A former Okotoks resident has taken her hobby of baking cakes to network television.

Tracy Irwin, Owner of Sugar by Tracy in Penhold, Alberta, took cake baking to a whole new level in order to win the Food Network's baking competition show "The Big Bake Holiday" and took home the top prize of $10, 000.

Irwin says she got her start baking by making a cake for her daughter and 9 years later her creative abilities have really paid off.

Complying with the rules of the contest and competing with teams from the United States made this win quite the accomplishment.

"We had 5 hours and it had to be a 5 foot tall cake with dynamic elements, so it had to have some special effects involved with the cake," said Irwin.

Irwin teamed up with fellow bakers Beau Hahns and Darcy Wheel and together they created the winning cake featuring 'Jinx' a clumsy elf in Santa's workshop that breaks the toy making machine and sends the entire toy production into a whirlwind.

She says she and her team pulled out all the stops to wow the judges.

"We came up with this really awesome plan called 'Jinx's Wild Workshop'. We had a remote control flame thrower that blew a 2 foot flame out the side of our cake and we had bubbles and we had lights flashing. There was just a whole bunch of stuff going on with the cake.'

Irwin said this was the second time entering a cake baking contest for the Food Network. The first time the team came in second and this time they wanted win.

Besides looking spectacular the cake also had to taste good and for that Irwin went to the wine cellar.

"We did our Winter Sangria cake, which the judges absolutely loved.' said Irwin.

It's no surprise the judges loved it after hearing Irwin describe the flavours in the cake.

"We had an orange cake with a red wine infused with raspberry and cranberry and orange and rosemary butter cream, and then a fresh orange - raspberry curd inside." said Irwin.

From baking cakes in her basement to building a new bakery and coffee shop in Penhold, Alberta, Irwin says she really enjoys owning and running a bakery and coffee shop and she has turned what used to be a fun hobby into a very lucrative business.

Irwin says the experience was great and the network has approached her to do another episode.