The Work Charity Bake Off

At my hubby's place of work every Monday is cake day! Each member of the department take turns to do a weekend bake and then sell their delicacies for a £1 a piece with all proceeds going to 'Dogs Trust', a charity which the company is a patron of.

It's a great idea - a sure way to brighten up a Monday, and also how naughty can it be to indulge in cake when it's for such a good cause?

This week it was my hubby's turn. Fortunately out of the two of us he is the 'masterbaker' *giggles like an adolescent*. Seeing it as an opportunity to christen the half finished (never likely to be completed kitchen) and spend some quality time with Roo, he set about the ambitious plan to make millionaires shortbread and strawberry macaroons. (At some point there was also mention of lavander shortbread - I think that was revised after hour six of baking)

Making macaroons is a serious labour of love - I now know why they are actually almost as expensive as their weight in gold (having misread the french, the most expensive most we've paid is 20 Euros for a box of 12 tiny macaroons in St. Emellion, France - officially the true home of the Macaroon.)Nevertheless the were worth it. Gooey little mouthfuls of sweet creaminess.

Macaroons come in pretty much any flavour you can imagine - although my personal favourite is pistachio or violet. Roo's is raspberry and the hubby's is, of course, chocolate.

So after six hours of intense baking - enough to confuse you into thinking it was the finals of the great British Bakeoff, operation charity bake off was complete. Let's just cross our fingers that his collegues will enjoy them as much as we have.