Cake Monday - September

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.

Banoffee Blondie Cake by George.

George lost the race and was back in the kitchen again, we were obviously all pleased. This time she focussed on taste with her Banoffee Blondie Cake which was a fusion of her two favourite things: banana cakes and brownies. It was not an easy cake to make starting with making an almond praline by heating sugar and almonds in a frying pan. This was tricky as she had to wait for the sugar to melt and caramelise without stirring, so a lot of swirling was involved. Then she melted white chocolate and butter over a pan of simmering water, whilst avoiding steam going into the chocolate and ruining it. After she mixed all these ingredients together she had the important task of judging when the cake was cooked but still gooey in the middle (THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT). When she decided the time was right, it was left in the tin to cool. Because George is a perfectionist, she couldn’t leave it there so made it look pretty by drizzling over a pattern of white chocolate.

The Verdict:

We had a very, very happy office this Monday. This cake was scrumptious. Three 10/10s were immediately whipped out and no mark was below a 9. It was deliciously gooey and the banoffee flavour with the praline was exquisite. Katie immediately went in for seconds and Adam declared George the “Expert Baker”. Jamie said it was a “damn good cake” and he is a hard one to please! Smritee was reminded of her mother’s cooking and all in all the cake and its gooey nuttiness was loved by all. She is already at the top of the leader board but she’s back there for a second time… well done George.

Banoffee Blondie Cake Average Score: 9.4

Next time: Again, no one wanted to follow this cake, Katie is nervous… so is the rest of the office.

Cake Monday - August

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.

'Chocolate Protein Cake' by Adam

Every month, Adam grins and bears an (always) small slither of cake on Cake Monday. Adam is not a cake fan, he prefers meat and lots of it. When he lost the race he did everything he could to try and get out of it including booking a day off on Cake Monday AND trying to re-run the race but to his dismay, he was shot down. So Adam decided to do it his way, with protein. To make this cake, he mixed eggs, vanilla, and Manuka honey with butternut squash that had been mashed and blended instead of flour. He then added 85% dark chocolate, almonds, cinnamon, cocoa powder and of course PROTEIN POWDER. All this was mixed together and put into a cake tin that had been greased using coconut oil. The mix was put in the oven and goji berries he had lying around were added on top for an extra healthy kick. Upon walking into the office our expectations were lowered immediately with Adam announcing “you won’t like this cake, it’s not going to go down well.”

The Verdict: 

This cake caused a lot of strange faces to be pulled in the office, and strange comments were made too. For example: “that doesn’t taste like a cake!”, “goji berries – what are they about” and “this tastes like potpourri”. Even chocolate cake’s #1 fan Andrew couldn’t stomach it, asking “is there pepper in this? Is it a starter?!” he also suggested it needed either or both clotted cream and chocolate icing. The cake was interesting and most were not a fan of the texture or taste… however the idea behind the cake, using butternut squash instead of flour, was agreed by all to be pure genius and made the cake nice and moist. Sam who doesn’t even like butternut squash really enjoyed it and said it had a complex flavour. Sidonie was also a fan giving it 8/10 and went back for seconds!

Next time: George’s amazing cake making skills are put to the test again, we are all pleased Adam is no longer in the equation.

Healthy Chocolate Cake Average Score: 5.8

Cake Monday - July

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.

Raspberry Bakewell Cake by Callum.

Usually, people come in and describe how much of their Sunday was consumed by making the cake (and not in a good way). Callum hasn't made a cake before, but described the process as follows, "put all the stuff in the bowl, used one of those hand whizzers, put it in a baking tray and chucked in raspberries". It took an hour in total, 45 minutes of which, the cake was in the oven. Once baked, he placed almonds on the top and sprinkled on icing sugar. He was particularly pleased that the raspberries hadn't sunk. Job done. 

The Verdict:

Everyone enjoyed the cake, it was delicious. Callum had executed it well - only Sue complained of a soggy bottom. We liked the raspberries. We liked the flavour and texture. Simplicity was his downfall. He had overlooked the fact that cakes are marked for taste, difficulty, and presentation. Andrew complained of density and a burnt bit (but we all knew that the route of his complaint was really linked to the fact that the cake didn't contain chocolate), and whilst everyone scored it as highly as they could, there was a ceiling to those scores because of the processes involved (or lack of). That said, we must not forget that this is Callum's first ever cake and he nailed it, even if initially we were put off because it brought back memories of Jamie's dry fruit cake. 

Raspberry Bakewell Cake Average Score: 7.2

Next time: Angry Adam. (The selection process was time consuming and then incredibly rushed).

Cake Monday: June

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.

Surprise Wedding Cake by George.

We know that George is somewhat an “expert” baker, so we all had fairly high expectations for this cake. However, we were still all stunned when George brought in this masterpiece of a cake. The cake was a vision with buttercream roses along the top and side of the cake (which were pink and sparkly much to Katie’s delight) and it was smothered in a smooth chocolate ganache. However, this cake, which was already very impressive, held a surprise. When George cut into the cake, we saw that the inside of the cake itself was a square pattern of raspberry and chocolate sponge. We all had one question… How did she do it?!

This was not an easy cake, it involved creating two mixes, one with chocolate one with raspberry sponge, baking them and then cooling them in the fridge, THEN baking two more of each and doing this again. Then it got technical, George had to use a PROTRACTOR from Andrew’s old school kit, to cut out circles of the sponge of each cake, swap them over and stack them up, using jam to stick the pieces together. It was then covered in chocolate ganache and left to cool, with the final touch of the flowers, which were piped with buttercream and edible glitter.

The Verdict:

Needless to say, we were all impressed. This was like nothing Cake Monday had ever seen. Andrew was particularly pleased with how “engineering concepts” had been used to build the cake. Sidonie said she would expect it only from a professional cake shop. The cake was deemed a “winner” and “the best cake yet”. The cake received a record breaking three 10/10 scores and we had 2 mini Simon Cowells with guest judges in Oscar and Isaac (George’s two boys) who agreed that it looked really good and their Mum had worked very hard. Well done George who goes straight to the very top of the leader board with 9.4/10.

Surprise Wedding Cake Average Score: 9.4

Next time: Hearts were racing when we were finding out who will bake next month’s cake, no one wanted to follow George… but it was about time for Callum, who hasn’t baked a cake since he joined. We all fear he will turn up with a pie.

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Cake Monday: May

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.

Milkybar Cake by Katie. Last time Katie improvised for all kitchen utensils and equipment she didn't have (empty beer bottles were used to measure liquid). This time, Katie was determined to make a good cake and borrowed everything from Teresa (and a neighbour). She used a recipe off the internet, but realised as she combed the supermarket shelves for 'cake flour' that the recipe was in fact American and their terminology is quite different to ours. Thank goodness for smartphones and Google. 

Once home, she creamed the butter and sugar by hand (not sure why when she had electrical equipment available this time?) and added in a milkybar yogurt for good measure - her own addition to the recipe. The butter cream icing was also made with a melted milkybar and was used to sandwich the cake together. The icing was piped on top of the cake and a milkybar button was placed onto each piped section.

The Verdict:

The cake was liked, the only downsides generally related to how sweet it was and that it was deemed a simple cake to make. BUT, the sponge was 'light, fluffy, and moist' - so moist in fact, that it was like drinking a drink at the same time for Callum (??). The cake was well executed and quietly quite subtle compared to Katie's last glitter-adorned cake. 

Milkybar Cake Average Score: 7.75

 Next time: George. It's been a year since her last Cake Monday cake. The pressure is definitely on.

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