iba UIBC Cup of Bakers 2025: Gold medal contest for bakers
On 18 and 19 May 2025, the best bakers from six countries competed for gold at the iba UIBC Cup of Bakers in Düsseldorf.
The national and international participants faced this special challenge in show bakeries at iba, the world’s leading trade fair for the baking and confectionery industry.
An expert jury judged the showpieces and was supported by the trade fair audience. The final award ceremony took place on Monday, 19 May.
Which baker will win the 2025 gold in Düsseldorf? The iba UIBC Cup of Bakers started in hall 14 on Sunday, 18 May in the morning. Six nations competed against each other at iba 2025: Included were the best bakers from Germany, France, Iceland, Jordan, the Netherlands and Sweden.
The competition for the bakers’ gold medal was organised by the German Baker’s Confederation (Zentralverband des Deutschen Bäckerhandwerks), the owner of iba.
Top class for the female master bakers
Johanna Lenhardt and Lea Wagner, master bakers from the region of Lower Franconia, competed for Germany in the iba UIBC Cup of Bakers: ‘The competition was the premier class for us and it was an honour to be able to represent Germany against the international competition,’ emphasised Johanna Lenhardt. And Lea Wagner adds: ‘We hoped that we could impress the audience and the jury with our baking skills.
Above all, we were looking forward to exchanging ideas with our foreign colleagues. After all, we all belong to the big baking family’. The German champions were part of the German national bakery team, with Marc Mundri supporting the duo as their coach.
Competition under the motto ‘Art’
The iba UIBC Cup of Bakers required both creativity and precise artisan bakery. Under the motto ‘Art’, the participants had to produce edible works of art, with no limits to their imagination. The biggest challenge: in just six hours, the teams of two bakers produced bread, small, party and Danish pastries as well as a showpiece in glass show bakeries.
Judging was carried out by a jury consisting of Urs Röthlin (Switzerland), Jimmy Griffin (Ireland) and Josef Schrott (Austria) as well as jury chairman Andreas Schmidt (Germany). ‘The iba UIBC Cup of Bakers competition is a wonderful opportunity for talented bakers to prove themselves on an international level.
As in the past, we expected outstanding work at the highest level. For the participants, the competition meant hard work with intensive preparation times, but above all a lot of fun and inspiration for personal development,’ emphasised Andreas Schmidt, chairman of the jury.
Watching the competition live at iba
Visitors to the trade fair were able to follow the creation of the tasty baked goods live every day starting from 9:30 am. The first judging on the theme of ‘Danish pastries, biscuits and party products’ took place on Sunday and Monday noons at 1:00 pm.
The presentation of the masterpieces took place in the afternoons at 3:30 pm. The second round of judging on the theme of ‘Bread and the Masterpiece’ took place on Sunday and Monday at 4:00 pm.
Participants of the countries
France: Corentin Molina and Yannis Thouys
Germany: Johanna Lenhardt and Lea Wagner
Iceland: Sigrun Sol Vigfusdottir and Nastasja Kiencke
Jordan: Hala Abu Jbara and Tand Murad
Netherlands: Mike Onase and Gerrit Huckriede
Sweden: Andrea Wiberg and Cassandra Persson
On Sunday 18 May, Iceland, the Netherlands and Sweden and on Monday 19 May Germany, France and Jordan competed for gold with their baked works of art.
On Monday 19 May at 5:30 pm the winners were awarded in the iba.FORUM.
About iba
iba – The world’s leading trade fair for the baking and confectionery industry is held every three years in its usual rotation at Fairground Munich. The trade fair brings together all the products and technologies that are relevant to bakers and confectioners of all sizes, decision-makers from the bakery and confectionery industries and food retailers.
The range of topics includes from raw materials, ingredients and frozen bakery products through production and packaging technology, process optimization and information technology to complete interior design of bakeries, pastry shops or cafés. 57,000 trade visitors from 150 countries came to iba 2023. 1,073 companies from 46 countries presented themselves.
To continuously offer the baking industry a stage, iba will once again take place from 18 to 22 May 2025, then at the Fairground Düsseldorf. From 2027 onwards, iba will again be held every three years in autumn at the Fairground Munich, with the next iba taking place October 24 until 28 2027 in Munich.
