King’s Hawaiian challenged advanced baking students to create a great cake in a product development competition at the University of Hawaii Maui College.

Winners in two categories, chocolate and tropical, were chosen: Dana Lynn Soriano’s Chocolate Kona Coffee Fruit Cake and Amber Kalish’s POG Cake. Both students won $1,000 from King’s Hawaiian.

The students, all from the college’s culinary arts program, were charged with creating three-layer, refrigerated sponge cakes with creamy fillings, highlighting local flavors. The winners could be developed into King’s products, so all the entries also had to be durable enough for delivery to stores and for customers to carry home.

The winners were the unanimous choice of five judges, who tasted their way through 10 cakes in the Dec. 13 competition. Leading the panel was Jeremy Choo, innovation pastry chef for King’s and an alumnus of the Maui program, as were all the judges.

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