Five and half year old Imogen Barber’s Sticky Toffee Pudding has been declared the “Best in Cumbria”. The young Kirkby in Furness girl won North West Fine Foods’ competition to find Cumbria’s finest sticky toffee pudding at the recent Food Lovers Festival which saw record numbers of visitors and more than 20 competition entries from across the county.

Five hand-picked judges had the wonderful task of tasting and selecting who makes the very best “icky sticky toffee pudding”. They included chef and professional pudding maker Paul Taylor, local celebrity chef Nick Martin as well as three invited judges: Mindy Connelly from Florida and two younger judges from Blackpool, Michael Sharples and Martha Shepherd. Each judge independently marked each pudding in five individual areas, the scores were totted up, and the winner declared. Up walked the beautifully face-painted, ice cream toting five and a half year old, Imogen Barber, Cumbria’s very first Sticky Toffee Pudding Champion, a worthy winner, who calmly told the gathered audience her secrets for success mainly involved a really sticky sauce.

That's the way to do it!