on-board

The Grand Finale – Showstopper Week

The final week of the Lands’ End Bake Off – and what a week it was!

The category was ‘Showstopper cakes’ and the bakers certainly pulled out all the stops: every single contribution looked worthy of making a Masterchef final. Double points were up for grabs so a lucky 2 tasters per team got the job of marking the cakes out of 10 for taste and presentation.

However, the rest of us could only sit and drool: rather than let the masses descend on the leftovers, the remaining slices of cake were later sold in the canteen, making an incredible £101 for Macmillan’s Big Coffee Morning.

Chocolate seemed to be the ingredient of choice and the smell alone threatened to send anyone within a 10 metre radius into a sugar coma. Marge, a first-time baker for the Copy & Web team attempted to give everyone an even bigger fix by teaming her dark chocolate with coffee in a four-layered delight, topped with truffles. Shani burnt the midnight oil again (but not her sponge), making an incredible two cakes to help the beleaguered team – a beautiful chocolate and ginger cake finished with decorative chocolate work and a fruity & refreshing lemon yoghurt cake topped with blueberries and raspberries in the shape of the Union Jack. Top points for patriotism – and taste too.

Other bakers took their inspiration from childhood favourites – Charlotte from Marketing with a giant Fondant Fancy and Kate from the ES team with a chocolate sponge generously decorated with M&M’s and chocolate fingers. Emma Manson spent an incredible 10 HOURS on her six-layered rainbow cupcake with handmade fondant icing butterflies whilst Mandy from Finance souped-up her chocolate fudge cake with gold coins a-plenty.

The coveted Star Baker award went to Ruth from Merch & Planning for her work of art: a multi-layered chocolate extravaganza surrounded by a stunning white and dark chocolate column.

In the end, the final results were a foregone conclusion – no one could beat the might of the Merch & Planning Team who had been in the lead since Week 1. They finished the competition 42 points ahead of their nearest rivals, the Marketing Team. The ill-fated Copy & Web team predictably brought up the rear (although they went down fighting) and will have to try and make a comeback in the one-week Christmas special – let the battle commence!

Inspiration.

View from the Lighthouse

Here at Lands’ End, we’re lucky to have an incredibly talented bunch of colleagues; all with amazing experiences, opinions and journeys to share. So in a new, occasional series we thought we’d hand the blog over to them so they could share their stories with you. Here, Clinton Croson from our Customer Services Team tells us about what inspires him…

Inspiration can strike from anywhere. It is what I rely on. It is what my creativity needs. Before we continue, a little bit about me: my name is Clinton Croson, I am an artist and I have been working part-time at Lands’ End for the past decade.


It was either May or June 2008 and whilst taking sales calls, inspiration struck me whilst leafing through the pages of the then latest Lands’ End catalogue. A leggy brunette wearing a tankini top and swim briefs, photographed in profile, bending down to pick something from the sand. To me it didn’t seem like the usual image you’d find in a fashion magazine; no super white grin nor fake enthusiasm. Instead, what I saw was potential.

Now normally I prefer to use photographs I’ve taken myself but for this I made an exception. I transposed the girl onto a different background, with different waves and a slightly different sky and included what I felt the original images were lacking; a reason for her to be doing this. Not just plain sand but shells and stones instead; doing something that people have loved to do on the beach for years.

Four layers of paint, each thicker then the previous one, each layered with greater details than the last. Six weeks of painting to chisel out a harmony on canvas. ‘The Beachcomber’ was born. Judge for yourself whether it is a success or not; I do not mind either way. I just wanted to tell the story of how sometimes, even artwork has a very humble beginning.

To find out more about Clinton’s work, visit www.clintoncroson.com or email [email protected]


Week 7 - Tasty Tarts

The penultimate week, and it's clear that this isn't 'just a bit of fun' anymore – everyone means business! One baker lost sleep worrying about her meringue; another's poor pastry put paid to their entry and a wilting garnish threatened to scupper the chances of high presentation scores for another. The tasters were professionally tight-lipped and poker-faced too – not giving anything away. Serious stuff!

Sweet tarts and flans are always the popular choice, but there was a good selection of savoury ones too. Ed from Finance presented a beautiful feta, onion and tomato tart garnished with fresh basil – gorgeous fresh flavours; Grace from Merchandising made a delicious onion and pepper quiche which smelt divine; Annelise from Finance gave her onion and tarragon quiche a healthy twist by using wholemeal pastry and Owen from Marketing created a monster sweet onion tart. Thankfully, he spared us any unwanted added ingredients, but only just. He admitted that watching the football whilst chopping onions was perhaps not the best idea and almost ended badly!

