Create an Easter show-stopper

‘We would like you to channel your inner creative bakers and make your own show-stopper with an Easter theme,’ explained competition judge Tim Langlois, of Cobo Bakes.

‘This can be a large cake or a whole lot of cupcakes or whatever you like, as long as it looks really Eastery and tasty.’

To offer a little inspiration, Tim has decorated some cute Easter cupcakes, pictured above, but you can let your creativity run wild with your own bakes.

Here’s how to take part:

1. Create an Easter-themed show-stopper of your choice. Cakes can be large or small and whatever flavour you want, but they must be decorated in some way for Easter.

2. Send in pictures of the finished cakes to features@guernseypress.com by 9am on Thursday 8 April. You can also post on social media with the tag #GSYBAKEOFF.

3. Tim will select the cakes out of all the entries and the winner will receive a £50 prize.

All your culinary delights will be featured next week.

Good luck!

Beautiful buns

EASTER wouldn’t be the same without hot cross buns and Guernsey’s keen bakers certainly came up with the goods for this week’s Bake Off challenge.

Competition judge Tim Langlois, of Cobo Bakes, was once again delighted by the response.

‘Wow, what a brilliant lot of bakes this week,’ he said.

‘Hot cross buns are not the easiest to make and I was so impressed with the buns that have been sent in. They look glossy and super tasty.’

The winner of this week’s £50 prize was Stephen Glencross, who Tim said had made ‘a beautiful baked dozen’.

‘They have really good consistency in size and the bake is beautiful and even across them all,’ he said.

Stephen was delighted, but surprised, to find out he had won. ‘I was very pleased with how the hot cross buns looked – and tasted! – but I didn’t think I might actually win,’ he said.

‘I had already planned to make hot cross buns over that weekend as my children really love them. They came out of the oven far better than I had expected and I had seen the competition advertised on Facebook and just thought it was worth a shot so sent in my photo.’

He said he has been baking for as long as he can remember. ‘I was taught from a very young age and have always enjoyed it. I used to bake a lot, but over the years finding the time was the challenge. My interest returned during lockdown as it is a great thing to do with our young children and they love helping with kneading the dough and keeping an eye on it as it proves – and eating the end product of course!’

This week’s runners-up, who will both receive a free box of Cobo Bakes cakes, were Janine Clarke and Linda Falla.

Tim said: ‘Janine’s bake looks really lovely and even across all the buns. The cross is slightly wider than needed but the glossy finish makes them look like the perfect Easter treat.

‘Linda’s bake again looks really consistent and each bun has a good colour to them and the dough looks really lovely and springy.

‘Well done, everyone.’