It's an all-female win at Cake Fest Middlesbrough

The baking extravaganza event, Cake Fest Middlesbrough, was held on July 1st to celebrate the £7.7 million refurbishment of the town hall and it's re-opening.

The idea behind this event was to rally together volunteers to bake Middlesbrough landmarks, such as the Transporter Bridge and Albert Park, and put them into a huge, edible map.

Awards would be given for Baker's Choice and The Gazette's 5 Choices before the cakes were sliced up and shared amongst the crowd.

The winners of the Gazette's choice on the steps of the newly refurbished town hall

Despite the group of bakers taking part in the event being male and female, both of the awards were dominated by women, starting with the Zoe's Place cake by Lizzy Lawrence coming out on top in the Baker's Choice.

Not only was this incredible charity recognised through cake and being selected by the other bakers for first place, another charity, Tees Valley Women's Centre, was chosen for the top spot for the Gazette's Choice. The day was a win for charities and women alike!

The Top 5 Star Bakers chosen by a panel of Cake Fest judges were:

1st: Transporter Bridge by Tees Valley Women’s Centre Cake Class and Tracy Golden

2nd: Middlesbrough Central Library baked by Wendy Bentley

3rd: Baker Street by Olivia McHale

4th: Zoe’s Place by Lizzy Lawrence

5th: Fairy Dell by Debbie Peacock and Sandra Lax

The impressive Transporter Bridge cake featured a moving gondola

This event absolutely succeeded in bringing the town together, with hundreds turning up on the day to see the final map and to sample as many free slices of cake as they could carry.

Whilst there was a sense of community during the event, there was also a brand new community forming behind the scenes via a Facebook group where participants could talk about their cakes, inspiration and how they were feeling after the event.

A supportive family of men and women was created, and each person flooded the group with inspiring stories of why they chose the cakes they had selected to bake, words of encouragement, and great summations of how the day went, including Martin Peagam's comment, "bakers are WONDERFUL people."

Please see our round-up video of the event below, including the moments that the winners were announced.