Two guesses as to who was in charge of the food at my children’s school summer fair?

Yep. The buck stopped here. Admittedly as part of the dedicated team of mums (and the occasional dad) who give up hours of their time to set up and run the school’s biggest annual fund raiser. (Most of whom who generally are also working full or part time but still find time to do this.)

We’ve been running this event for a few years now, and have got it down to a fine art, but it’s always exhausting, with a week of feverish stress in the run up. Mostly for the committee chair — a working mum of three of 10 and under, who spends hours working out what’s to be done then with saintly patience, further time reminding us all to actually do it. (While also doing far more than her fair share herself.)

For my part of the operation, this year I managed  to invent myself an additional job — inventing, promoting and judging the inaugural school Bake Off. That was on top of attending umpteen general committee meetings, shopping, planning, begging for raffle prizes and sponsorship AND baking 130 vanilla cookies for children to smother with garish icing and shower in a rainbow of sprinkles.

Drumming up entries for a hands-on competition is notoriously difficult. Parents are instantly overcome with apathy when it comes to any form of participation, so asking them to actually get their hands dirty is a gargantuan ask.

As an incentive, I dangled the carrot of printing the winning recipe in the JC. It didn’t push entries past a meagre 16 entries, but it at least provide a delicious display on the day.

Those that did enter really pushed the boat out. From the Head Mistress’s clever layer cake in the school colours and another teacher’s gorgeous sliders (mini burgers) on a bbq trompe l’oeil; to the professional-looking layered chocolate wafer cake; gorgeously girlie cupcakes topped with tiny dolls in fondant dresses; and edible nasturtium-smothered banana cake. I was seriously impressed, and some categories were extremely hard to mark. Most notably the Y4 - Y6 category who all did brilliantly.

My team of guest judges took their roles seriously, allotting marks for appearance and taste. We chose a winner in each of five categories, plus one overall winner to feature in the JC.

The entrants then kindly donated their cakes to the drooling crowds, raising even more money for the school. A win win! Well, for everyone other than my daughter and mother, that is. Both are keen bakers, left feeling cheated of the chance to show off their skills, as they could never win on my watch. Until I hang up my tasting fork, i’ll just unashamedly show off their efforts on my social media and here on my blog…