I received a certificate today thanking us for the money raised for Red  Nose Day and that reminded me we did something funny for money!

Knox Bake Off came alive when staff and pupils joined together to raise money for Red Nose Day. Pupils had to find a member of staff who was willing to participate and staff also found themselves looking for S1 – S3 pupils prepared to take the challenge. The search started and before we knew it we had 20 eager teams. Staff had to make a signature dish and on the day, the pair made the technical challenge. Wonderful cakes, gateaux, biscuits, scones and cheesecake arrived on the morning from extremely nervous staff. The staff  were asking questions, trying to find out what the technical challenge was going to be stress levels were very high with anticipation. When we started at 4.00pm the atmosphere was electric and it built up and up as the time went on.

The challenge was set, bags of measured ingredients were soon being grabbed, some people having a problem knowing what the ingredients were, where to use them, following a recipe too was hilarious to watch . The noise and excitement in the kitchens soon attracted other staff to visit and enjoy the moment. Our judges Craig Hunter from “The Avenue” and Martin Kelly from “Mal Maison” were fascinated watching how people interpreted the recipe and tried to carry out tasks.

The moment came for judging with very neat, well presented cakes to the other extreme of- - - -- - well shall we say they tried, participated and had a hilarious time trying to meet the challenge. However, we know looks can be deceptive! We expected the soggy bottoms on the pastry but not one, what we had instead was SALTY BOTTOMS. A few of the teams had put in a full tub of salt instead of the pinch that was required. They were very quickly eliminated by the judges. It then became very difficult to whittle it down to winners, we had various categories but the overall winners were Mr Woolley & Lucy Anderson.

All the bakeries were sold the next day and the buzz of the fun continued for days. By the response we have had we will have to do this again. A date for the calendar I think.

K Hossack