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3 May 2019
The Bolton School Bake Off competition has once again showcased pupils’ creativity and cooking skills alike. A huge number of pupils in Years 7 to 9 took part in the opening rounds of the competition and week after week spent their Friday lunchtimes creating delicious final products in just 45 minutes for the judges to taste.
During the Spring Term, the opening three rounds were split into two halves, with pupils in Year 7 and pupils in Years 8 and 9 taking part separately as they decorated cupcakes, baked savoury biscuits or crackers and made savoury pastry products. After the Easter holidays, the two groups merged for the individual dessert round, which narrowed the competition down to the final six who went forward to the Showstopper Final.
Those six finalists certainly did not disappoint with their stunning range of ‘signature bakes’.
Safia Adam in Year 8 baked a Rainbow Sponge with three layers of differently coloured sponge sandwiched with generous amounts of buttercream and jam, decorated with an icing rainbow and purple candyfloss clouds.
Riya Hasija in Year 8 made a Rubik’s Cube Cake: 25 cubes arranged in layers to look just like the toy! The cubes of cake featured all of her favourite things to bake: cheesecake, coconut cake, lemon cake, white chocolate mousse and marble cake.
Victoria Longthorne in Year 7 presented Cupcakes with Vanilla Surprise, beautifully iced and neatly presented.
Izzy Martin in Year 7 created a Gluten Free Assiette of Desserts, presented like a 1930s cream tea and inspired by the Murder Most Unladylike book series. The desserts were a fruit scone with clotted cream and raspberry jam, a lemon posset with vanilla biscuit and a dark and white chocolate brownie with vanilla cream.
Sophie Swift in Year 7 baked ‘My Raspberry Rippled Vision of Spring’, which she decorated with marbled icing, white chocolate drip, raspberries and a few flecks of gold. She presented the cake with flowers cut from her garden.
Frankie Williams-Denton in Year 9 made a Coconut and Lime Cake, but as well as creating a sweet treat she decided to use healthier alternatives to sugar as health experts recommend that we have no more than 30 grams per day. She therefore used unrefined organic coconut sugar, and also drew attention to the nutritional values and benefits of the dried coconut and lime juice and zest included in her cake.
Mrs Kyle (Bolton School Girls’ Division Deputy Head) and Mrs Field Bolton School Girls’ Division Head of Middle School) had the difficult task of judging the Bake Off Final, with assistance from Mrs Barrow (Bolton School Girls’ Division Teacher of Food and Nutrition) who organised and ran the competition. They all thoroughly enjoyed sampling the girls’ bakes and were very impressed with their innovative concepts and creative presentation.
The winner of the Bake Off 2019 was Riya with her Rubik’s Cube Cake. The judges commented that every one of the cakes within her incredible showstopper design was delicious, and Mrs Field was particularly impressed with the cube-shaped mousse. Two runners up were also announced: Izzy with her Assiette of Desserts and Frankie with her Coconut and Lime Cake. All three received a goody bag containing cook books and baking supplies, and Riya also received a voucher.
Mrs Field congratulated all six girls for making it to the final and for creating such a high-quality selection of showstopper signature bakes.
