On Sunday a group of us got together in the name of competition. A month or so back, (possibly even at this event?) the girls put their heads together and decided it would be fun to have our very own masterchef challenge. The girls were keen to cook and the boys were keen to eat and judge, so it was win win. After much online discussion the decision was made to bake violet macaroons with raspberries and butter cream, a challenging dish to say the least.
There are only 9 steps on the recipe, but by all accounts the whole thing took around 3 hours to make, and that’s assuming you didn’t have several attempts (which some of the girls did). Apparently the baking also wasn’t quite as much fun as anticipated with several kitchen meltdowns being reported by various other halves, the pressure of competition combined with the complexity of the dish and various other life pressures was almost too much to bear. And absolutely fair enough too, weekends are pretty hectic at the best of times so taking 3+ hours out for baking (not to mention all the shopping for obscure ingredients – who has violet essence or titanium strength gelatin leaves in their pantry?) only to have your work put on display and judged by a bunch of men who don’t really have discerning palates to begin with is a herculean effort.
So, ladies, I take my hat off to each and every one of you, all of the macaroons looked great and tasted even better, but in the end there could be only one winner so congratulations go to Emily for being best in show.
(Kudos also must go to Kez who managed a very credible 3rd despite the discovery of a human hair in one of her macaroons).
Two of the judges looking very serious. Matt (on the right) ran a half marathon that morning that started on the plains and finished at Norton Summit so he’s understandably looking a little tired in that shot.
First (left) and second (right) prize. Delicious.
The judging was meticulous!
We have a winner! (I thought I’d put the winning macaroons on the right but I’ve just realised those are the runner up macaroons. Oh well, too late to change now).
Apparently it’s the boys’ turn next. We’ll have to see how that goes.