There were new takes on old favourites, like Jo from Merchandising's Treacle Tart made to her Mum's recipe of Weetabix instead of breadcrumbs. Some brilliant flavour combinations like passionfruit and lemon; chocolate, ginger and fennel and this week's Star Baker Ruth's taste sensation – chocolate, salted caramel and cookie dough pie topped with meringue. The sleepless night worrying about the meringue certainly paid off Ruth!

Nicola from Reception (who wowed us all with her muffins last week) stepped in at short notice when a fellow baker fell ill. She even managed to bag joint Star Baker for her chocolate and orange tart – impressive effort Nicola!

We really do have a talented bunch of people here and I think everyone is excited about next week's Show Stopper Cakes (no pressure bakers)! But we're also a little sad that it will be the final week – we're going to miss the gastronomic treats we have become accustomed to on a Wednesday.

View from the Lighthouse - Sarah Roads

Here at Lands’ End, we’re lucky enough to have an incredibly talented bunch of colleagues; all with amazing experiences, opinions and journeys to share. So in a new, occasional series we thought we’d hand the blog over to them so they could share their stories with you. Here, Sarah Roads from our Marketing Team shares her unique take on life's journey…

Keys: The Real Circle of Life.

The steps throughout our lives, our growing maturity and our responsibility can be counted or measured in keys. From a tiny teething babe we were handed plasticky, chewable keys upon which to soothe, numb or sharpen our fledgling pearly whites. As we grew, we were given bunches of keys to play with, to keep us quiet and amused, while our responsible adult carers got on with their mysterious and important tasks. Keys became central to our play and imagination. 

From finding keys while raiding Lara's Tomb, to the symbolic and imaginary treasure chests containing everything Pandora could imagine. From squirrelling away the key to our own much shaken and sadly empty piggy banks, to the joy of discovering the hiding place of the teeny tiny key to our big sister's five year lockable diary. And talking of big sisters, didn't we all spy and secretly desire another type of tiny silvery key on her much coveted charm bracelet? 

So, what is this thing with keys? Are they a symbol of success and maturity, or of control? Who can forget the striking images of those industrial style bunches hanging beside a dark uniform during the opening credits of every TV show containing the word Cell, Prisoner or Porridge. And what about all of those Westerns, where the good guy (white hat), having been criminally locked away by the dastardly bad sheriff (black hat), escapes by hooking that glorious circle of clanking keys off the hapless deputy's belt? 

As we grew, so did our bunch of keys. At first we were let in on the secret that a spare key to the house was under the plant pot, just in case we got out of school unexpectedly early. And, oh the joy of being home alone. The TV and the biscuit tin were both under our control, and we would encourage the dog to join us on the sofa. Until mum got in at least. 

This was then followed by that great coming of age: our own key! No marking of the passage of time is surely as symbolic. Forget the oversized and decorative 'Keys to the Door' received on our 21st birthday. We now had our hands on the real deal. The keys to the kingdom. Of course this came with caveats and threats of what would happen to us, our life and our universe, should anything amiss happen to this two inch piece of metallic treasure.

The keys came in fairly rapid and regular succession then. Bike padlock keys, garage keys, car keys, student accommodation keys, until eventually our own home keys, and then the circle completes when we hand our own squally teething tots a bunch of plasticky, chewy keys. Or does it? 

Somewhere along the way we gave back the keys to our childhood home, the lock on our sister's diary became so flimsy that the key became redundant (there never was anything interesting in there anyway) and the TV shows and spaghetti westerns fell out of favour. We grew up.

Then came the time when we once more needed the key to our parents pad - just to keep an eye on them, drop off some groceries, make supper, to put things straight. But I guess the real full circle comes along when we once more hand our front door key to our own offspring, while theirs looks on, chewing and dribbling on something remarkably familiar and plasticky. Keys; the real circle of life.

Marvellous Muffins

Week 6 of the competition and it was with a slight sinking feeling that competitors realised that just two subsequent weeks remain – how will we get through Wednesdays without our weekly sugar fix? With this in mind, this week's bakers certainly pulled out all the stops to impress the tasters.

