So, we’ve had the first elimination round of the @stylistcakeoff here at the Stylist office and it certainly caused quite a stir. 

There was many a discussion over what actually constituted a biscuit and a lot of disappointed faces when the judgement came in- apparently a cake is not a biscuit. Who knew? 

It was a panicky day in the office on Monday, as everyone tried to work out what the other was going to bake, when they were going to get the ingredients and at what time in the morning they would still be perfecting said bake. We even nearly had a sneaky sabotage from one staff member to the other…

Our biscuits were judged by Lily Vanilli, the cake connoisseur who has created bespoke bakes for Elton John, Sadie Frost and Alexander McQueen, with comments ranging from “a really beautiful taste” to “there was not much to say about these ones”. 

We weren’t short of creativity, though, with biscuit types ranging from hundreds-of-thousands covered bat biscuits through to passionfruit and white chocolate ‘melting moments’. 

With editorial assistant, Katie O’Malley, away sunning herself in Bali, it was down to her cover, Bethan Andrews, to try and maintain the second place she won with the Madeira cake. Sadly for Katie and much to the amusement of the editorial team, she sent her packing in the first round with an attempt at a Ferrero Rocher Bourbon that merely resembled a slightly stale sponge-cake. 

However, the pièce de résistance of the day - and ultimate winner - was deputy production editor Amy Adams who stunned Lily and the team with her delicious crunchy buckwheat ginger biscuits with a dark chocolate drizzle. 

So, feeling that competitive spirit getting stronger? Then here’s your second challenge: quick breads. So, that’s not bread that takes you hours of slaving over a hot stove. It’s bread with no proving necessary, just an hour and a half to make your bake. There’s plenty of creativity to be had with this one as your bake could range from chocolate loaves to mango prosciutto stuffed bread.

You know the score now. Time to get those oven gloves out! 

Remember to keep posting your weekly bakes to the Stylist Cake Off Instagram account tagging @stylistcakeoff and using the hashtag #stylistcakeoff.