Monday 14 December 2015

extra Cake Monday

Absolute bonus - Sue & Nia brought in a ginger and caramel creation for us this morning!!! 
(I can see now why Sue had dissed Tom's Cake Monday as "not very festive"!)
Thanks Sue!


Christmas Do - 2015

It started with the 'name game' in the Highwayman pub, we moved onto Porters restaurant for an amazing meal (and a game of 5s), and finished up in The George pub where we stayed until we got kicked out. Drinking then carried on at Chez Langridge for Jamie and Andrew. Solid effort by all.

Photos from Porters (the teddy bear represents Greg):










Thursday 10 December 2015

Christmas Jumper Day & Secret Santa 2015

Not that we need an excuse, but Christmas Jumper Day raises money for the Hospice of St.Francis (our chosen charity). Sue won the best jumper prize this year for sewing on individual flashing lights to her jumper!! Secret Santa gifts were also handed out by Santa (thanks Callum):




























Monday 7 December 2015

Cake Monday - the Christmas Edition

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.

Lemon & Poppy Seed Cake by Tom
Known as a man of few words, when asked what type of cake Tom had made for this month's Cake Monday, the response was "lemon". (He already had lemons at home for G&Ts). 

To add words to the method, he brought in the actual recipe to read aloud. This was strongly rebuked as aside from being deathly dull, it could prove that he had not made the cake at all through not having to recall the process. As it was, the method was putting lots of ingredients into a bowl and adding milk which made it "look weird". Flour was then added and egg whites were whisked to soft peaks and mixed into the mixture with a metal spoon. Icing sugar was made as a glaze and lemon juice was also made into a glaze, both of which were poured on top of the cake. 

The Verdict:
Some were surprised by the success of the cake as Tom is not someone who cooks or bakes and so expectations of ability level were low. Others weren't surprised because they were certain that he could in fact read & follow a recipe. Despite resembling a baguette when cut, the cake was very balanced (the lemon didn't overpower) and it was a delicious, moist, and flavoursome cake. Katie said it was nicer than Star Bucks's lemon & poppy muffin. While Sue could "admire" the cake and felt it was a solid effort, she was disappointed that there was no Christmas theme.  All in all a really tasty cake, but Tom did slip up and convey "we" during his method, so suspicions have been raised - did he achieve this cake alone as per the rules??...

Next time:
Jamie H. On the upside, the scoreboard will be wiped clean and he will achieve top of the leader board. 

Lemon & Poppy Seed Cake Average Score: 8.25





Monday 9 November 2015

Cake Monday - November

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.

Blueberry, Orange and Polenta Cake by George.

Our favourite baker was forced to bake us another cake, this will be her last for a year as she has made 3. George is pleased, the rest of the office are not. For her final cake George wanted to do something different, and chose a cherry bakewell cake. Unfortunately, cherries are out of season so she had to choose something else. After finding the recipe in a baking magazine, she chose a blueberry, orange and polenta loaf cake. To do this she mixed flour, sugar, butter, polenta and orange zest together to make bread crumbs. In a separate bowl she mixed egg and orange juice, added it to the other mix and made a dough.  She filled the tin half way, added fresh blueberries filled the rest of the tin with dough and added more blueberries on top to say “EAT ME”. Because George knows how much we love cake, she knew one tin would not suffice, so she baked the cake and then began the whole process again to make a second cake.They were each baked for an hour. 

The Verdict:
The cake was different to anything we had tried, and different in a good way! It was a good mix of crumbly and moist especially with the blueberries in the middle. Although Jamie was unsure after his first bite that it was up to George’s usual standard, after his second, he knew it was. The cake had a good texture, was evenly cooked, the blueberries were juicy and gave the cake a great taste. It was described as “very cakey” by Sid and “pretty good” by Tom. The Polenta was a bit like marmite, some loved it but others weren’t sure. The only way the cake could have improved was to add chocolate or icing. Well done again George, your cakes will be missed. L

Blueberry, Orange and Polenta Cake - Average Score: 8




Next time: Tom is in the kitchen, and in his own words “you will all be disappointed!”