South Korea's Yeon Sunheum and Han Doyoung have won “The iba.UIBC.CUP of Confectioners,” which comes with a gold medal for confectionery and was held live at this year's iba. The participating confectioners’ challenge? Creating artworks on a world-class level based on this year’s competition theme, “The Animal World."

One theme, eight top talents from four countries, and a tons of confectionery skill: participants of “The iba.UIBC.CUP of Confectioners” showed their sweetest slights of hands on Thursday, October 26. There were confectioners from Taiwan, Germany, Korea, and Norway, ready to impress the international panel of judges with their craftsmanship. With strong competition and very limited time, the teams of two achieved the tasks assigned to them on the theme of “The Animal World” with distinction. They had to create a showpiece, an iced cake, three different types of petit fours, pralines, sculpted figures and theme-based sweet baked goods. All the ingredients had to be edible and all the decorative elements had to be created on site.

Alongside the panel of judges, trade fair participants could follow every step live in the glass show bakeries in hall A4. The international competition was once more a highlight and magnet for visitors in 2023. As the competition days progressed, the panel of judges judged and tasted the works of confectionery while the contestants were being cheered at by a large number of spectators.

“I am so delighted that four international teams took part in this competition at iba. It was a great opportunity to give a live demonstration of the fine art of confectionery, to promote an exchange of ideas and creativity in this skilled craft,” said chair of the judges’ panel Bettina Schliephake-Burchardt.

The following criteria were assessed: appearance, taste, variety, and creativity. In the end, Yeon Sunheum and Han Doyoung from South Korea won the gold medal. They accepted the coveted award in the iba.FORUM, thereby becoming the winner of the Cup of Confectioners. Second place went to Victoria Gravdal and Xiao Juan Peng from Norway, and third place to Min-Yu Teng and Peng-Yi Lin from Taiwan.

The participants included:

  • Leonard Will (Germany)
  • Savanna Schmidt (Germany)
  • Yeon Sunheum (South Korea)
  • Han Doyoung (South Korea)
  • Min-Yu Teng (Taiwan)
  • Peng-Yi Lin (Taiwan)
  • Victoria Gravdal (Norway)
  • Xiao Juan Peng (Norway)