If you are new around here you might not know that I go to a group once a week with the Stroke Association and have done since around September/October time. I absolutely love it and May is Stroke Awareness Month. The Stroke Association are doing lots of activities that raise awareness of Stroke and what the charity do to try to conquer stroke. This week my local group ran 'The Stroke Association Great Scunny Bake Off'. For those who don't know Scunny is short for Scunthorpe, the place I go to my group - the most glamourous town in the UK (not!) haha!
I decided to enter the baking competition a couple of weeks ago, but completely forgot about it and last week began to panic because I had no idea what to bake. It was judged on taste, appearance, quality of bake, and there were extra points if you used a Stroke Association theme. I decided to go for a lovely chocolate sponge, covered in chocolate buttercream and Maltesers, with the May twitter hashtag - #MakeMayPurple - piped on the top and lots of yellow hundreds and thousands! Delicious!
Now, the competition was on Tuesday, and because I was working and couldn't get the time off, I asked my Mum if she'd drop it in. Mum wrote my name on the back of the card and stuck it underneath the cake - it was judged blind so they had no idea who's cake was who's.
Well, I only went and won it! AHHHH! I was really not expecting it, neither was my Mum and when they announced I won she had to go and collect my award (YES - I got an actual trophy!) and speak to the Mayor of North Lincolnshire. She came home very embarrassed that she'd gone out without make up, and was wearing her scruffy coat. Anyway, the Mayor said he would like to meet me in person, so he came to the Art Group I go to weekly on Friday and gave me my award in person. I'll be honest, I didn't even know my area had a mayor, but he was very lovely anyway! Everyone has said that my mum did a very good job with her speech - so well done Mum! You didn't embarrass yourself!
I'm so glad I entered now. Winning was such a shock and completely unexpected especially when I saw pictures of the other cakes - I was up against so many people that had so much more baking experience than I have, I just can't believe I won. I keep saying ''I just can't believe it! I just can't believe I won''.
Aside from the fact that this post is based around ticking something off my list, I would like to say that if you see something happening around you for Stroke Awareness month, do your bit to help. The Stroke Association do such incredible work to help ordinary people like me, and to help conquer Stroke!
See you on Tuesday!
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