The Great AFS Bake Off!

Throughout May, Accuro’s Adult Friendship Scheme put their baking skills to the test with a ‘virtual bake off’ challenge. 

Adult Friendship Scheme Coordinator Kerry Matholie said, “The bake off idea was actually inspired by a friend of mine who was running the competition with her family- each week a family friend was setting them a challenge to complete and then judging the winner.  

I thought it was a great idea so decided to run it with the AFS- I was sure plenty of them would have heard of the bake off and watched it on TV. I thought it would keep them busy and give them something to focus on while they are away from clubs, work or day centres that are closed. Baking was also new to some and I thought it might inspire members to give it a try and learn new, or improve existing skills.” 

The competition ran throughout May and members that took part sent in photos and comments about their progress.   

The Adult Friendship scheme runs in Uttlesford and Harlow and aims to bring together Adults with a disability in an environment that is safe, fun and welcoming. Around ten members took part in the challenge. 

Kerry added, “I was completely blown away by each entry – especially the show stoppers. You could see that members had put so much effort into the competition which is the best kind of feedback you can get! Our star baker, Helen, was really pleased to win. The bakes were all so good that I ended up also naming winners in each category, in each area!” 

The winner was chosen based on their photos and was announced on 1st June. 

Kerry said,  “After announcing the winner, even members that hadn’t baked sent emails of congratulations to say how lovely her cakes looked (as you can see from the photo above!) – which just goes shows the community spirit within the group. They’d been following the competition and were pleased to cheer on their friends.”