Southern Cross Baking Group

Testing a New Feature

scbg — Wed, 16 May 2012 02:45:36 +0000

This is a test of our webpoll software, which we will use to get feedback from our members.

Your opinions please…

scbg — Wed, 16 May 2012 02:16:15 +0000

Southern Cross Baking Group is an association run by its members for the benefit of members. Today we would like to ask for your opinion:

Competition is a big part of SCBG’s plan to develop skills and knowledge and share them with the community. To help develop teams for international competition, SCBG is getting involved with domestic baking competitions (e.g. L.A. Judge and BakeSkills). Right now, both these competitions have an age limit of 23 years old.

Here is a real example of the issue from a SCBG member and business owner:
“I have been asked by a member and current apprentice of ours who is 25yo to please request on his behalf that this be looked at and change. I would like to put forward that SCBG send a request to organisers of both comps and request that the age limit be removed. In the real world apprentices are not defined by age. In fact if I refused to employ one for reasons of age I would be breaking the law.”

The SCBG committee believes that these competitions are suffering from a lack of applicants and the age restriction is not helping. In our experience, more apprentices these days are older than 23 before they begin their apprenticeship and would never be able to participate in these competitions.

Before we petition the organisers further, we would like to know what you, our members, this of this idea.

Please leave your comments below to the question:

Should apprentices of any age be allowed to compete in competitions like BakeSkills and L.A. Judge?

Emily Joins Australian Baking Team

scbg — Tue, 15 May 2012 02:04:24 +0000

The team have selected their reserve 3rd member for the IBA cup competition in Germany this year.

Emily Carnell is from Brisbane and has recently completed her apprenticeship under French baker Sebastian Pisasale at Chouquette Boulangerie.

Emily has great strengths in both bread and pastry and has past competition experience at the Artisan Baking Cup. Emily speaks fluent German which will be of great assistance to the team during the IBA Cup competition.

The team’s next practice session be in Brisbane on the weekend of the 26th and 27th of May, at the Bakels Test Kitchen.

Congratulations Emily and good luck to the whole team.

Australian Baking Team Share Tips for a Top Loaf

scbg — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 01:23:49 +0000

The Australian Baking Team is training hard for the IBA cup in Germany later this year. Baking Business caught up with them at the Van Rooy test kitchen in Melbourne last week to get the team’s advice on the best ways to mix, mould, prove and bake a world class loaf of bread.

Australia Wins Asian Pastry Cup 2012

scbg — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 04:46:15 +0000

Australia placed 1st, and are the Asian Pastry Cup Champions.

They will now go on to compete at the World Pastry Cup.

Well done guys, and to coaches Dean Gibson, Jian Yao, and all those sponsors and supporters that played a part in the teams success. Congratulations!!!!!

Image credit: Matthew Venables

*SCBG reduced the image quality to make them load faster. If you would like a copy of the high-quality images, please contact us.

Great Baking

scbg — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 06:39:27 +0000

SCBG would like to thank the team from Weston Milling for their enthusiastic participation in last week’s professional development workshop.

The 2-day event covered in-depth information on the theory and practice of baking bread with pre-fermented flour.

The attendees were ready to get their hands dirty and, as you can see, the results out of the oven were excellent. Mental muscles were also stretched as things got micro-biological on the sourdough science side of things.

Thanks again to everyone involved and we look forward to working with Weston Milling again in the future.

If you would like to organise a professional development workshop for your organisation, please contact us.

2012 Bakery World Cup Photos

scbg — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 02:09:59 +0000

We’ve just uploaded some photos from the 2012 Coupe du Monde del la Boulangerie.

Feel free to browse and be inspired by the worlds best bakers.

Go to our photo gallery and click on the Coupe Du Monde del la Boulangerie album.

Callebaut Chocolate Competitions

scbg — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 01:10:18 +0000

Callebaut, F. Mayer Imports and Savour School are hosting two chocolate competitions, as part of this year’s Hunter Valley Gardens Winter Wonderland Festival.

This is an amazing opportunity to put your chocolate skills to the test and be in the running to win some fantastic prizes in both the Chocolate Showpiece and Chocolate Entremet competitions.

For full details and to enter, download the information sheets below:


Showpiece Competition Entry & Info		Entremet Competition Entry & Info

Japan wins World Cup of Baking

scbg — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:49:10 +0000

2012 Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie

1st Place: Japan

2nd Place: United States

3rd Place: Taiwan


Official Press Release

Alan Dunn – Leading U.K. Sugarcraft Artist Visits Queensland

scbg — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:55:48 +0000

In great demand worldwide for his creative skills and the producer of 10 sought after books on his craft, Alan Dunn will be holding both hands-on workshops and demonstration classes during his much awaited visit to Brisbane and Toowoomba in February 2012.

This class is not being hosted by SCBG, however it is a great opportunity and we encourage anyone who is interested to sign-up and attend.

Download the PRESS RELEASE ON ALAN DUNN