Saturday 25th January 2014

Today, in the cause of giving moral support - and the prospect of getting some cake - I accompanied a good friend (and Swindon resident) of mine to Faringdon where she had entered some of her baked goods into a bake-off being held there for Cancer Research. Yes, I know - where's the link to Swindon in that - apart from that we both live here? Well, surprisingly enough in more ways than one.

The Faringdon charity bake-off was a superb event. There were loads of wonderful entries and all in such a good cause. So there was most definitely some stiff competition in the bake-off for Sam. But, fantastically and wonderfully, not only did Sam win 1st prize for 'Cake-opoly' she also won the overall 'Star-baker' prize! Well done Sam. Fantastic work. I couldn't be more proud!

I'm not a watcher of Great British Bake Off myself but there was great excitement that one of the judges was Christine Wallace of GBBO fame. She very kindly let me get a couple of pictures of her with Sam - see the picture gallery in the post on Born again Swindian.

Sam is a keen amateur baker and I have been fortunate to sample many of her productions. She writes a lovely blog which is the pleasantest of meanders into the world of baked goods. Here, in link No 1 to Swindon, is a post on her own blog about cakes she made to celebrate the release of the Swindon Monopoly.

However, Sam is soon to make the break from being a keen amateur baker to starting her own business in baked goods so the entry to the Faringdon bake-off  was an opportunity to showcase her work and get some feedback on it. And what a day it was. Sam entered two categories: the cupcakes (can we please go back to calling them buns!?) and the showstopper cake category. For the cupcake category she entered 'Cake-opoly'. The pictures below are self-explanatory. In the Show-stopper category she entered a cake with a Magic Roundabout theme - and there's another link to Swindon!

So Sam - a graduate of the Outset Swindon (3rd link to Swindon) 'starting-your-own-business' -  school is soon to launch her Little Miss CakeMaker business and I wish her every success. I'm sure she will be amazing.

You can follow Sam on Twitter: @LMcakemaker and find her on Facebook.  Sam's blog is well worth a read too. Here you can read her account of her entry and victory at the bake-off.

The picture shows Sam's winning entry. To see more pictures from the day go here.