'Bake Off' contestants bring expertise to Redrow Homes developments

Award-winning housebuilder, Redrow Homes, invited the public to join them last weekend for an exclusive weekend of baking demonstrations at two of their South Wales developments with Great British Bake Off 2016 favourites, Louise Williams and Val Stones.

Louise and Val visited the showhomes at St David’s Meadow in Colwinston and The Grange in Wenvoe to whip up some beautiful bakes and pass on some of their all-important top tips.

Welsh contestant Louise impressed the judges with her flavours, but famously left Bake Off after her dream wedding gingerbread scene collapsed in the final moments of the showstopper challenge. Despite the disaster, her never-ending positivity made her popular with fans of the show.

Val Stones won the hearts of GBBO viewers with her bake-aerobics, optimistic outlook and stories about her family. Making it through to pastry week, Val got top marks from the judges for her classic bakes and came out on top in the tricky Dampfnudel technical challenge.

Louise and Val remained friends after Bake Off finished, and regularly meet to share recipes and bake together. At the Redrow events, Val gave demonstrations on how to produce some sweet and savoury items and shared a few quirky top tips, including how to tell if scones are done by listening to the sugar inside and how to utilise alternative equipment in baking (such using yoghurt pots to measure out equal sausage rolls).

Val said: “I was so pleased to be back baking with my lovely fellow Bake Off baker Louise at the Redrow Homes events, it was the perfect opportunity to let people see that baking is a pleasure and so easy to do in a modern kitchen.

“I have been baking for more than fifty years and have never lost the passion and love of baking old favourites and searching out new bakes. I hope that during the demonstrations I really shared my love and passion of baking as well as providing lots of handy tips - it really is true when you bake with love it is never a chore.”

Louise may have left Bake Off before Bread Week, but bread making is one of her specialities. At the Redrow events Louise demonstrated one of her signature bakes – focaccia – and shared her secrets for making the perfect Italian bread.

“We were delighted to be invited by Redrow Homes to take part in these fantastic events” said Louise. “Val has become a very good friend of mine and we love baking together so it was a wonderful opportunity for us to share our love of baking with the public; hopefully we inspired a few more people to try baking themselves at home.”

Kate Lacey, Area Sales Manager for Redrow Homes South Wales, said: “It was fantastic to have the opportunity to hold this kind of event at our developments and we were all thrilled with the amount of people who showed up! Both Louise and Val were incredibly warm and charismatic and it was lovely to see so many members of the public enjoying themselves.”

The Sales Offices at St David’s Meadow and The Grange are open Tuesday-Sunday 10am-5:30pm and Mondays 11am-5pm. For further information: www.redrow.co.uk