The Tale of the Red Nose Day cake challenge

Once upon a time, in a land far far away, a challenge was set to all of those in the employ of the great Lord ADAS,

"Red Nose Day - Cake Bake!

The Charity committee are looking for people from each office to take part in the Cake Bake for Red Nose Day. A prize to be given for the largest "red nose cake."

On hearing of this, the young(ish) new consultant with a penchant for cake saw an opportunity to make a mark in the strange town he'd been forced to live in and began to plan.

From the very beginning hurdles were put in our protagonist's way: a foreign kitchen, a lack of implements, the refusal of local tradesmen to barter with him (for the silver trays essential to the plan forcing him in to a compromise with the Tesco devil) and Lord ADAS sending him to a conference giving him just a single evening to meet the challenge.

Nevertheless the equipment and ingredients were gathered. With over 4lb butter, 3lb of flour and sugar, 24 eggs and nearly 2kg of fondant icing the size of the task ahead seemed daunting.

Hours later, when the burning furnace had been extinguished, six different tray bakes (cherry mallow, lemon, coffee, gingerbread, coconut carrot and white chocolate) lay waiting to be adorned with their icing.

The butter icing was laid down quickly and efficiently acting as the saddle ready to be ridden by the fine fondant.

The fondant was an opponent the likes of which our hero had never encountered. It tested his skill and patience like nothing before.

Gradually the fondant bent to the rolling pin of our hero and a gleaming white canvas was ready for the final stage.

After 10 hours of battle six cakes appeared from the cloud of icing sugar that enveloped the arena. A brief respite and as the Sun rose the trusty stead was loaded ready to unleash the mightiest of Red Nose Day cakes upon the unsuspecting Lord ADAS.

The furore caused by the cake was unprecedented: gasps, smiles and giggles of delight filled the air.

On measurement the cake was declared to be 39" (about the same size as one of the new magic viewers) and over 9kg.

The challenge had been met and all enemies vanquished. "Never again" muttered out exhausted hero. Well, not for another two years at least...

***THE END***

The easy part in all this really was making the tray bakes. Recipes for the six cakes can be found on the following sites:

Coconut carrot slices
Lemon cake - I didn't do a drizzle, but did use lemon butter icing
Cherry mallow - no marshmallow and cherry topping just vanilla butter icing
White chocolate - white chocolate butter icing here instead of creamcheese
Gingerbread
Coffee cake - with a coffee butter icing