We are cooking up a storm once again at Westbourne House School!
The Great Westbourne Bake Off 2023 kicked off with the children taking on a mystery technical challenge.
Starting with the Year 6 contestants, their challenge recipe turned out to be a Chocolate Orange Cheese Cake. After bashing, melting, beating, zesting and grating, all the Year 6 contestants finished their quest and it was Mrs Bonn's turn to taste and deliberate over all the delicious cheesecakes made. It's a hard life being a Food Tech teacher!
The Year 4 technical challenge recipe turned out to be Festive Cupcakes. Our young bakers used their trusty recipes to help them. Mincemeat featured in the mystery recipe, adding a little festive flavour to the cakes. The pupils worked incredibly hard and with great independence to whip up some deliciously light, fluffy, golden and lightly dusted cupcakes. No cake tears, just a room full of smiles and some very happy bakers.
Never was the phrase “Keep Calm and Carry On” more pertinent than when an unexpected fire alarm marked the start of the Year 8 Bake Off. Thankfully it was a false alarm and there were only the flames of passionate cooks burning!
So, who says that a test can't be fun! Our valiant Year 8s created exceptionally nostalgic and mouth-wateringly delicious jammy thumb prints. One pupil was overheard saying “I love this flour, I love how it feels in my fingers”.
Mrs Bonn said: "At certain points in the competition it felt more like a boarders activity rather than a Bake Off, with our bakers chatting merrily amongst themselves whilst competing. It was a great way to let off steam at the end of the day.
"Top tips were flying around the room and pupils used their own gems of knowledge in their quest for culinary perfection: shimmying the bowls to find any cheeky lumps of butter and knowing what colour and texture changes to look out for whilst cooking. These tips all helped to maintain an air of calm and collection amongst our bakers."
How do you make a Swiss Roll? No, you don’t push your cake down a hill! You leave it to our spectacular Year 7 bakers to use their culinary powers to create their very own Swiss rolls from scratch.
The noise from the chorus of electric whisks was deafening, however this was soon replaced by the gentle tapping of sieves, the whirr of spoons folding and the gasp of pleasure as springy sponges rose to great heights. None of the bakers crumbled under the pressure, with the pupils fully using their agility to help them tackle any technical troubles.
The pupils had a number of questions to ask themselves to support the success of their rolls: how fluffy do I have to whisk my eggs? How can I make sure I don’t overmix the mixture? How do I know when my sponge is cooked? How quickly should I roll my cooked cake to stop it cracking when rolling? How cool does the sponge have to be before filling with jam? How much sugar is too much sugar for the outer coating? All of which they took in their stride, with mere gentle reminders to use their trusty recipes to support independent cooking. There was a vast range of culinary experience amongst the contestants, however they all baked themselves incredibly proud, producing a plethora of Swiss rolls for Mrs Pollock, Mr Thomas and Mrs Bonn to devour (they mean judge!).
