A junior school teacher has featured on Channel 4 TV show ‘Kirstie’s Handmade Christmas’ coming runner up in a yuletide cake decorating competition.
Theresa Luxford, who teaches part-time at Channing Junior School in Highgate, was taken to a secret location in Devon for the filming and given six hours to decorate her winter showstopper as one of four contestants selected from hundreds of applications.
Mrs Luxford said: “I was stunned when I was chosen. The programme was such a wonderful experience. We were so exhausted at the end that Kirstie treated us to a celebratory glass of champagne while we waited for the results.
“We were then brought back into the room for the nail-biting, agonisingly slow announcement of the winner: Jo Ryan with her snowglobe cake.
“She was indeed a very well deserved winner and we have all kept in constant touch since the show,” she added.
Afterwards the competiton judge shared her remarks with competitors and told 57-year-old Mrs Luxford, who lives with husband Toby in Belgravia Close, Barnet, she had missed the top spot ‘by a whisker’.
“I was absolutely delighted to hear this and it has encouraged me to continue with my craft, which fits in around teaching my wonderful Year 4 girls at Channing,” said Mrs Luxford, who besides her day job runs her own cake decorating business, Little Flower Cake Studio, from her kitchen table.
The mother of two first learnt cake decorating skills in the 1990s and has since trained with friends Sheila Jones and Jacqueline Jones, who together call themselves ‘The Three Whisketeers’, taking lessons from world-renowned sugarcraft artist Jacqueline Butler.
Whilst filming Mrs Luxford, who has taught at Channing since 2009, chatted with the show’s host Kirstie Allsopp about the need to encourage creativity in schools and its importance for children’s development.
“We’re lucky at Channing because the arts are taken seriously. It’s a really important part of young people’s education. The arts aren’t about just giving youngsters down time,” she said, fresh from a lesson teaching pupils how to decorate cupcakes.
The show aired on Monday, December 11 at 5pm and is now available on catch up at All4.
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