The 2012 Blog North Awards took place in Manchester this week and Newcastle baker Lauren Prince brought home the North East’s only award of the evening.

Lauren’s writing on www.aroundtheworldin80bakes.com won Best Food and Drink blog, selected from over 400 other entries.

The judging panel, which included BBC 6 Music’s Stuart Maconie, said that Lauren’s blog was “an excellent idea, well executed”.

Lauren’s challenge is to bake 80 international cakes, biscuits and breads; experimenting with new tastes and methods as she ‘travels’ around the world. So far, 40 different bakes have been tackled, including a boozy Jamaican Black Cake, Mexican Chocolate and Chilli Cake and Viennese Apple Strudel.

By combining her baking and travels, www.aroundtheworldin80bakes.com is a part travel writing, part baking tutorial complete with full photo guidance and holiday photos, so anyone reading about Macha Green Tea Drizzle Cake can also read about Lauren’s travels around Japan. Unlike many other foodie blogs, Around The World In 80 Bakes doesn’t pretend that every bake is perfect and disasters like mistaking salt for sugar are all included.

Traditional local recipes are included too, as bake #19 for Sunderland Gingerbread shows. Alongside her baking efforts Lauren used her blog to raise over £700 for Oxfam by running the Great North Run and is now preparing for the biggest bake of her life: her own five-tier wedding cake!