Chanukah Contest Fires Up Fans!

Our first annual Chanukah Photo Contest was a smashing success!

The entries, which included both savory and sweet items, were judged on aesthetics and creativity. CKCA's panel of judges narrowed the stack of photos down to three finalists which were then posted on Facebook for our friends and fans to vote on and choose the winner! 

ABOUT THE WINNER

We applaud the winner of this year's contest, Malka Langermann, whose adorable Spinning Dreidel Pops (pictured above) propelled her in to first place. Malka will receive a CKCA cooking class for two and CKCA apron!
While the contest was open to all, Malka happens to be a graduate of this past summer's PROFESSIONAL PASTRY ARTS PROGRAM! She is currently studying Design and Management at Parsons School of Design.  During her interview, Malka reflected back to her pastry arts training and how exciting it was to learn the craft from a French professional chef. While she had dabbled with making cake-pops at home, she credits the instruction of Chef Philippe Kaemmerle at CKCA with enabling her to enhance her technique in order to get the "Dreidel-Pops" precisely shaped and tasting great.  Malka plans to continue expanding her pastry arts knowledge and is thrilled to have won the competition!

ABOUT THE FINALISTS

Shoshana Shine-Turin, one of our finalists, is the creator of the "latke-wich" and has participated in CKCA's best-selling DATE-NITE COUPLES COMPETITION with her husband.  A practicing nurse and a mom, Shoshana also bakes and cooks weekly for the Chai-Lifeline school program. With the latke-wich  Shoshana's goal was to make "stardard fare" latkes more exciting. She did so by making her own apple sauce, whipping it into an apple cream and creating a lighter weight top latke so as not to crush the cream. Viola, the latke-wich was born!

Our other finalist, Malki Hershkowitz, is also a graduate of the Professonal Pastry Arts Program.  The program peaked her interest in baking and gave her the confidence and motivation to open up her own dessert business called "Cinn City" in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Her plans for the near future are to open up her own bakery, selling high quality pastries. This Chanukah, Malki decided to capitalize on the Cronut craze by creating and selling her own. Her photo submission was of some of the more than 500 that she ended up selling during the holiday. Way to go Malki!

Congratulations again to our winner and finalists and thank you to everyone who submitted a photo and voted during the contest. We hope to make photo and recipe contests a regular event before every major holiday to come!