Great Greenpeace Bake Off
A look behind the scenes at Greenpeace HQ ….
It was 12th September 2016. We were collectively shocked, taken aback and shaken by the totally unexpected news. What would we do now? What and who will fill the void that remains? On what theme will we now base our in-office baking activities?
Here at Greenpeace UK we like cake. Birthday cake, celebration cake and sometimes a good, old-fashioned ‘it’s Tuesday and I felt like it’ cake. On my last birthday my team-mates baked no fewer than six carrot cakes. Six! There are a lot of talented bakers within these walls (and more of us who possibly lack the experience but make up for it in enthusiasm) so it would frankly be a crime to let these (delicious) skills go to waste.
So we’ve been having a bake-off of our own, following what we now know to be the *sniff* final series of GBBO as we know it.
In all seriousness, where our food comes from really matters to us. Many of us are vegan, vegetarian, have other dietary requirements and/or just plain enjoy knowing the provenance of our food. In our bid to keep our ‘food miles’ low, most of us prefer to make things from scratch at home, rather than buying pre-prepared, packaged food that has been transported for hundreds or sometimes thousands of miles.
So our resident bakers have been tackling custard creams to no-knead bread and everything in between! You don’t need to be a baking guru to give baking a try, and whilst she might have been a total novice one of our colleagues, Neilza was keen to give custard creams her best shot.
“Let’s start with I am not a baker. I don’t bake for fun or for consumption even though I have really bad sweet tooth! When I got biscuit week I was horrified especially because I was baking for some top notch bakers and I didn’t want to poison my colleagues or my boss…
I popped down to the local supermarket to get all my ingredients and went to work following the recipe verbatim (which was impossible because I didn’t have a whisk or a sieve) but I soldiered on.
There was flour and icing sugar everywhere but I did it and even piped in the filling…get me! I felt like a baker, it smelt good, it tasted good and I didn’t have a soggy bottom – Mary Berry would have been proud. So I’ll continue baking although you won’t catch me doing pastry, but at least I know I can do it!”
There is a baking project for every level of ability. In my case, the project was cornflake cakes so simple a child can make them.
Last week we celebrated a colleague’s birthday by holding a coffee morning to raise funds for Macmillan. I was pushed for time (as well as baking skills!) so fell back on an old favourite – the humble cornflake cake! Despite using a recipe so simple a child could follow it (which may or may not have actually been a kid’s recipe, featuring choice phrases such as ‘just accept this and let the mess happen’ *blush*) my cakes were a roaring success!
Not only that but with some minor tweaks to the recipe I was even able to make them vegan, which is always a winner around these parts!
For now back to the mission and campaigning for a green and peaceful world, and until the next season – happy baking.
Emily works in the Greenpeace supporter services team, and when not competing with her colleagues, is happy to answer your campaigning questions on email, Twitter and Facebook.
Neilza works in the Greenpeace supporter retention and development team, has discovered a new love of biscuits, and inspiring people to support Greenpeace for many more years to come.
If you’d like to give some home-baking a try for yourself – here are a few links to some great recipes to get you started:
Vegan
- https://www.vegansociety.com/resources/recipes/cakes-meringues-and-desserts
- http://www.mscupcake.co.uk/books/
- http://www.thugkitchen.com/carrot_cake – NSFW, very sweary!
Non-vegan
About Emily Reid
I'm a thirty plus wife and mother and have been an active supporter of Greenpeace for about ten years now. When I'm not 'Greenpeace-ing' I can be found lurking around the internet, playing in the woods or partaking in arts & crafts of many kinds. In late June I can usually be found on the Greenpeace field at Glastonbury - bring on the mud!