Bake-off judging when bread, cookies and cakes share a table
A bake-off puts a lemon bar next to a loaf of sourdough next to a three-layer cake. The cake and cookie pages assume entries of one kind. This page is for the mixed table, where one sheet has to treat a brownie and a pavlova fairly.
One sheet for bread, bars and cakes
Five criteria, 100 points. The weights are my suggestion. Each row is worded so it applies to any bake, which is what makes a comparison across kinds possible. Judge a bake against what it is trying to be, so a dense brownie loses nothing for lacking the crumb of a sponge. Flavor gets the most because it is what people remember. Add a theme row only if the invitation named a theme.
| Criterion | Max | Low scores | High scores | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flavor | 35 | Out of step with its kind: a loaf with no salt or tang, bars that taste of sugar and nothing else, a savory scone that could be a muffin. | A good version of what it is: wheat and a little sour in a sourdough, butter in a shortbread, real lemon in a lemon bar. | |
| Texture and bake | 25 | Dry, gummy, raw in the middle, burnt edges, a soggy bottom. | Right for the kind of bake: crisp where it should be crisp, tender where it should be tender. | |
| Appearance | 15 | Collapsed, cracked in the wrong place, messy cut. | Even color, clean slices, looks like what it is meant to be. Score the bake itself and ignore the plate it sits on. | |
| Skill and difficulty | 15 | A boxed mix made as the box says, or a hard bake that failed. | A tricky step done well, such as laminated dough, tempered chocolate or a custard that set. | |
| Originality | 10 | The standard recipe, unchanged. | A twist on a known bake that works and does not get in the way of the taste. | |
| Total | 100 | Bake number: ______ Judge: ______ | ||
Skill and difficulty keeps a plain shortbread from losing automatically to an elaborate entremet, and keeps an ambitious flop from beating a perfect simple bake. With mostly beginners, cut it to 10 and give the 5 points to flavor.
Judging different bakes against each other
The bake-off sheets I looked at, from hospital staff events to county fairs, put most of the points on taste and appearance. Fairs avoid the cross-category problem by judging each class on its own. An office rarely has enough entries for that, so choose one of these setups:
- One pool: every bake is scored on the same sheet and the highest total wins. Fine for under 12 entries.
- Two or three classes: for example cakes and pies, cookies and bars, bread and savory. Each class has its own ranking, and a final vote picks the overall winner from the class winners.
- Separate prizes: Best flavor, Best looking and Most ambitious, taken from the same scores. Three small awards spread the wins around a mixed table better than one grand prize.
Whatever you choose, put it in the invitation. Bakers decide what to make based on it.
A sourdough loaf against a chocolate chip cookie
This is the comparison a mixed table forces. Below is how one judge might score the two on the sheet above. The numbers are made up to show the method; they come from no real contest.
| Row (max) | Sourdough | Cookie |
|---|---|---|
| Flavor (35) | 30 | 31 |
| Texture and bake (25) | 22 | 21 |
| Appearance (15) | 12 | 11 |
| Skill and difficulty (15) | 14 | 7 |
| Originality (10) | 4 | 6 |
| Total | 82 | 76 |
The judge scores each one against a good version of its own kind. The loaf gets 22 on texture for an open crumb and a crust that crackles when pressed; the cookie gets 21 for crisp edges and a soft middle. Neither is marked down for lacking the other's qualities. The cookie wins on flavor with brown butter and flaky salt, and the loaf wins the whole comparison on the skill row: two days of fermentation and a scored crust are harder to pull off than a drop cookie, however good. If your crowd would rather the cookie won, the skill row is the one to shrink.
Before tasting, I'd have the judges agree on one sentence per kind on the table ("bread: crust that crackles, crumb that springs back, salted"). It takes two minutes and keeps one judge from scoring every loaf as if it were cake.
Numbering bakes and plating for judges
- Bakers drop off before judging and tell one organizer what they made. The organizer puts a number on a card in front of the bake and keeps the list. A baker who stays in the room can be spotted by the bake, so have the organizer carry the plates to a different table.
- Cut every bake into the same number of pieces: one per judge plus a few spares. Ask bakers for at least 12 portions, and for cookies one per judge.
- One small plate per judge, with a piece of every entry in number order. Everyone tastes in the same order, and nothing sits warm while other bakes are being scored.
- Keep portions the same size. A thin slice of a rich bake and a big wedge of a light one skew flavor scores in opposite directions.
- Number the bakes in tasting order: plain bread and savory bakes first, then cookies and bars, then cakes and pastries, with chocolate and anything very rich last. Sugar early makes the next loaf taste flat. Water or plain crackers go between bakes, and coffee waits until the end.
- Allergens go on a card next to the number: nuts, gluten, dairy, egg. A taster can skip a bake and leave its score blank.
Office bake-off logistics
- Timing: bakes arrive in the morning and judging happens mid-afternoon. Anything with cream or custard goes in the office fridge with its number on the container, under the same two-hour rule as custard pies. Bread and cookies can stay on the counter, covered.
- Cutting kit: a serrated bread knife, a cake server, a board and a pack of small plates. Office kitchens rarely have the first two, and a loaf torn with a butter knife loses its texture score before anyone tastes it.
- Who judges: a panel of three to five who did not bake, plus a people's vote from everyone else. Bakers vote for every bake except their own, so tell them to skip their own number.
- Manager bakes: if the boss enters, the boss sits out the panel.
- Charity sales: many office bake-offs sell leftovers for donations. Judge first and sell after, so nobody scores a bake that is half gone.
- Remote teams: bakers post a photo and a short description, and the team votes from those. Say up front that this favors looks over texture, and lower the weight of Appearance and Texture to match.
Class scorecards and a final round
Create the scorecard and list the bakes by number, with a word on each ("#4 lemon bars"). Share the link or a QR code on the table. Guests rate each bake from 1 to 5 as they taste, and the results page ranks by average once you close voting. A paper panel can total its sheets while the room vote runs as the people's choice. One scorecard holds up to 20 entries. For classes, make one scorecard per class and a short one for the final.
A paper panel that ends level breaks the tie on the Flavor row alone. The other tie-break options are on the chili cook-off page.
How the phone vote works
Type the entries in the order of their numbers. Guests open one link, see Entry 1, Entry 2 and so on, and rate each from 1 to 5. The ranking appears with the names when you close voting. A paper sheet suits a judging panel, and the link suits a people's choice vote.
Start a bake-off scorecard. The title is filled in; add the bakes by number and share the link.
Create a scorecard