Fruit Scone of the year Finals.

Fruit Scone Of The Year Final

Once again I have been in search of a thing of the year with this years thing being the fruit scone. I have sampled over 40 fruit scones from tea rooms and cafes that I have visited on my bike in order to find the best ones. Normally the top 8 make it through to finals day and I go and collect the finalists on a series of bike rides the week before. Sadly this year the weather has been so bad that it hasn't been possible to do this. The best I could manage was to collect 5 of the best in my car on Friday plus one more on Saturdays finals day ride.

The day started with a reasonable turn out of seven guest judges who would be coming on a short bike ride to the Orangery Tea Room before returning to Crusader Towers for the scone off. We were very lucky to have occasional cyclist Gwyn in our midst as she is a self proclaimed fruit scone expert so would be able to offer an extra dimension to the judging. 

Guest judges ready for pre scone off warm up ride

The ride itself proved uneventful, except for a few flooded roads to cope with.

One of several flooded roads on the route

So we were able to collect our final scone while I gave the judges their final briefing and we enjoyed some excellent cake at the Orangery tea room.

Judging panel having pre final briefing over tea and cake

With ride complete and scones safely in the bag it was back to the tasting room at Crusader Towers for the action to begin.

Despite being two scones down from the eight qualifiers there was still a quality field so we could expect some high calibre scone action. After consulting the thing off rule book a slightly different approach was required with two scones getting a bye in the first round. These were The Earsham Hall and Aldis Farm Shop Cafe ones as they were the highest ranking scones from the qualify.

Scones warming up before the action got underway

The draw for the first round was made and Old Hall Farm would be at home against the Orangery scone.

The draw for the first round being made

The scones were divided up and it was clear that the Orangery scone had a tension issue and crumbled badly when cut but it was still a tight battle. On first taste it looked like an easy win for the Orangery but the old Hall farm scone had a very pleasant aftertaste and came through in the end winning 4 votes to 3.

Voting taking place for a losing scone

The second match saw the Pennoyer centre play The Angel cake cafe. Self proclaimed fruit scone expert Gwyn gave some interesting insite saying one of the scones was a bit too floury for her and she was proved right as the less floury Pennoyer centre just held on to win 4 votes to 3.

Self proclaimed fruit scone expert Gwyn (Top right) gave a number of fascinating scone insights during the event.

At this point we lost Big George from the judging panel as he had to collect a new rabbit to start to be bonded with his existing one. You may remember a previous post 'Rabbit News' where Big George explained all about rabbit bonding which you can relive it here.

We now entered the semi final stage with our two seeded teams entering the draw. Incidentally for fruit scone off fact fans then a choice of butter or a vegetable based spread was provided for judges to put on their scone, but no jam!

First Earsham Hall played Old Hall Farm who couldn't come from behind twice and was soundly beaten 5-1.

First semi final line up

The other semi final was close but again the seeded team came through 4-2 with Aldis Farm Shop Cafe slightly sweeter scone winning out.

It was now time for the final but Mrs Crusader was in a sulk as she had voted for the losing scone in every round so refused to take any further part as apparently it was a waste of time.

With the tension mounting the two finalist were divide up and tasting got underway. 

The finalists divide up ready for the last tasting of the day

It was soon clear that there would be a winner as the Aldis Farm Shop Cafe scone won comfortably by 4 votes to 1 to be crowned Fruit Scone of The Year. I look forward to breaking the news to them.

It had been a great scone off although maybe it had been a mistake to have a big slice of cake at the Orangery first as most of the judges felt they didn't want to have another fruit scone in the foreseeable feature.

Fortunately they won't have to as next year the thing of the year will be heading in a new direction as I will going in search of Egg on Toast of the Year. The rules are currently being decided on so watch this space.