Baking like Berry

There wasn't much time for my Bake it like Berry challenge this week.

 

That's because the boys' school were holding a Spring Fair on Friday afternoon and I was organising the afternoon teas. We sent a request out to all the parents for donations of traybakes and cakes, but two of the other mums and myself volunteered to bake all the scones.

 

I did more than just scones though because you never really know how many donations you will get!

 

On Wednesday afternoon, while Fraser napped or the other boys entertained him, I made (from left to right below): 2 dozen free from cupcakes (these were actually more to keep at home than take with us), a rocky road Traybake, a mint aero Traybake, 2 dozen butterfly cakes (seen here before being turned into butterflies) and 2 dozen mini cupcakes.

 

On Thursday I made 2 dozen scones and a dozen treacle scones.

 

 

 

And finally, this cake for the Bake Off competition at the fair.

 

It was based on the Lemon cake I made last week from Mary's Baking Bible. Only this time I made it in round sandwich tins rather than the square tin. I sliced the two halves of cake in half again to make four layers and then layered them together with a lemon mascarpone icing. I left the assembly of it until I got to the school as I didn't think it would survive the journey in buy train and bus! I had planned to make up some glacé icing with lemon juice to put on top of the cake, but I was so busy setting up the tables, putting all the donated cakes out, getting the teas ready etc that I had about 1 minute to see to my cake! So I just slapped the mascarpone icing and some lemon curd between the layers very quickly, sprinkled some icing sugar on top and finished it off with some lemon peel I had brought along.

 

 

The afternoon teas were busy, busy, busy! There were only two of us - and Fraser in the baby sling - serving, and we literally didn't stop serving tea, coffee, juice and cakes for nearly three hours! I kept thinking that surely the queue would go down soon and it never did! Still, it made a lot of money for the school funds!

 

Most of the action was taking place in the school playground and the other boys had a lovely afternoon wandering round the various stalls with their friends.

 

The school holds a Christmas Fair every year as a fundraiser but this is the first time they have run a Spring Fair, and it seemed to be a big success.

 

In the midst of the busyness, one of my friends came in and said to come with her for a minute. She took me running into the playground, where there was an auction taking place. The reason wasn't because of the auction though, but because my cake had won the competition!

 

I got this lovely hamper of goodies as my prize.

 

 

 

 

Then it was back to the teas, where we sliced up the bake off cakes to serve as well. I joked that we should charge extra for the winning cake!

 

 

And that's how this week I really was, in a way, baking like Berry!

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