I am a really big fan of Great British Bake off and watch every episode when it’s on. I really love the baking challenges that the participants partake in and secretly always wanted to be able to do something like that.
My wish was granted and I was recently invited to Estimation Nation Baking Challenge with Smart Energy GB at the Open Kitchen in Hoxton.
So what are Smart meters, I can hear that question being asked.Smart meters are new generation gas and electricity meters that are replacing the old generation meters. They send automatic readings to your energy supplier and you can also monitor how much energy your gadgets is using with the help of the smart meters. Smart meters mean that there is no estimated bill, you get an exact reading of your energy usage and you can also budget your usage as it shows when, where and how much energy you are using from day to day on a portable hand held device.
The advantages of the smart meters are that you no longer have to have a meter reading done, you are able to know exactly how much your bill is on a daily basis.The meters also work with prepayment plans and the smart meter will show you how much credit you have left and when you need to top up.
Smart meters are being rolled out in England, Wales and Scotland and by 2020 everyone will have an option to choose to change to this system if they wish. It will not cost anything to you to make the change as your energy provider will provide and fit a smart meter and issue a handheld device as part of your energy plan.
Now that I have told you all about the smart meters I am going to explain what our estimation nation baking challenge was all about. We were set up in pairs and had to bake two recipes, before we could do that we were fitted with Gopro cameras to film the whole baking challenge. It was really hard to keep them on our heads while baking and they did not look very flattering.
The first technical challenge was to make Raspberry cupcakes and the second was to make Cheesy herby savoury scones., You may think that this was an easy challenge but wait for it there was a major twist exactly like Bake off style!!!
We were given the ingredients and a recipe card, but the card had all the quantity measurements, the baking temperature and baking times missing. Our task was to estimate all the ingredients and baking times and we were not given any measuring or weighing tools.
Sarah my partner and I have both baked before so we had a vague idea of quantities.We worked really well together as a team right from the guesstimation of the ingredients to the mixing, baking and finally the styling and presentation. We were extremely pleased with our finished creations, not only did they turn out well, they tasted great too.
The bakes were judged by Ian Cummings who was a runner up of the Great British Bake off last year. The evening ended with some hot canapes and prize givings.
There were prizes for the best bake and the worst, needless to say we won neither. Being competitive I was pretty confident that we did well, I am sure I would not have wanted to win the worst bake prize !!!!It was a fun and exciting participating in the Estimation Nation baking challenge.
I was invited by Smart Energy GB to participate in this challenge. All views and opinions are of my own personal experience. The two group photos and the bottom photo was used with permission from O’connor Photography.
You can watch everyone in action in this video that was shot on the day:
Oh, what a fab day out. I have a GoPro – maybe I should put it on my head one day while I'm cooking 🙂
It was really hard to cook with it balancing on the head, mine kept falling ofF!!!
That's quite a challenge, looks like you did a great job! Not sure about the worst bakes prize, not very kind of the organisers to actually think of such a title, whoever deserved it.
Well the people who won it did have uncooked cakes!!! so they really deserved it!! lol
My opinion is: first, this is a wonderful feast, it may not be a loser, here on the Olympic principle, we must act. Secondly it is a great way to get new friendships, and thirdly it is very fun! Such events should be more!
It was indeed a fun event .
Those cakes and scones look amazing, looks like you had a fun and informative evening – glad you didn't come last;-)
Yes I am glad I would have hated to come last.
This looks like such a fun day, your bakes look really good – especially the cakes! xo
This looks like you had fun! Did you get to keep the GoPro?
Unfortunately no although it would have been great if we had been able to keep them.
That seems lot of fun.. wish I could participate in such events too.
That sounds like such a fun challenge, I love the addition of the GoPro!
I am glad we did not win the worst bake prize !!!
WOW! That looks like a great fun event and a very clever way of promoting the smart meters. GG
Sounds fun! The cakes look yummy!! 🙂
It looks like such a fun day! Baking with GoPro cameras must have been a laugh!
The Smart meters sound like a great idea!! Looks like you had loads of fun at the baking challenge and you did so well. The bakes look fab! I would just break under the pressure haha 😀
The snart meters sound really useful
You might not have won, but your bakes looked amazing. How cool to be invited to such a fun event and not waste your ingredients!
This looks so much fun! Yummy too! I've heard great things about The smart meters too
Looks like you had loads of fun and those cakes look lovely!
Wow this looked like a brilliant event to attend, I could dive right into a plate of those cakes right now!
Awesome!! What a great experience. The raspberry cupcakes looks AMAZinG!
I love the sound of the smart meters, I really need one!! I bet I could cut my energy bills right down 🙂
Looks like you had fun.
I think I could have managed the cupcakes, the cheese scones however, I think mine would have been more like rock cakes! 😀 Sounds like a great day out, and I love the sound of the meters! 🙂
That sounds like so much fun although I think I would have kept gioggling with the camera on my head x
That sound like a lot of fun and I can imagine quite a challenge. Well done. xx
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This looks like such a fun event. Not sure how it fits with smart meters but we love ours anyway
Karia I think the point they were making is that when things are estimated , there is more room for error as in estimated bills, similarly if you estimate your ingredients and baking times you could get errors too,