Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Union Jack bunting lined the walls of the Bahrain Rugby Football Club’s sports hall while a brass band played classic British anthems and punters scoffed Cornish Pasties by the (baker’s) dozen as the popular expat venue hosted a Great British Weekend.
As part of the 200th anniversary celebrations of Bahrain-UK relations, a number of stalls selling British products and displays celebrating the partnership were set up while numerous competitions with prize giveaways were held throughout the day.
British Ambassador to Bahrain Simon Martin was also in attendance alongside his wife, Sophie.
The main event of the day was the Great British Bake-Off, with a GulfWeekly prized plaque up for grabs. The contest was based on the format of the hugely-popular TV show and pitted 11 chefs against each other to create the best lemon drizzle cake.
Four judges, including yours truly, had the absolute pleasure of having a slice of all 11 and each one was spectacular in its own way. Judging each one on appearance, topping flavour, moistness, texture and ‘lemonness’, it was one of the most difficult tasks of my GulfWeekly career.
The best compliment I can give is that even after gobbling down a steak and onion pie minutes earlier and my stomach crying out for mercy, not once did I think: “Well…that’s one slice of lemon drizzle cake too many!”
After adding up our scores, the deserved, and unanimous, winner was Sue Gayle, who wowed us not only with her light, yet zingy taste but her smooth icing and candied lemon peel topping too.
She said: “I’m so shocked! I was talked into doing this by my son, Sam, as I’m not really much of a baker. However, I’ve made it for him before and he caught wind of it happening and said: ‘Mum, you have to enter this!’
“It was a last minute thing. I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I literally made it this morning with no practice. I was really nervous!”
Sue’s secret was to add ground almonds into the sponge mix, alongside the candied peel which came from boiling lemon rind for twenty minutes and then boiling it with sugar until it dries out.
She took home a night’s stay-for-two at the Sofitel Bahrain Zallaq Thalassa Sea & Spa plus a meal-for-two at the seafood market. In addition, she won a juice maker appliance from British brand Swan’s distributors Enerserv’s consumer products division.
Elsewhere, prizes were dished out for best hat and best UK-themed couple, which surprisingly went to the only two women in the room who had got the message and adorned their heads with enough flags to make Queen Elizabeth II blush.
Also in the hall was a fierce darts competition, with some outfits almost as flashy as the arrows which zipped through the air as they slammed into cork.
More good-natured was the cricket match being played on the field outside and the young ones got a chance to indulge in the spirit of competition too, with a ‘name the teddy bear’ competition and a ‘guess the number of sweets in the jar’ task, alongside classic games like Bat the Rat (without actual rats) and Coconut Shy (without actual coconuts).
As day turned to night, popular band The Tax Dodgers performed a medley of covers and classics as many chose to dance the night away and screech the ears off a parrot in an attempt to sing along.
A fun event indeed, and a celebration that proves that us Brits are just a little bit barmy … and we love it!
