Ascot Racecourse Bake Off

On Monday 11 March, Mrs Welham and three Year 7s; Ellie, Shelby and Jodie, set off to the final of the Ascot Racecourse Bake Off Competition.

Read Mrs Welham's report of the event below:

We had been busy planning our CHARTERS acrostic entry for the Senior Ascot Bake Off:  

Last week we sourced local ingredients for our traybake: a dozen eggs were donated from WEGGS; Windlesham Eggs courtesy of Emma Ward and honey and honeycomb was procured from Clewer Cottage Honey, also in Windlesham. Having baked our delicious creation at the weekend, we set off early on Monday morning to Ascot Racecourse. When we arrived, we set up our table with our tablecloth, traybake, school signs, crochet bees made by Jodie, and Waddington our school mascot! We looked around at some of the other entries and were really impressed by St Francis Primary school who made a Victoria sponge topped with an array of summer berries. 

The organisers showed us a video all about Ascot before the judges began judging. We felt nervous as the judges approached but they soon made us feel at ease. Jodie enjoyed talking to the judges because they were really friendly. We had designed our story board to look like a journey through Hundred Acre Wood which we explained to the interested judges. The judges asked us about our journey to get to the final of the competition and our inspiration for our bake which was basically Winnie the Pooh and all things ‘Hunny.’ 

The winners were finally announced and received their signed cookbooks and a bag of mysteries! Then we heard about the career paths of the judges including the Executive Chef, Gemma Amor, the marketing staff and the Celebrity Pâtissier Eric Lanlard. Gemma’s journey was inspiring as she came to Ascot 29 years ago on work experience and now manages over 300 staff. She has dyslexia and struggles to read and write but she inspired us by talking about her passion and determination to get to the top of her field. We then had a Q&A session which Ellie found interesting because we learnt a lot about the people that were there and what they had done beforehand. The judges finished by sharing the best advice they had ever received which ranged from “work hard and don’t give up,” to “make your dream more than a dream and turn it into reality” and “do what you enjoy and find your passion.” 

We then had lunch which included mini sandwiches and the most amazing selection of cake that we had ever seen! 

Finally, we went on a tour of the racecourse which was Shelby’s favourite part. We walked past lots of different rooms like the walk-in fridge, the pastry room, and the finishing room. It was smelly in the kitchens where the orca was which is where all the leftover food was composted! The Royal Enclosure was incredible, and Ellie really liked looking down at the parade areas from the balcony.  

All in all, we had a great day and, on the way back we shared what we'd like to do when we are older with each other!