PENHOLD – It was the icing on the cake.
Penhold’s Tracy Irwin, owner of local business Sugar By Tracy, was recently chosen for a new Food Network television series called Winner Cake All, which premiered on Jan. 7.
Irwin’s episode airs on the Food Network on Jan. 14 at 8 p.m. MST.
The 31-year-old cake artist has been baking and creating cakes for a decade.
“It’s come full circle. I started making cakes because I watched cake shows on the Food Network,” said Irwin. “I grew up watching that and thinking I want to do that.”
She was thrilled to be chosen for the new Food Network series.
“It was fantastic. It was nice to be acknowledged and recognized from some of my peers in my industry worldwide,” said Irwin. “It was so surreal but it was so cool. The experience was unlike anything else.”
Irwin flew to Los Angeles for a week in early October to film the episode.
She was joined by Penhold baker Julie Hallman, who works with Irwin at Sugar By Tracy. They competed against teams from New York, Texas and Los Angeles, and were the only Canadians invited to take part in the competition.
“We had a prep day and the next day was filming,” said Irwin. “We filmed the entire episode in one day and the next day we did our interviews and voice-overs (for the show).
“(Julie) bakes at the shop here and she’s awesome,” said Irwin. “I brought her down because we work together all the time and we work together well.”
The competition series is hosted by culinary icon Giada De Laurentiis and each episode features four teams of two from across North America.
The Food Network became aware of Irwin through her posts on Instagram and contacted her last summer for an audition and interview.
Network officials liked what they saw.
Irwin was selected in August and final details for filming were ironed out.
The 13-episode series Winner Cake All features teams that must compete in two rounds, including a decoration challenge where teams must create a unique cake topper based on a client’s theme, and in the second round, a cake challenge where teams must create and bake a sculpted cake for the client’s celebration.
All four teams compete in Round 1, with only three teams making it to Round 2.
“They gave us a different theme and we designed and created a cake topper,” said Irwin. “We all made our own interpretation, our own ideas and our own design and then we were judged by (the three judges).”
Irwin is holding a viewing party for her Food Network debut on Jan. 14 at the Penholder Tavern at 7 p.m.
The winner of each episode takes home $10,000.
Irwin said she has received much support from family, friends and customers.
“People are super excited. I’ve had lots of customers reach out with their support and congratulations," said Irwin. "People have to tune in on January 14 to see what happens, see if we get to make a cake and who wins. It’ll be fun to see,” Irwin concluded.
