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Regular news and insight from our many poets, writers, educators and facilitators

25 March 2023

Posted by Holly Spillar

Bake Off!

This week I ran all three writers' sessions and decided to make the theme ‘Bake Off’ loosely based on a successful workshop by Tabby Hayward that some of the older writer’s still talk about. 


Junior Writer’s : 


For the juniors we started off with a Mad Lib to create a nonsense story about a family baking tradition. 

Without any context the writers had to make a list of a : 

noun, adjective, family member ,verb (action word), ingredient, noun, number, adjective and noun and when the story was revealed they had to fill in the blanks with these random words to create a silly story.


Here was the madlib story: 

Every year on my birthday we make ____ it has been a tradition since I was a _____ kid. _____ used to make most of the recipe but now I'm older I help ____ the ____. Bake them on a ____ at ___ degrees. You will have the perfect____ ____!

Here is one of the juniors stories: 

Every year on my birthday we make New York it has been a tradition since I was a little kid. Lucy used to make most of the recipe but now I'm older I help run the sausage. Bake them on a Island at 8 degrees. You will have the perfect Silly Freya! 

After we’d had a giggle at some of the mad libs it was time to GET BAKING! Each writer had to choose an empty baking case with a prompt on the bottom and working together or alone create a piece of writing that fit that prompt. I’d originally had other baking tasks planned for after this section of the workshop but the writers got so into their prompts that it took up the rest of the session. 

Here are some of their prompts and what they came up with.


Write a day in the life of a cake:


Write a baking nightmare:



Make up a new recipe:



Write a poem in the shape of a cake: 





Write about a robot baker:




YOUNG WRITERS:


For the young writers we started off with the cupcake case prompts as a starter activity and then moved into a more detailed writing project based on short, silents videos of a Baker. I wanted broke the session into shorter tasks (relating to the baker and different videos) that would result in a full story from each writer: 


Here are some of the cupcake case prompts: 




After the prompts were completed the writers were set 3 tasks basked around this baker 


  1. Go into detail about this character, give him a back story

  2. In pairs take turns to interview each baker. Write down your findings.

  3. In 10 minutes write the most emotional story you can about your baker.

  4. Either continue your story or re-write it as stand up or a recipe/different form of writing

Here are some of the writers Baker stories: 


 Safir's Story:

  1. Detail 


 This man is the best milk man ever. He pours the silky milk into the spacious transparent bowl, graciously staring at it. The scent of glorious milk is scattered everywhere he goes. His entire life, he had loved milk. Once he had gone to a farm with his school and touched a cow, instantly falling in love with the milky world. His trademark clothes are the styling white chef’s shirt and the abstract and extravagant chef’s hat. He works in his secret basement where he executes his wild experiments in which milk may rule the world. His lab consists of milk life and an entire ecosystem of milk. You can see all the pipes and tubes, pumping out all the toxic milk. Now he was going to take over the world with his milk army.


2. - interview 

Hello sir and welcome to our interview. Our first question is where did you get the inspiration to bake? “Well ever since I touched a cow at the farm, I instantly fell in love with anything to do with milk. The cakes I make are all overloaded with milk, being my most important ingredient!” How did you find out about your secret formulas? “Well I Don’t know if I should say this but ummm, I kind of intoxicate milk in my basement. I know its not the most hygienic place too but it does the job. I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that… Now, are you planning to do collaborations or promotions of any kind in the future? “Now that you’ve told me about it, I could do with resizing my basement a bit, maybe more room for the specimens. Oh, and yes, there’s a dog food company that sponsored me. Also I might add more stora-” And we're done. TIM, STOP THE INTERVIEW, PSST TIM! Well that wasn’t what I had in mind.

3.-emotional story

One day In the milk man’s youth, something had happened which changed his life. The milk boy Loved making his own cakes. Everyday, he would pour bottles of milk in each of them as his secret ingredient. One day, he opened the fridge, and to his horror, no milk was in sight. He screamed and shrieked. He ran outside and screamed SOS, but nobody heard him. He even went to the nearest telephone booth because there weren’t phones back then and called the police, later finding out they weren’t going to help. That was it. That moment of life inspired him to make his own supply, a supply that would never end. He making his device in his bedroom, rapidly expanding it into his basement. Behold, The cow farm! He had bought a family of cows and attached them all to a mechanism. Tubes transported milk to his cup. It was a start to take over the world and show them the importance of milk!

3- finishing it off

I am the Milk Man, the greatest of them all. I intent to bring order to the world with milk. I shall take revenge on the people who have tormented me, telling me I had a sort of an addiction. No, they will receive what they asked for. I shall flood cities with intoxicated milk. My inventions and lab investigations are still undergoing testing. Soon I shall have my own milk army, weapons and powers unlike any human. I shall be addressed as lord MILK MAN by all beings and there will be no such thing as needing to pay for milk. Cows will be the supreme leader of all countries. jOIn Me oR DiEeeeeeeeEEEeee!!!






Izzy’s Paul Hollywood Muffin Story:









Isla’s Story:




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