on-board

Week 4 – Bread Wars!

This week was the halfway point of the Great Lands' End Bake Off and the teams are certainly rising to the occasion. 

With fewer entries than previous weeks, it was clear that successful bread-making was a decidedly harder art to master. Despite this, the plucky few who accepted the challenge rivalled any professional bakery for taste, appearance and presentation – and without any of the melodramatic meltdowns of their television contestant counterparts.

The male contingency continued to impress with a Sundried tomato, passata and olive bread contribution from Stuart Hill in the IS team which had retained its beautiful red colour through baking, whilst Gareth from the victorious Merch and Planning team served his Cheese and Chilli Cornbread with chunks of cheddar and chutney. 'Amazing' was the general consensus – and really no need for any of this week's tasters to buy themselves lunch! 

'Dessert' added a European flavour to proceedings with a stunning Stollen from Shani in Copy & Web and a French Couronne from Stuart Adamson in Marketing which was filled with apricots and walnuts & lightly glazed with icing and flaked almonds.

With so many high scores from our effusive tasters, this week saw a bit of balance return in the form of Toby from Finance who declared the various contributions as "actually quite edible" and "not bad at all".  Maybe a career as a Masterchef presenter beckons?

Discussions about what makes the perfect loaf abounded: "No soggy bottoms" declared Sarah, whilst it was also decided that a perfect crust and moist centre could make all the difference too. Jane's wholemeal loaf hit the mark for all of these reasons and had the added bonus of being made with organic stoneground flour from a local windmill whilst Lui's Mary Berry-inspired Rosemary & Garlic Foccacia was the first loaf to be devoured once the hordes descended – high praise indeed.

But were any of these creations enough to knock Merch and Planning off the top spot? Aniko made a determined effort for the Finance team and achieved the coveted Star Baker Award for her Chilli and sundried tomato bread – but only managed to squeeze into second place behind the Master Bakers. Maybe next week's traybakes will tip the balance…

More than one use for a tennis ball!

With this year's Wimbledon failing to make an impression on the UK's sporting history, tennis enthusiasts can console themselves with the start of the US Open on Monday.

However, non-sports enthusiasts might be interested to know there are far more practical uses for a tennis ball than being simply part of the kit used to win major sporting tournaments! 

Take, for example the role of these handy little balls in the maintenance of our down outerwear. The filling of some of our most popular winter coats and jackets is a luxurious combination of 80% duck down and 20% feather insulation, designed for maximum warmth and minimum weight. Fabulously lofty and bouncy when dry – but what happens when you need to pop said jacket in the washing machine to freshen it up?

Unsurprisingly, the unique properties of down mean that once machine washed, the feathers clump together and it will come out as flat as a pancake. But don't panic, this is where our trusty tennis balls come into play: 

Down jackets should be tumble dried at a low heat (don't set the drier too high as you don't want to risk melting the seams and outer shell fabric).  Remember to always check the label of your garment for exact care details.

Add clean tennis balls into the drier (not those that the dog has chewed) to reduce drying time and 're-fluff' the down. I usually add about 3 and take the jacket out periodically to shake it and redistribute the down. Hey presto! Your jacket is restored to its former glory and will keep you warm and dry for many seasons to come. Just remember to put the tennis balls out of reach so the kids and family pets can't get hold of them!

The Great Biscuit Battle

Week 3 – and the temperature is rising in the Lands' End baking competition. This week's stunning batch of biscuits and cookies transformed our meeting space into a traditional tea room with all entries looking almost as good as they tasted. Gone were the paper plates and plastic tubs from Week 1; replaced with beautiful heart-shaped wicker baskets, tiered cake stands, fresh flowers and even a stuffed patchwork bird as decoration!

Keen to move her team from the bottom of the results table, Shani from Copy & Web followed last week's scone success with an incredible four entries – Lavender shortbread, Chocolate crackle cookies, Pecan and Belgium chocolate chunk biscuits and Pistachio macaroons. Surely worthy of some extra 'brownie' points for staying up past midnight to finish them? 

However, the other teams had also upped their game with Fran from Finance providing a truly delectable basket of heart shaped & traditional chocolate cookies whilst week 1's Star Baker Heather, provided a kids' confectionary delight with her piñata donkeys sandwiched with smarties, skittles and confetti sprinkles. Fabulous taste aside, these were serious works of art.

