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.
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