Official Scone Judge - yes that's a thing!

Photo: Keiron Tovell

Last Sunday, Wroxham Barns held its annual Scone Competition in association with Norfolk Food & Drink. This year was its tenth anniversary and I was asked to be part of the  VIP judging panel again. 

​Last year was my first time and I had so much fun that I didn’t hesitate to say yes. I recruited my fellow Swallowtail WI committee and some members of the Clandestine Cake Club to join me on the panel.

Judging a baking competition is serious business and fortunately the first time I was involved there was an official WI judge who gave me some top tips on what to look for. I was happy to impart these to the other judges this time around. We were looking for good colour, a nice rise, a light texture and of course the scones had to taste delicious. The scones got marks out of ten for appearance, taste and texture.
 
There were six categories: Cheese, Plain, Fruit, Freestyle, Children’s and Signature. I was judging the Freestyle round again because it was such an unusual category, you never know what you’ll get. It proved to be the most popular category this year with the most entries - I lost count of how many scones I tried but there was at least twenty! A little overwhelming to sit down to but I proved my WI credentials and tasted them all.
 
The trick was to only take very small pieces of each scone and I alternated between sweet and savoury to keep my taste buds fresh. This year Mediterranean flavours were really popular, lots of sun dried tomatoes and olives as well as two entries with Norfolk saffron.  There was also some fun sweet flavours including s’mores, gingerbread and Nutella.
 
It was very close between first and second, just a couple of points between them. First prize went to a sun dried tomato, chorizo and feta scone and second was cheese, apple and onion. Both were delicious and I would be very happy to be served them at any afternoon tea I attend.  ​

Photo: Keiron Tovell