Sweet success for Sophie

Icing on the cake: Sophie Finnigan is in the semi-finals

A DELPH mum-of three is baking a name for herself after reaching the semi-finals of a national TV contest.

Sophie Finnigan baked her traditional cupcakes for the Super Sweet competition on ITV’s “This Morning”, in a bid to win the ultimate prize — to create a homemade dessert for Tesco.

She has battled it out against hundreds of hopefuls at the Trafford Centre roadshow to make the sem-finals of the competition, where she will face five other dessert-makers.

The judges, chef Gizzy Irskine, actress Wendy Chalmers and a Tesco expert, were massively impressed with her unique tiramisu, apple crumble and black forest gateaux cupcakes.

And the sweet treats were well timed as this week is national cupcake week.

Now the teaching assistant from Delph Primary School has a nervous wait to see if her offering could whisk her into the final three.

She says she has been baking since she was “knee-high to a grasshopper’ and has been able to pick up top tips because her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother all ran tea rooms.

She said: “I make the cakes for my family and friends, and one of my colleagues asked me to do a wedding order for 250 cupcakes. I was delighted! I’d love to set up my own business but it’s quite hard in this financial climate.

“I found the heats quite hard — having to bake in a kitchen in a certain time period and with all the pressure of the presentation and everything — but I loved it.”

Sophie’s husband, Nigel, is a big fan of the tiramisu cupcake but her twin boys, Kelland and Lewis (11), along with daughter Bryony (19), say after trying out loads of cakes they are a bit fed up with them now!

Sophie added: “I made some for Nigel last night for him to take the work, but I don’t think half of them will get there!”

The semi-finals will be held at the London School of Food and Wine.

The winning dessert, once chosen, will be sold for a limited period at Tesco, with all profits donated to Tesco’s charity of the year, the Alzheimer’s Society and Alzheimer Scotland.