Dieppe — After months of fierce competition, Dieppe woman Gabrielle D’Entremont has been given the prestigious title of best baker in New Brunswick, an honour vied for by hundreds in the province, and whittled down to just 10 at the recent bake-off held in Fredericton.
D’Entremont won with an original recipe titled “A Quickie at L’Aboiteau.” The dessert is comprised of a Snickers bar stapled to a Mars bar deep-fried with sugar on top.
“I came up with it because I’m a really big fan of chocolate bars and deep-fried things, and I love to experiment in the kitchen,” she said. “My family ate it up so quick that 5 minutes after I’d made it there was nothing left but the staples. The ones that didn’t get swallowed, anyway.”
D’Entremont explained that the slightly raunchy name for her dessert came from wanting to honour the dish with a moniker that would summon the most pleasurable mental image she could bring to mind. This mental image, she explains, turned out to be a special moment in the showers at popular Moncton-area beach L’Aboiteau.
D’Entremont was challenged by 2 other bakers in the heated last round of the competition. George Smith of Bathurst took second place with a dessert called “Incognito Mode,” which consisted of graham crackers soaked in condensed milk, topped with a layer of jelly beans, a layer of pudding and an entire McCain ice-cream cake.
Kayla Ripley of Miramichi won third place with “Fifty Shades of Yay”: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups on toothpicks stuck into Twinkies with a Nanaimo bar crust smothered in chocolate sauce and crushed Oreos.
“I’m happy for her and all, but I still can’t believe it,” said Ripley. “One of the judges told me they thought they might actually have a heart attack after eating my dessert. If that’s not a compliment, I don’t know what is.”
Sources confirm that a defibrillator was brought to the judging chambers in preparation for Ripley’s dish, but judge Joe McCarty says the criteria wasn’t based solely on how heart-stopping the dessert might be — though that was an important aspect.
“We also considered how innovative they were. How many pre-existing desserts could they cram in to one dish? How suggestive was the name? Ms. D’Entremont was simply the strongest all-round competitor,” he explained.
D’Entremont says she is thrilled to win this year’s Great New Brunswick Bake-Off and the accompanying $5,000 prize, which will go toward medical expenses for a mysterious intestinal ailment plaguing her family.