Sparticans Go for Gold in Half Term Cake-Fest

Inspired by the successes of our previous culinary and snowmen challenges, the Sparticans lockdown bandwagon rolled on this half term week with our Family Cake Challenge. 

Once again, the team surpassed themselves, resulting in many masterpieces being produced in the kitchens of Surrey, and highlighting the need for expert assessment of the many efforts on show.

We were therefore truly honoured to welcome the Ladies 1s Queen of Cakes, Giselle Ansley, as our Head Judge for this prestigious competition – for those of who you don’t know, Giselle owns ‘Stick or Whisk’ (one of the more attractive Instagram feeds, check it out) –  creating all manner of dessert delights for those commissioning her expertise for their special occasions. Giselle fulfilled what turned into a challenging role with great humour and rigour, and we are very grateful to her for the time spent being part of this challenge.

Giselle’s eventual winner was Oliver’s 3 tier extravaganza, whose own description was: ‘This SHC cake has 3 layers. The first a pure chocolate cake with green icing to represent part of the SHC colours, with granulated sugar with green food colouring to remember the beach. The next level is plain vanilla cake with blue/magenta icing, and finally a small chocolate cake on top with white icing to reflect our key colour. The icing sugar over the cake reminds us of the icy frosty pitches at this time of the year’

Best of the Rest...

• Runner up was Steve Iffland – voting himself Moment of The Match and presenting himself with the customary Lynx J
• And in joint 3^rd place, was Mia Warren with her outstanding SHC chocolate cake, and the Welches with a true surprise inside.
• Additional prizes were awarded to:
• Lucy, Evie, Maddi and Mia – brilliant junior entrants, all winning a special Sparticans gift voucher when we’re back together
• Ciaran and Save It Lee – success despite impediment (no kitchen) with a mini-cakes v microwave success
• Adam Langford – most eventful baking (‘after nearly burning my kitchen down, setting off the fire alarm numerous times and burning one tea towel, Adam’s S was best described as a baked pancake’)
• Kevin Grant – superb glass cake dome – accessory of the week as befits the only birthday cake made during the week
• Andrew Bell and family – all round bakers of the week, entering muffins and bread during the week in addition to their cake
• Matt Sutton – most realistic reincarnation of a Surbiton hockey pitch, even including our interestingly designed lines on pitch 1…
• James and Pippa Andrew – safe but tasty for the whole family, with a delicious gluten and dairy free Victoria sponge
• Mike Vallis – Mystic Meg of the week (more to follow, under embargo)

Well done to everyone – this was a fun event that hugely escalated over and above what its creator thought it would be, and cake was certainly the winner as the team rose to the challenge like never before. Never did we think that macerated and ganache could be the words of our week, but this half term they clearly were. We roll on…