The Great Bampton Bake Off 

I have been asked to be a judge of this brand new event, and with pleasure I accepted, not for solely the reason of trying some great cakes but for the chance to raise some cash for Comic Relief and Cancer Research. Believe me after holding some coffee mornings at The Quarryman's Rest I know there is some great bakers in the town and yes Bawdens The Bakers we are expecting an entry from you!.

So I best lose a few pounds before this Great Event if I,m going to have to try so many delicious things in one day.

If you cant bake a cake please come and support and have a cup of coffee or tea and make a donation or even better BUY A CAKE.   

The Great Sausage Roll Off

This week Donna and myself trotted off to london for "The Great Sausage Roll Off" that was being hosted at the @RedLionBarnes(twittername)  The Red Lion Barnes  

We had devised a sausage roll of Pork and leek sausage meat from Heal Farm, Pork cheeks from our local Butcher in the town, Devon Blue and apple.
along with a well practised pasty from Donna, she had opted for flakey pastry, it was just crisp enough.

So some 20 odd chefs mostly from around london gathered and believe me they can all cook.
Angus the Landlord had organised Some Tough Judges Kate Spicer (a journalist and producer of documentary's , Charles Campion a food writer for a many a Newspaper and a judge on Master-chef , and Johnnie Mountain chef/proprietor Of The English Pig and author of the cook book "Pig"

All hosted by the Melissa Cole's author of "Let me tell you about beer"

                                                             The Judges Table 

There were many a sausage cooked all in heats and we were in the final heat, we had to roll out the pastry and apply the filling and had 25 mins to cook in the oven. Personally we could of done with another 5 mins cooking, the key was the crispness of pastry in practice it had been so crisp, no soggy bottom.    

Straight out the oven onto a board and off the to the judges, 

It was out of our hands now, 

Sadly it wasn't good enough to make the top Three , but I think we can hold our heads high, we had come from Devon and everything had come from Devon.

To be fair we were getting some high praise from the other chefs in the kitchen who thought it was a serous contender.

Congratulation to The Winners and a big Thank You to Angus. 

But I cant help wonder if they had tried the really spicy one to last!.   

Until the next time ,we shall be Back