The Great Yorkshire Bake-Off

[caption id="attachment_6908" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Bakers with Attitude displaying their winning Ops Liaison and APS cake made by Claire Milford. Was it enough for them to take The Great Yorkshire Bake-off title? Read on to find out![/caption]

Last Monday marked the final day of Link-Up fortnight, and seeing we've proved eating cake is a popular Smiths News activity, we have news of a fantastic event finale guaranteed to make you want some!

Once again the nation is drooling over the cakes, bread and pastries showcased in The Great British Bake-off. It formed the inspiration for NAC and BLS to go one better and Link-Up for the Great Yorkshire Bake-off :)

Just like its TV equivalent, the participants competed over several rounds - held between 20th and 30th September - and produced a variety of different baked goods. Around 90 staff took part in one way or another and Jackie Atkinson gives a great account of what happened...

[caption id="attachment_6909" align="aligncenter" width="640"] The second cake for your delectation and delight. Billionaire Bakers (Treasury Team) with their themed money bag cake made by Rhiannon Evans[/caption]

The judges had a great time tasting everything (!)

Over a 2 week period there were 4 rounds of baking, including biscuits, cup-cakes and pastries, culminating in a grand finale on Monday 30^th September, which was the Team Themed Cake round.

5 teams entered the competition and a different person from the team entered their baking in each round.

[caption id="attachment_6910" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Pat-a-Cake (Publisher Accounts team) showing off their Publisher Accounts desk cake in which everyone in the team had a hand[/caption]

The 1^st round was won by Pat-a-Cake with their delicious biscuits, which were hand decorated by every member of the team.  The 2^nd round saw the cupcakes from the Bakers with Attitude take first place with Billionaire Bakers and Bertie’s Big Buns also impressing the judges.  Bakers with Attitude were up there again in the pastry round with some very tasty samosas.  The Jamaican Patties entered by Bertie’s Big Buns and the Manchester Tarts entered by Pat-a-Cake were a very close joint 2^nd.

[caption id="attachment_6911" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Winning ways: Dawsons Mighty Devils, (Dawsons AP team) Vicky Holdsworth, Mo Uddin and Chloe Webb with their very creative winning multinational themed cake[/caption]

In the grand finale round, the themed cakes, which were aimed at depicting the team that had baked and entered them, were fantastic.  So much creative thought and effort had gone into them it was very difficult to choose a winner.  The judges finally awarded joint first place to Bakers with Attitude and Dawsons Mighty Devils but the cakes from Pat-a Cake, Billionaire Bakers and Bertie’s Big Buns were also brilliant.  Each team gave a short speech to explain how the cake reflected their team which was also a great way to learn more about the people in the other departments.

[caption id="attachment_6913" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Most appropriate seeing October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Bertie’s Big Buns,(BLS) Linda Pearson and Michelle Pringle with their themed cake supporting Breast Cancer[/caption]

The overall joint winners of the full competition were Pat-a-Cake and Bakers with Attitude and their prize is funding towards a team building event of their choice.

The judges had a great time tasting everything that was entered and are now complaining about their waistlines – there is no pleasing some judges!

The competition between the teams and the enthusiasm amongst those involved was a real eye opener.  Bringing the different teams at the NAC and BLS together for this challenge was great fun and we also raised over £120 for the Bradford and Airedale Cancer Support Centre in the process as the baking was all sold after the judging had finished.