HMG staff swap paint aprons for baking aprons in Caketober bake off

On Friday, October 16, nine bakers from HMG Paints put their skills to the test and baked their best cakes for Caketober, an event in aid of Forever Manchester.

The bakers created a wide range of cakes from carrot cakes to experimental molecular banana syrup cakes and managed to raise £200 to go towards funding and supporting of community groups and projects across Manchester. Forever Manchester is a charity that funds and supports thousands of community projects across Greater Manchester. Through generous contributions from individuals and businesses, Forever Manchester strengthens communities and enriches local life by inspiring local people to do extraordinary things together.

John Falder, Managing Director, said: "At HMG we strive to support local communities as much as we can, so Forever Manchester fits in well with our ethos as a company, and we were very keen to get involved with Caketober”.

The cakes were judged by John Falder, Managing Director, Danny Cleary, Sales Director, and John Atkinson, Electrician and cake enthusiast. With strict criteria for the judging including taste, texture and appearance, the judges were more than happy to check and double check each cake, channelling their inner Mary Berry, to crown a winner.

The joint winners of Caketober were Tony Burke, who made a forest fruits cake, and Sybille Votteler, with a traditional German black forest gateau. Coming a close third was Paddy Dyson, with a Toblerone cheesecake scoring the highest points for taste. Although, controversy ensued when Darren James, who created an HMG Paint tin shaped carrot cake, didn’t make the top 3.

"Caketober was a fantastic way to have fun, while also being a unique way to raise money for a great cause”, said John "Two Slices” Atkinson.

There will be more Caketober events throughout October held by various companies, so follow @Caketober and @4EVERManchester for more information.