Burly players from Bath Rugby have swapped their shirts for aprons to make dainty cupcakes for charity at the City of Bath College.
The players took over the kitchen at the College and helped to whip up nearly 1,000 cupcakes.
They proved their competitive streak is just as strong off the pitch as they battled it out in the cupcake bake-off to raise money for two charities.
From mixing the ingredients to icing and decorating, players Stuart Hooper, Lee Mears, Dave Attwood and Jack Cuthbert proved they could do it all.
They then walked around Bath city centre and visited several businesses to sell their cakes, with proceeds being split between Comic Relief and Restart, which helps seriously injured rugby players.
The players even surprised themselves with their talents, saying their only previous experience of baking was “eating too many cakes”.
They formed somewhat of a production line as one batch of cakes after another was cooked in the three-hour challenge.
But not all the ingredients went into the oven, as the players couldn’t resist helping themselves to some of the cake mix.
While licking a spatula, Dave said: “For every five batches I’ve made, I’ve only put about three of them in the oven. You have to taste the mix, right? It’s tastier than I thought.”
There was a lot of banter between the players with Dave trying to persuade everyone he was “the expert” while Lee admitted to being a self-confessed “cake monster” adding that he “definitely had the body for cakes.”
Dave said: “My secret is not to follow the recipe, I am making it up as I go along, it’s freestyle baking.
“I like the way the College students have been helping us. Their main job is to stop me setting the kitchen on fire!”
Lee said: “It’s been good fun. I do like cooking, I whipped up a little Beef Wellington for friends last night but baking isn’t really me.
“I do have a sweet tooth though, but I eat cakes, I don’t bake them.”
Players were also given a quick decoration lesson and getting the icing all over their hands and up their arms, they admitted it was messy work.
They enjoyed releasing their artistic talents to personally design cupcakes complete with a variety of toppings. This included Dave giving one of his cupcakes a moustache and beard and naming it ‘Angus,’ and Jack going for a more abstract “this is really difficult” style of decoration.
Each player also received a certificate from City of Bath College. Jack was awarded worst decorated cupcake, while Dave got best decorated cupcake. Lee was given most competitive cupcake maker, while Stuart got a certificate for just turning up.
Alex Savery, 17, of Newbridge, Bath, a Catering and Hospitality NVQ2 student, said the fundraiser had gone “really well” describing the rugby players as “professionals in the making.”
He said: “The players have all known what to do, or at least looked like they were in the know. It’s great to be able to have fun in the kitchen and raise money for charity at the same time.”
Liz Beatty, head of fundraising at Restart, said the event had been all about raising money.
She said: “It’s great to see the players supporting charities and it’s great for them to learn new skills at the same time.”
Red Nose Day is on Friday March 15 and you can get your own bake-off kit from www.rednoseday.com
