Carter Holton wins Food Network Challenge competition

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The funny thing about 24-year-old local pastry chef Carter Holton winning the Star Wars Cake Challenge on the Food Network Challenge series last week is that the competition required Holton and his three competitors — all bakery owners and professional cake designers — to create a cake based on a character from the Star Wars film series. And Holton had never seen one of the films.

“I had to learn a ton about Star Wars after we got the assignment,” Holton says. “But until then, I had never seen any of the movies. I’ve since seen a couple of them. They’re OK. You know, it’s science fiction.”

Last Sunday, Holton invited 75 of his nearest and dearest friends into his new loft in the Stuart Hall building to watch the airing of the Food Network episode — filmed last March — in which he won the grand prize: $10,000 and the opportunity to re-create his cake — featuring C-3P0 — at Walt Disney World last May.