Two years ago, students first came back to learn in the building after COVID-19, and a casual conversation about cooking between two teachers and their students sparked an idea. Since then, English teachers Ms. Crandall and Mr. Maynard compete in an intense annual competition known as the Great English Bake Off. 

     The rules of the event are simple. There are three rounds of competition: cookies, pies, and breads, all of which cannot contain nuts due to allergy concerns. In each round, both teachers make baked goods and give them to their students, making sure the students don’t know who made which item. Then, the students act as judges and score the pastries on presentation, taste, texture, and the desire for more. At the end of the year, the loser of the competition must make a trophy for the victor. 

     In the first year, Mr. Maynard took home the title of Baking Champion and Ms. Crandall fashioned him his deserved prize. The Golden Spatula is a regular old spatula spray painted gold, but it is the source of much drama.

     While Mr. Maynard won the first year, Ms. Crandall was last year’s champion. Unfortunately, Mr. Maynard didn’t abide by the rules. “He was supposed to make me a trophy, per our rules, but he did not, so I took the spatula back and called it my trophy,” Crandall explained. 

     This year the results are not so simple, however, as one of the rounds was a fluke. Ms. Crandall took the cookie round and Mr. Maynard won the pie round. Then something unexpected happened in the bread round. Mr. Maynard got sick. This meant that he could not participate in the bread round and instead used a premade loaf of seed bread from the local Harris Teeter. Expectedly, Ms. Crandall’s “Everything” seasoned bread beat out the store-bought bread. Ms. Crandall admitted, “It wasn’t a true win because it wasn’t against his bread, so we may have a fourth and final round this year to really solidify who is the 2022-2023 year Bake Off winner.” 

     When asked for comment, Mr Maynard said, “Losing bites, but I savor the competition.”