CURWENSVILLE – Home-schooled high school senior, Lillian Neff, is a young woman who has many talents and interests with baking being one that has recently shined through earlier this month.
In her fifth time entering the PA Preferred Junior Baking Contest, Neff came out victorious with a cash prize of $500, a big blue ribbon and bragging rights that her Keystone Apple Maple Pie Bars were the best dessert in the state.
“I’m blessed to win first place,” Neff said about this recent milestone in her baking career. “This was my fifth time entering, and I have baked a lot in order to get here.”
Since she was a young girl, she’s spent countless hours of bonding time with her mother, Melissa, all while doing something each of them enjoy.
“She (Lillian) comes from a history of good bakers in our family,” said Lillian’s mother Melissa Neff.
“My grandmother was known in the area as someone who wanted to bless people and give baked goods as gifts. She also was known for her Christmas cookies each year.”
Now, Melissa and Lillian spend quality time together baking and provide members of the community with their own baked creations.
In fact, Lillian has even created order forms for some of her chocolate candy creations. And she’s living up to her great grandmother’s legacy.
This holiday season, she created around a dozen different cookies that she organized on trays and donated to various groups in addition to friends, family and the elderly.
“People have been coming to me to make their baked goods for them,” said Neff. “I also give a lot of them as gifts and even have created some of my own chocolate candies. I credit my mom for getting me into this at such a young age.”
Jan. 8 was a big day for Neff as it marked the first time she won first place in the PA Preferred Junior Baking Contest, but it was not the first time she qualified to take part in the competition.
She’s a veteran with this being the fifth time she qualified for the state competition, while also placing one time previously with a third-place finish in 2016 with her brownie caramel pecan bars recipe.
This year, she developed the perfect recipe, which she feels represented the Pennsylvania heritage and state agriculture-related products better than any of her previous entries.
Her Keystone Maple Pie Bar was an original recipe that she found inspiration from because of her online searches for recipes and creations.
The bars featured a layer of shortbread, an apple pie filling layer, a layer of streusel, maple icing and toasted pecans on top.
In order to qualify for the state competition, you must finish first at your country fair or county-baking competition.
Neff did with these bars before traveling to Harrisburg for the state-level event. Her recipe was chosen as the best of 58 total competitors by a panel of five judges.
Ironically, the young woman who won the competition in 2016 over Neff was a judge for the 2022 competition.
Neff is likely to have the chance to see her involvement in the PA Preferred Junior Baking Contest come full circle, as she also expects to be asked to judge in the future.
Later this year, she will enter the Clearfield County Fair baking contest at the junior level for the final time, as she hopes to become a six-year veteran of the state competition before she exceeds the age limit.
However, this time, she plans to enter the chocolate cake category of the competition besides the Cookies-Brownies-Bars category.
Overall, the competition features four categories for entrants, including Angel Food Cake, Chocolate Cake, Apple Pie and the Cookies-Brownies-Bar category that Neff has competed in over the years.
Though baking is one of her biggest passions, her intentions are to make baking a continued hobby as she plans to study history, writing and possibly archeology in college beginning later this year.
As for where she will attend, she has her eyes set on two faith-based institutions in Grove City College and Toccoa Falls College in Toccoa Falls, Ga.
“I’d like to go to a Christian college,” said Neff. “They seem like great schools that I would be really comfortable at.”
Baking may be one of her best talents, but it is far from her only interest as she’s a gifted musician, enjoys American history, has started a small business for herself and has a passion for photography and animals.