Cake Monday - April

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.

'Healthy Chocolate Cake' by Teresa.

Teresa has been very vocal about her hatred for how popular chocolate cake is for Cake Monday. So when we walked in and saw a chocolate cake, we knew there had to be a catch. So how do you make a chocolate cake healthy? You make it with beetroot of course! This was a very adventurous cake and it was not easy to create this delicious cake sensation. Teresa had to use a lot of bowls, six in total (and therefore she had a lot of washing up). They were needed because of the many different ingredients that had to be mixed separately. Separate bowls were as follows: 1) puréed beetroot 2) melted chocolate and butter 3) egg yolks 4) egg whites and sugar 5) flour, coco powder and baking powder and 6) whipping cream. Bowls 1-5 were mixed separately and then folded in to each other and bowl 5 was used for a light topping. Chocolate buttons were added for decoration.

The Verdict: 

It’s safe to say we were all (well nearly all) converts for beetroot cake and most were shocked at how nice a cake with beetroot in could be. The cake itself was moist and chocolatey but not too sweet and the healthier option of light whipping cream rather than double cream complemented the rich cake beautifully. Jamie H declared it his favourite Cake Monday ever and it received two 10/10 scores (an Enterprise Recruitment first). Even those who don’t like beetroot liked this cake. However, not everyone was impressed with Teresa’s out of the box thinking, shockingly chocaholic Andrew said it was dull and uninteresting, unless you were diabetic. Overall the cake was a winner and goes straight in to the joint top of the leader board with an 8.8.

Next time: Katie. All of us are nervous.

Healthy Chocolate Cake Average Score: 8.8

Will it work?? Suction bird feeders.

We love our Blue Tit, so much so that Jamie brought in a bird feeder. Our office is on the top floor of the building in line with the Blue Tit's nest. There's a certain amount of anticipation as to whether the bird feeder will stay on the window or whether it will fall off and smash the BMW below. We also don't know if large almonds are his thing....will keep you posted...

Competition Wednesday: The B team nail the 'hoop game'

Victory cup

 the A team's efforts

Wednesday is competition day in our office.

Office Jenja....

Comic Relief 13th March 2015

To raise money for Comic Relief we had a prize draw and paid to eat some homemade cupcakes. Excitement had been building up for weeks leading up to the raffle and the Draw started badly with 2 prize winners not actually liking the confectionery they had won. It was a nervous moment as to who would win the biggest prize of all.....
Callum's so far refuted any negotiation offers to swap prizes.

 

Cake Monday - 2nd March

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.

'Tiramisu Cake' by Andrew. You only have to bake 3 cakes in Cake Monday and then you're out for a year. Andrew baked this cake 3 times before bringing in his 4th attempt of it into the office. This gives you an idea of the technical difficulty of this cake as well as Andrew's commitment to the competition. It was also the first time we've had a baker bring in a picture of the cake they were looking to achieve to prove how good their bake was. So in brief, what actually happened to those 3 other cakes? Trial no.1 failed to rise. Attempt no.2 worked and was served to friends over the weekend. Cake no.3 then didn't rise again, so a 4th cake had to be made. The good thing was that Andrew looked pretty pleased with himself as he dished up this cake to us all (see picture).

The Verdict: the sponge was light and airy and the brandy/coffee drizzle was appreciated by about half the office, as was the mascapone and cream filling. There seemed to be a whiff of marmite in the air as those that liked it really liked it, and those who didn't, really didn't. What we did agree on was that the cake was well executed (although the notion of not bringing in your first attempt and being allowed to bake it several times before bringing in the best one was debated). It doesn't really matter either way now because Andrew can hang up his baking apron for a whole year! Well done Andrew!

Next time: Teresa, and she definitely won't be making anything chocolatey.

Tiramisu Cake Average Score: 8

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