Chris Mortali puts the finishing touches on his mascarpone strawberry fraisier cake during the Big Portland Bake Show on June 27, 2026. The cake was decorated with the life cycle of a strawberry – going from flower to ripe strawberry – all with elements harvested from a friend’s backyard.
Crystal Ligori / OPB
Underneath a red-and-white-striped marquee tent in the side yard of Pix Pâtisserie, Cheryl Wakerhauser is running around with a three-foot whisk, stopping to playfully stir the mascarpone pastry cream made by a somewhat frantic baker.
“I have a brother that sent me five giant whisks so I had to put them to use,” she laughs. “And when you whisk something, the cream gets stuck to whisk so we can’t waste food.”
With that, she whips the whisk over to a group sitting nearby and one member of the group takes a lick from the comically oversized kitchen utensil.
Wakerhauser, the pastry chef and owner of Pix Pâtisserie, is the mastermind behind The Big Portland Bake Show, which is her riff on the popular British reality TV show. In early May, she put out the call to amateur bakers around Portland and was shocked at the response.
“It was supposed to be 50 contestants, but the system let more people in, so we ended up with 64 people,” she said.
In just four minutes, over five dozen amateur bakers applied to be part of the event, who Wakerhauser and her colleague Katie Roberts then put through a short interview, followed by a taste-test of a baked item that showcased their skills.
Roberts guessed some of the would-be-contestants may also have a strategy with what they brought: knowing the judges would be tasting 30 different items each interview day, some might choose to focus on a savory dish to stand out.
“Around 2 o’clock, that’s gonna sound really good,” she laughed. “Like, bring me a pot pie.”
Wakerhouser and Roberts narrowed down the group of bakers to just 18 after two days of interviews. Of the home bakers chosen, six competed last month in the first of three weekend events planned for the summer.
A Paul Hollywood mask covers an automated fortune teller in the foyer of Portland’s Pix Pâtisserie on June 27, 2026. It's part of transforming the space into the set for the Big Portland Bake Show, a riff on the British reality TV baking competition.
Crystal Ligori / OPB
“Bakers, you have one hour left…”
The baking competition mirrors the reality TV show with local judges, hosts chatting with the bakers and narrating what’s happening for the in-person audience, and of course, three timed baking competitions.
“So for the Signature Bake, the contestants know what it will be [and] they found out last Saturday that it was going to be a fraisier cake,” explained Bake Show co-host Madi Lenseigne. “The second bake is technical and I really can’t give too much about that. They do have a recipe, but the only thing on the recipe is the weight of the ingredients – there’s no procedure.”
And just like in the Great British Bake Off, the final competition on day two is the ‘Showstopper Challenge,’ which tasks contestants with making a full British tea service.
At the first Big Portland Bake Show in June, there was a veritable Breakfast Club of contestants, including Alexander Yatsko, a hospice nurse with a big laugh, who was swapping between different piping bag tips, trying to find the perfect size for his decoration.
“I feel so bad that I made such a mess,” laughed Yatsko. “Honestly, I hadn’t even timed myself doing this because I kept stopping to clean.”
Another contestant was Gabriella Anaya, a self-proclaimed “kitchen witch,” whose matcha latte strawberry fraisier cake was decorated with almond macarons and edible flowers. And don’t forget Bettina Megowan, a former gymnast who, before the competition started, did a handstand next to her baking station.
But it wasn’t all fun and games. Competition got intense once the bakers started on their technical challenge.
“I’m very nervous,” said Anaya. “My cooking style is [that] I like to do whatever I want, so it’s gonna be really hard to follow something closer to instructions.”
Baker Michelle Wald shapes a fortune cookie over the rim of the glass during the technical challenge of the Big Portland Bake Show in Portland, Ore. on June 27, 2026.
Crystal Ligori / OPB
“Fortune cookies. Are you kidding me?”
The bakers weren’t given much in the way of instructions for the technical challenge, though. Instead there was a list of ingredients with vague instructions. In this case, the first line said: “Make the fortune cookie batter.”
“Fortune cookies — are you kidding me?” said Yatsko. “And I’ve seen them on the show; I’m just so mad I didn’t think it could be a potential challenge.”
Throughout the day, the bakers had their ups and downs with more than one having to remake a crucial element of their bake.
“If I was baking at home, I probably would have just gone ahead with it,” said Chris Mortali. “But I have time, I have access to a lot of great ingredients, so let me just do it right.”
Mortali’s mascarpone strawberry fraisier cake was decorated with the life cycle of a strawberry – going from flower to ripe strawberry all with elements harvested from a friend’s backyard. And taking the time to remake an element in the bake paid off with a coveted “Hollywood handshake”.
Of course, without the real Paul Hollywood in the Portland tent, a 1-foot-tall cut-out of the Bake Off judge was a stand-in and the handshake came in the form of a tiny finger puppet.
The silliness of the day is all part of the fun for Cheryl Wakerhauser, who’s not doing this for publicity or money.
“We all need some fun, whether you can afford it or not,” said Wakerhauser. “So if you just want to come and take a peak in the tent and say hello to the contestants, come on down it’s all free.”
The competition will take place twice more this summer with a new set of six bakers each weekend, July 18-19 and August 29-30. Each of the three grand prize winners will take home a brand new stand mixer, a departure from the engraved cake stand winners on the TV competition get.
“Because why would you want a cake plate you can’t use?” Wakerhauser laughs. “No one’s gonna use it because it could break and then you’ve lost your trophy.”
In June, Abi Bethea snagged the title of Star Baker and Gabriella Anaya won the technical challenge, but in the end, Chris Mortali won the very first Big Portland Bake Show.
As the first group of competitors, the six bakers bonded and dubbed themselves the Bake Show Guinea Pigs. To commemorate the competition, baker Alexander Yatsko, even got an appropriate tattoo — a guinea pig in an oversized apron holding a whisk.
Judges Cheryl Wakerhauser, Katie Roberts, Michael Gibbons and Steve Jones taste a fraisier cake made for the Signature Challenge during the first Big Portland Bake Show on June 27, 2026.
Crystal Ligori / OPB
