Cake Monday (on a Thursday) - 9th October

We race (electronically) and the loser has to bake a cake to feed the office. 

Why? Because we like cake.

Who? Everyone in the office. No one gets out of it. When? 1st Monday of the month. The rules: you make the cake yourself, without any help. You can't 'repeat' a cake. Your cake will be judged on presentation, difficulty and taste, and marked out of 10 by each colleague. When you have baked 3 cakes, you are out of the competition for 1 year.

Before we discuss this week's cake, we need to inform you of some shocking news; we have a Cake Monday cheat. Someone's cakes have had to be removed from Cake Monday and its score boards as we have Facebook evidence that they did not make their own cakes. Yes, it's true. Not only did they cheat, but they carried on the lie throughout the weeks that followed! The powers of Facebook. Now, onto more jubilant matters of this month's cake... 

'Snickers Cake' by Rosie. Rosie volunteered for this month's Cake Monday - so extra 'brownie' points there. There had been much talk about whether or not to do a snicker's cake and a fair amount of prior research. The efforts to achieve such a cake also resulted in our first Cake Monday injury. A chocolate sponge was made, a chocolate ganache was made (injury-free thus far), a peanut butter and cream cheese filling was made (still no injury), and then the toffee topping was made. This involved heating sugar to a high heat whilst stirring in cream and butter. A circular template was drawn up so that the molten toffee could be manipulated into a circle to sit on top of the cake. And her next move was Rosie's fatal error, she touched the volcano-hot-toffee. Blister-city is all I'll say. Fortunately, I can tell you that Rosie is ok and was even able to continue with her bake and toffee-fy her walnuts before placing them on top of the cake. 

'The Verdict': a sterling effort from Rosie, no one doubted how much work had gone into this cake, but it did split the camp into those who like peanuts and those who don't. Quotes from the pro-camp included, "loved it - it brought the dream of a snickers cake alive (albeit that it tasted more like a Dime bar)". "I like the mix of flavours, chunkiness and chewiness". "I wasn't expecting those walnuts - they should come with a warning! They're like pork scratchings, but sweet". 

The more negative comments included, "impressed with all the techniques going on, but wasn't a fan of the toppings and the sponge was a little dry". "Too many things going on - every one of them tasted good individually, but not all together". 

And then there were Jamie's comments, "I really didn't like it. It reminded me of sickly popcorn". (Jamie - stop). "I can't believe you are getting all of these high scores". (Jamie - STOP!). "I just didn't like it and...." (Jamie, STOP TALKING!!). 

Snickers Cake Average Score -  7.3 (higher if you exclude Jamie's mark)

Next time: Smritee is back in the kitchen - will she increase upon her already leading score?