Keen to prove that the men are just as adept in the kitchen, Dom from Merch and Planning baked an impressive looking 3D gingerbread man and woman filled with marshmallows and rolos, whilst ES Director Mark Harris surprised us all with his sumptuously soft Choc Chip cookies. 

After ploughing their way through no less than 14 different entries, tasters started to look slightly green around the gills with Jane (this week's nominated taster from the Marketing team) realising rather belatedly that this was surely doing her weekly weigh-in no good at all! 

So, which of these crumbly creations were enough to win the day? The award for Baking Team of the week went to Marketing for their joint effort of Double Chocolate chunk cookies by Charlene and Melting Moments (jam and cream-filled Viennese Whirls) by Sarah who used a recipe from the queen of tarts herself, Mary Berry. Shani's Lavender shortbread earned her the accolade of Star Baker but it wasn't enough to stop Merch and Planning topping the table for the 3rd week in a row with a clear 10 point lead. 

Check back for next week's update when we get our bread (and buns) in the oven!

The Great Scone Off

After an impressive start to our Great Lands' End Bake Off last week with a delicious array of homemade cupcakes (well, most of them were homemade anyway!), we were amazed to have an even bigger contribution this week. Are there many variations on the classic scone? Well apparently, yes.

It was a full meal for our tasters with a choice of three savoury entries to start with. Employee Services' contribution of cheese and chive scones went down particularly well as they had been warmed and served with butter – yum! Then it was onto the sweet varieties which included mixed berry (Matt in Merchandising), chocolate chip (Finance) and several served the traditional way with jam and cream. The debate about whether the jam or the cream went on first rumbled on well past the judging! Copy & Web redeemed themselves with not one but two offerings courtesy of Shani - date scones with red berry jam and cherry scones with cherry jam, all homemade.

The scores on the doors kept Merch and Planning firmly in the lead. Jane from Marketing was crowned Star Baker for her enormous scones, filled with strawberries and cream. They really did taste as good as they looked. Helen from our Kids' team was only one point behind though with her beautiful heart-shaped scones.

A mention must also be made at this point to the level of dedication (or is it just competitiveness?) shown this week – some of our bakers had their ovens fired up at 5am this morning and presentation was impressive. The bar has been set high for biscuits next week!

The Great Lands' End Bake Off

Being an avid bunch of foodies here at Lands' End HQ, we were ever so slightly excited at the start of the new series of The Great British Bake Off on Wednesday night. And also being somewhat competitive (and a little bit greedy) we thought we'd stage our very own baking competition. So we decided on different themes for the next 8 weeks and set about coercing the best bakers in the business to be part of our respective teams. Here's our bite-sized guide to the competition: 

Week 1                 Cupcakes

Week 2                 Scones

Week 3                 Biscuits

Week 4                 Bread

Week 5                 Tray bake

Week 6                 Muffins

Week 7                 Pies/Tarts/Flan

Week 8                 Showstopper cake

As you can tell from the photos, the first week was a resounding success. We had fabulous entries from finance (lemon curd cupcakes), irresistible ice-cream cone cakes from the Merch and Planning team plus sugary & sweet pink flower cupcakes (just like their creator); Charlotte from Marketing. 

Tasters were appointed in each team and they had to award marks out of 10 for taste and appearance. Once the judging was complete, the rest of the office descended on the leftover goodies with such gusto that there wasn't a crumb to be seen. 

So the all-important Week 1 scores saw the Merch and Planning team storm into the lead with an impressive 83 points (out of a potential 100) thanks to our Star Baker, Heather who got top marks for taste with her Oreo cupcakes and the most marks for presentation with her ice cream cone cakes. 

So which team's efforts failed to rise to the occasion? The Copy and Web team are currently languishing at the bottom of the results table with their contribution of peanut butter cupcakes – which unbeknown to our tasters, turned out to be bought from a well-known national supermarket by a team member who had only remembered about the competition at the last minute! 

Just goes to show – home-baked cakes are always better (and cheating never pays!) Look out for next week's blog when the teams attempt their take on that Great British classic, scones. 

ClassMate® backpacks

Our fabulous ClassMate® backpacks have been put to the test by the little people that matter most…the kids who will be carrying them throughout the school year. Our US colleagues hosted a sports day with a difference where the backpacks were put through their paces in events such as the tug-o-war, backpack throw, 3-legged race and the relay! Who came out on top? See for yourself…

 

Check out our Back to School Range for the Boys and the Girls!