She knew we were coming – so she baked us a cake!

IT’S A TALE of dedication to warm even the coldest heart…

Despite never having baked in her 25 short years, our account manager Ainsley Piggott, was so inspired by Great British Bake Off that she took to the kitchen.

After desperately trying to whip up an office bake-fest (and failing), the bold Ainsley refused to be dragged down by the indifference of her colleagues. So, she ploughed on. Solo.

She gathered together her ingredients, dodged out of Boot Camp training (as a team we’re preparing for the Total Warrior challenge) and primed her oven.

The YouTube tutorial video was played on an endless loop – and the instructor insisted it should take just one hour.

The reality was a test of endurance – five heat-frazzled, flour-daubed and sugar-spun hours of forearm-shredding whisking and brain-numbing concentration. At several points it was so intense she even poked her tongue out of the corner of her mouth.

The hardest part? Ainsley said: “Definitely the whisking. The woman on the video said the mixture should be fluffy and light. But it wasn’t happening. I was at it for ages. It was much harder than the burpees and press ups the rest of them were doing at Boot Camp.”

However, Ainsely emerged triumphant. Her sponge rose, was a lovely even shape and the completed lemon drizzle cake was finally ready for decorating.

Can you spot the difference? Ainsley’s cake came out looking almost as good as the professional’s

Delicately, she prettified the sponge with small, edible flowers – before making her first novice mistake. While lovingly sprinkling her confection with icing sugar, Ainsley realised – with dawning horror –  that she’d made the wee flowers disappear.

Lesser women might have crumbled. They might have binned the sponge and tearily stropped at the folly of taking on such a challenge and the expectations of perfection.

We’re grateful she persevered and chuffed she brought in her cake for the rest of us to enjoy. The proof of the pudding is definitely in the eating – and if you want to see how much we enjoyed Ainsley’s cake, then be sure to nip over to our Facebook page to check out our reactions as we tucked in or see the results embedded, below:

NOTE  – If you want to have a go at making the cake, we heartily recommend following the same YouTube tutorial that Ainsley followed, which you can find at this link (https://youtu.be/IjrjUp411mA ) and it is also embedded, below: