Food food food food food

Argh. Today is not a good day.

I have had the munchies soooo badly today and ate my morning snack and most of my lunch by 10:30 and was still hungry. And then I had a piece of cake which seems to have done the trick. Argh. Why does my mind and body DO that? A bowl of porridge is ample for breakfast, but on the dot of 3 hours later, my tummy starts rumbling. A snack and a litre of water usually keeps me going til 12. But not today.

In the office, our department is trying to raise 20,012 before 2012 for Cancer Research. I have done a few bake sales so far this year to raise money, but now they're upping the ante. The gauntlet has been thrown.

The challenge is to bake something that scores highly on taste and appearance - to be scored by people buying some of your wares. Today's offering was a colleague who baked a dark chocolate cake with a white chocolate and sour cream icing. I had a small slice. It was lovely - not perfect, the cake was slightly dry itself, but the icing was divine. It lacked decoration, so there is definitely scope for improvement.

So, me being competitive me, and baking being my THING - the one thing I can do well... I have to come up with something. My repertoire is usually well received, but always looks, well, boring, to be honest. There's only so much you can do with brownies and millionaire's shortbread and cookies.

I'm tempted to come up with something new, but it can't be too zany as these guys are a bit scared of anything out of the ordinary - so it has to tempt, to sell, and therefore to get the scores in.

It can be sweet or savoury, but sweet is my forte. I've done stuff in the past that didn't go so well (my dense chocolate cake was deemed too rich, cupcakes with blue frosting didn't appeal, cookies are, well, cookies).

Suggestions welcomed - although it can't be anything that needs to be kept cool or served warm - we're limited here in the office.

In other news, I ended up working late and not getting to the gym, so it's a necessity for tonight, and possibly tomorrow night as well. I am falling behind on my running challenge.