And the tasters were definitely a mixed bunch, with ever-professional Donna arriving with a palate-cleansing glass of water only to discover that standards had improved so much since she'd tasted the scones in week two that she found it almost impossible to choose between them. Things got off to a slightly more shaky start with Michael from Facilities who asked for a bin after he took his first bite as he "couldn't eat very much at this time of the morning" – it's a tough job but someone's gotta do it!

Despite much of the fare being super-sweet and sinful, our conscientious bakers were still keen to ensure the tasters got some of their 5-a-day. Andy in Marketing baked some impressive-looking pineapple & coconut muffins topped with almonds whilst Neil from Finance produced traditional fruity blueberry versions. The girls also made sure they were watching our waistlines with Lui's heart-shaped apple and cinnamon muffins and Nicola's super-healthy yet super-tasty contribution - beautiful banana and sultana muffins.

The unofficial 'Teacher's Pet' award went to Amy from the Merch and Planning team who represented the global ethos of Lands' End with her American cheesecake, English strawberry and German streusel muffins; all presented in a beautiful wooden box with hand painted signs.

Owen from Marketing continued the international theme with his chorizo and manchego cheese drop muffins made to an authentic Spanish recipe (via a kitchen in Northampton). Proving that looks aren't everything, the muffins were declared a resounding success and were the first ones to disappear once the tables were opened up. Magnifico!

Almost buckling under the pressure to change the fortunes of the beleaguered Copy & Web team, Rebecca made her second batch of muffins without one vital ingredient. Despite this 'flour pas', her savoury courgette & feta muffins and marvellous lemon meringues saw her storm to victory as one half of the week's joint Star Baking team alongside Shani who scooped the top spot for her brandy-infused prune, armagnac and chocolate muffins – hitting the bottle at 6am in the morning certainly seemed to pay off.  

So with the scores now in, Marketing have slipped down into joint 3rd place with Finance; whilst ES, IS, Facilities & Engineering have jumped ahead into position number 2. But with Merch & Planning celebrating their 6th week at the top of the table and 24 points ahead of their closest rival, it seems the remaining teams will have to do battle for the silver medal… check back next week to find out whose flans fall flat and whose pies reign supreme. 

Week 5 – Baked to perfection?

Traybake week and the boys did themselves proud with an all-male contingency bagging the best scores.

Unsurprisingly, Millionaires' Shortbread and variations on the traditional brownie recipe were out in force; but perhaps more surprisingly, raspberries were the theme of the day and seemed to feature in nearly every recipe or for decorative purposes. Were they on BOGOF in the local supermarket?

The figures from Finance were certainly adding up with Ed producing a wonderfully gooey chocolate, raspberry and almond traybake whilst Rocky's road to success was ensured with his raspberry and pecan blondie (a sugar-based version of a brownie, don't you know.)

Two new bakers to the competition added a touch of sparkle to proceedings – literally in Chris' case with his gold glitter speckled Millionaires' Shortbread presented on a tiered cake plate covered in fake £20 notes (and despite the fact his mum is known for her delicious cakes, we were assured they were all his own work - impressive!) Competition newbie number 2 - Andy, from Marketing, produced delicious maltester and pistachio squares which ended up netting him joint Star Baker Award (with Chris) – no mean feat for a first-time appearance.

Maltesers also featured in Raj's 'sublime' traybake for the Merch and Planning team whilst the little red fruit made a welcome return in Stuart's brownie cheesecake topped with raspberry cream and fresh raspberries – a great effort which saw Marketing win the top Baking Team of the Week award.

But all of this was not without some kitchen nightmares. Elisabet's baked cheesecake traybake didn't make it to the judging table for the Marketing team and in true 'Bake Off' style went straight into the bin due to not setting properly in the crucial cool down phase. And with amazing baker Shani stepping down for the week for the Copy team, the pressure was on: resulting in a rather-frazzled Catherine almost abandoning her chocolate orange brownies which looked 'decidedly dodgy' when they emerged from the oven. Fortunately she had second thoughts and got some great comments for taste - 'nil points' for presentation though…

So where does all of this leave the all-important league table? Merch and Planning are STILL topping the table and with just 3 weeks to go, other teams are going to have to consider sabotage to make a difference. Muffins are notoriously difficult to master though so maybe Week 6 will see the tables turn in someone else's favour…