A CREDITON student has beaten over 50 others in the South-West to reach the final of the Big School Cake Challenge.

Madeleine Sanders, of Queen Eliza-beth Community College, will attend The Big Cake Show on March 28 ,after overcoming ten semi-finalists from Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Avon, Wiltshire and Jersey.

Her masterpiece was judged by a team of independent judges on everything from aromas to texture with only three able to go through to bake at the final.

Madeleine baked a lemon and poppy seed cake to beat off the competition and secure her place in the final.

Her cake scored four out of five for its aromas and attractiveness, and five out of five for texture and flavours.

Mel Edwards, of The BIG Cake Show, said: “We’re so excited about the final and seeing who will be crow-ned The BIG School Cake Challenge Champion 2014.

“We’ve been constantly surprised with the level of baking all the contestants have shown at every stage.

“The competition was designed to inspire a generation throughout the South-West to get creative with their baking, and we think it has certainly done that.”

Madeleine will now bake at the show in front of an audience in the hope of being crowned BIG School Cake Challenge Champion.

The judging panel of Glenn Cosby, of the Great British Bake Off, celebrity chef Peter Gorton, Richard Hunt, of The Devon Scone Company, and Joe Mann, South-West branch coordinator and teacher for Food and Techno-logy, will mark each finalist’s bake out of five for hygiene, method, taste and presentation with the overall winner presented with their prize by one of the nation’s favourite bakers.