World Figolli Day 2011 winners!

I'd like to apologise for the delay in announcing our World Figolli Day winners for 2011. When I first introduced World Figolli Day back in March I seriously had no idea that the idea would take off the way it did. Your enthusiasm, passion and zeal took me by surprise and then completely blew me away! Hence, as the event gained momentum and more and more people began to jump on board the World Figolli Day bandwagon, the overwhelming demand from participants resulted in us deciding to extend the event for another week.

My initial intention was to encourage families into the kitchen in the hope that this Maltese tradition would be passed down to the next generation of Maltese. Yet as figolli fever began to sweep across the globe we started to see people making figolli not only in Malta and Australia, but also in America, Italy, France and as far as India. So, before I launch into announcing this years winners I'd like to share with you some of the amazing figolli that were made around the world in 2011.

My dear friend Denise from San Francisco who runs the popular food blog Chez Us decided to join in the fun and here are some of her stunningly bright and gorgeous figolli.

Another dear friend Araxi who is an amazing mom and extremely talented photographer also jumped on the World Figolli Day bandwagon and here are some of her little figolli.

Cinzia, yet another talented food blogging friend from Italy who runs a fabulous blog called Cindy Star also decided to join World Figolli Day this year and here is her gorgeous contribution to the event.

Vanessa, yet another talented food blogger from France, who runs a blog called Sweet Artichoke also joined us this year for World Figolli Day. Below are some pictures of her sweet creations.

Dewi who is originally from Bali but now resides in the Silicon Valley in California, runs a food blog called Elra's Baking, also joined us for World Figolli Day this year. Here are a few of her lovely figolli.

Gabi from Salt Lake City in America who runs the popular food blog called The Feast Within also joined us for World Figolli Day and here are some of her glorious figolli. Here gorgeous lambs and sunflowers caused quite a lot of commentary throughout the course of the event!

Christie, one of my favourite Australian food bloggers and wonderful new mama also found the time to join us this year for World Figolli Day. Take a look at her sweet figolli and wonderful blog called Fig and Cherry.

Throughout the course of this event I had the privilege of stumbling across some great new Maltese blogs one of which is run by Claudia and is called My Life With 3 Princesses. Here is her contribution to World Figolli Day.

Another fabulous Maltese food blog that I discovered throughout the course of World Figolli Day is called Handz by Patz and is run by the ever so talented Patz. Take a look at her stunning little figolli, they are simply divine!

Aparna who runs the popular food blog called My Diverse Kitchen also decided to join us for World Figolli day all the way from India! Her beautiful, eggless figolli decorated with such care and detail received an online standing ovation for their sheer brilliance and colour.

As I have stated previously, judging was extremely difficult, as we had to wade through over 200+ images that were added to the World Figolli Day flickr group. But a decision has been made so without further ado, I'd like to announce our World Figolli Day 2011 winners.

Hence, the Australian world figolli day winner is Hope Vella

 and the Maltese winner is Patz Caruana.

Hope and Patz, if you could contact me directly via Facebook or Twitter, I will then pass on your details to Maha and Tal Familja restaurants respectively. You can then contact them directly so to arrange a mutually convenient time to enjoy your winning dinner.

I'd like to thank all of you who participated so enthusiastically in this year's event and for making it the success that it was. Prior to this event, figolli were something that were shared amongst the Maltese during the festive season of Easter, but now thanks to all of you figolli are something that can be shared all around the world!

I look forward to World Figolli Day 2012!