Curry Night - October - at Verandah

The pudding bro-mance:

Go Ape! September - Enterprise Recruitment's Anniversary

Several are scared of heights, several of us were scared by the tightness of our harnesses, but all of us completed the treetop course.

Go Purple!

We went purple for the Hospice of St.Francis for 'Hospice Care Week' to help raise money for the charity. (Sam's shortbread wasn't purple, but tasted A.Ma.Zing.)

Cake Monday - October '15

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.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Cake by Katie

This being Katie’s last Cake Monday for a year, and having lost marks with a previous version for doing a cake that was too simple, Katie decided to go all out with a more complicated cake – and as we head into autumn she decide to keep it seasonal too. Hence we had Pumpkin Cheesecake Cake. She found the recipe on the Internet and felt confident having read the many good reviews it received. So, there were two cakes to this challenge: a pumpkin cake  and a cheesecake. The pumpkin cake involved canned pumpkin (found while shopping on the American aisle), the usual flour, sugar, eggs etc and some autumnal spices. The cheesecake incorporated cream cheese, sugar, eggs, yogurt and vanilla bean paste. Once the mixes were made they were used to create a marbled effect within the cake, and the whole lot was baked using the bain marie method – a first for Katie. Once cooled a cream cheese frosting was made to cover the top. So far, so good.

On arrival in work there was a shock in store for Katie – the cream frosting was very liquid and had failed to set – running off the top of the cake. Oh dear………….but while it made it a bit messy to eat it did not detract from the flavour.

The Verdict: 

Overall this was a good cake. The marbling effect was impressive and the scores were high. It was described as “Autumn in a cake” by several people. Jamie, who was disappointed by the appearance and slightly put off – didn’t have high expectations, but as it’s “all about the taste” for him, he was delighted  and thought it was very good – even going back for seconds.

Overall everyone was impressed with the number of stages and the effort that had gone into to it, and despite the appearance the taste was definitely a winner.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Cake Average Score: 7.7

Next up, it’s George again.

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).