I, along with several of my friends, am watching this year’s Great British Bake Off very carefully. Don’t get me wrong, I always watch it, but this year is different.

I put a call out on Facebook to see which of my friends would be interested in a GBBO challenge – baking our version of the contestant’s weekly contest in a mini competition of our own. I did exclude my lovely friend, Lenka, who is insanely talented on the baking front (check out her Facebook page), so she’s judging (albeit remotely), and showing us how it’s done.  She’s basically a young, Slovakian, Mary Berry.

Five of us are taking part. The first week, we all made a madeira cake, which was a good one to start us off. The second week was biscotti (which I won, go me!). This week was quick breads, and I made a River Cottage honey and walnut soda bread, which was quite dense, but full of flavour and texture (but I won’t win).

I’m amazed at the dedication of us all, how we’re all starting to bake other creations in addition to the challenge, and one of us (who’s actually leading the board at the moment) had never even baked before.  We have, however, determined that she was only three when Spice Girls’ Wannabe was released, so she’s still a baby.