School caterers, Educaterers, are serving up some bakery classics to pupils this week, as the nation celebrates National Baking Week! (14th – 20th October) Britain’s fascination with baked trea...
School caterers, Educaterers, are serving up some bakery classics to pupils this week, as the nation celebrates National Baking Week! (14th – 20th October)
Britain’s fascination with baked treats grows year on year, with the number of people trying their hand at baking at home increasing during the pandemic.
Primary school pupils at some of the 200 plus schools and colleges that receive Educaterers meals have already been treated to homemade ginger cookies and mini ring donuts since the start of this year’s Baking Week on Wednesday (14th).
Two other favourites – chocolate cracknell and ‘up beet’ chocolate cake – are coming up on the Educaterers school menu on Monday and Tuesday (19th and 20th) before the end of Baking Week, alongside healthy fruit and yoghurts.
Huge interest was shown in Educaterers’ bakery recipes by people baking at home during lockdown, when a selection of school lunch recipes was shared on social media by Warwickshire County Council.
Far and away the most popular recipe was that for ‘legendary’ school lunch treat, chocolate cracknell, with the recipe post reaching over 54,000 people via Warwickshire County Council’s Facebook page after being viewed thousands of times and shared by hundreds.
Other popular shared Educaterers bakery recipes included those for ‘up beet’ chocolate muffins, rainbow cupcakes and sausage rolls ‘with a twist’.
Over the summer, Educaterers Development Manager, Philippa Dadswell, was challenged by Heritage & Culture Warwickshire to have a go at recreating one of a selection of interesting heritage bakery recipes from the county’s archives.
Philippa successfully made almond cheesecakes using an 18th Century recipe found in the records of the Wise family, who owned Warwick Priory.
It’s no surprise that the school caterers have such talent in their teams, as last year they launched a Culinary Skills training programme to develop the skills of new and existing employees.
Educaterers employees have been able to take part in training sessions on artisan bread baking, creative cakes, cookie dough and traybakes, and perfect pastry.
The bakery skills of Educaterers employees have not gone unnoticed, with some winning national awards for their talents.
Three Educaterers employees wowed judges and won a series of awards, including gold and ‘best in class’, at a national catering event last year.
Julie Murray, Jenny Babbington and Zoe Naylor were all prize-winners at the LACA (Lead Association for Catering in Education) national awards, where their sweet creations were judged against Craft Guild of Chefs standards in a ‘bake off’ style competition for school caterers called ‘Finishing Touches’.
Assistant Development Manager, Julie, won gold and ‘best in class’ in the ‘Decorated Celebration Cake’ category for her colourful tiered cake celebrating the first anniversary of Educaterers becoming a traded company. It was the first time that Julie had entered the competition.
Operations Supervisor, Jenny, impressed the judges and won bronze in the ‘Tray Bake’ class, where entries had to be creative, innovative and suitable as a snack or dessert for pupils.
And Catering Assistant, Zoe, won in three categories: silver in the ‘Decorated Celebration Cake’ class, silver in the ‘Cakes for a Special Diet’ class, for which she created a cake suitable for children with a gluten intolerance, and bronze in the ‘Decorated Novelty Cake’ class for a Wallace and Gromit themed cake.
Terry Tredget, Director of Educaterers said: “We are so proud of our talented employees. They are our greatest asset and we hope pupils, parents, head teachers and governors are equally impressed by their achievements.”
Educaterers serve up over 120,000 nutritious tasty meals a week in over 200 schools and colleges in Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Birmingham and Oxfordshire.
For more information on Educaterers, visit www.educaterers.co.uk