again next year. I am already thinking up ideas for another show-stopping cake.