The Great Workplace Bake-Off

At work I sit on a pod (or booth as it has once been called, much to the amusement of the rest of the pod) with a couple of other keen amateur bakers, so last weekend we decided that we would all bake something delicious to share with everyone at work on Monday.

I've gained the nickname of "the biscuit queen" at work due to the fact that I mostly make biscuits rather than cakes; this teamed with the fact that I knew that one of the other girls was going to be making cupcakes, meant that I decided to make some kind of biscuits. I had white chocolate left over from the chocolate orange cupcakes so decided to make white chocolate cookies.

I've never made cookies before, but thought it was worth a shot, if they turned out horrendous I still had time to make something else, that I wouldn't be embarrassed to present at work. I followed a recipe found online, however it turned out to produce a dough that was far too wet, so with trepidation I added some more flour until the dough was a workable consistency and then just refrigerated it for a long while.  I wanted the cookies to have a rustic look so I didn't use a cutter, I simply rolled the dough into balls and then flattened each ball down with my fingers.

They looked pretty good, and they tasted great. They didn't hang around long at work, that's always a great test of how good they are. If they are still on my desk on a Tuesday, then I know I did something wrong!

After the success of my cookies I decided to further push the boat out and tackle something that I could never master as a child: pastry

It turns out I can't master it as an adult either. I tried to make jam tarts and they turned out, well, shit, is probably the most accurate word. I think I overworked and then overbaked the pastry. I also put too much jam in so that it overflowed. Even the boyfriend said they tasted bad, that's when I know it's a disaster!

They looked pretty shit and tasted pretty shit, but you live and learn.

There's always next time.....