The Great Flame Bake Off - National Cake Day!

​by April Tho

National Cake Day – a very important day for Flame PR. We’re all pretty much obsessed with cake in this office. So naturally, we decided to hold our very own bake off… The Great Flame Bake Off.

As we have quite a few virtuoso bakers (and professional cake tasters) in our team, last week was spent on deciding who will be competing. It was decided that Maya, Romana, Christopher and Flame newcomers Eleanor, Isabelle and April (me!) would be fighting for Best Baker. It was going to be tough.

I spent a couple of days researching and strategising on how to win. I tried to sneak around to find out what the others were going to bake but no one was giving in. Competition was going to be intense!

On a side note, I found some interesting cake facts which I think are worth sharing;

1. The British cake market is worth £1.2 billion a year.
2. Contrary to popular belief, Marie Antoinette did not say “let them eat cake!” 
3. The definition of ‘cake’ has changed over time. The first definition by the Oxford English Dictionary was: ‘a comparatively small flattened sort of bread, round, oval, or otherwise regularly shaped, and usually baked hard on both sides by being turned during the process.’
   
   

Anyway, after much thought and consideration on my commute to work, I decided that I was going to bake some carrot cake cupcakes topped with lemon cream cheese frosting, decorated with some gold candy and crushed walnuts. If they weren’t going to get top scores for flavour, at least they would for presentation – I hoped. 

​Tensions were high as the bakers walked into the Flame office with their cakes. As it is the very first GFBO, we didn’t know what the judges were expecting or how tough they were going to be. Although I think the rest of the team were just happy that they were going to get a cake feast. 

We kicked off with a speech from our CEO (and one of our judges), Kully Dhadda, and then the tasting commenced. It was hard to tell whose they preferred with all the “oohs” and “ahhs” remarked as they tasted each cake. The judges were sure that it was going to be a difficult decision trying to pick a winner. 

As the GFBO organiser tallied up the scores, it was time to announce the winner. Was it going to be Maya, Romana, Christopher, Eleanor, Isabelle or me? (I’ll give you a clue… it wasn’t me!).

The first ever Great Flame Bake Off winner is Christopher! He thanked Gordon Ramsey for his success. Although I was a little bit gutted that I didn’t win, we shared a lot of laughter (and cake!) and it was all good fun. We returned to our desks happily stuffed with cake.

What challenge do you think we should have next? We’re thinking of a Cook Off. 

Leave us a comment!

Check out our Instagram for  more pictures and videos from the bake off.