During the German qualifying round on 24 February, four ambitious chocolate artists from all over Germany battled it out, making this year's ‘Inspiration from Nature’ theme an inherent part of their chocolate creations.

This year, the candidates had to convince the prestigious jury in 4 disciplines. Firstly, the participants had to produce a showpiece up to two metres high, completely out of chocolate. Here, Berliner Sabine Dubenkropp showed a fine instalment of the assignment. The foundation of the showpiece represented a massive, yet artistic root, on which the entire showpiece rested. She interpreted the theme in a colourful way, with many small elements such as flowers and tiny animals.

Kathrin Lohaus impressed the jury during the second leg of the competition. With her moulded praline ‘Glückauf’, signifying ‘Good Luck’ in English, she took everyone by surprise with a pumpernickel heart that was surrounded with applesauce and a caramel ganache.

In the ‘Cake of the Day’ category, Sabine Dubenkropp was again victorious. Her cake was particularly complex and Sabine managed to work out a successful flavour combination with apple and chocolate.

The fourth leg of the competition was the ‘Chocolate to Go’ assignment, for which the contestants had to develop a trendy chocolate snack, including its packaging. It pushed all four participants to show a lot of creativity, but Kathrin Lohaus’ creation was most impressive. She presented a dark chocolate mousse with mango compote and a white chocolate cream in an ‘Einweckgläschen’, a small canning jar.

Sabine Dubenkropp prevailed in the overall ranking and will represent Germany in October with a fiery will to take the title of ‘2015 World Chocolate Master’ to Berlin with her.