This is a text-only version of an article first published on Tuesday, 18 November 2014. Information shown on this page may no longer be current.
HOW far would you go to rustle up the perfect pork pie for The Great British Bake Off judge Mary Berry? Volunteer caterers from Shippon in South Oxfordshire were faced with that very dilemma when they were tasked with coming up with a posh picnic for the main speakers at the Grand Day Out.
Caroline Parkin worked hard to come up with a suitable pork pie, using a recipe for a version of the classic British snack using Cumberland sausages and shortcrust pastry. Her husband, Neil, then delivered the first attempts to Daphne Tonks, who was in charge of planning the picnic.
Daphne, a churchwarden at St Mary Magdalene, Shippon, says: "We were asked to make picnic lunches for 20 speakers.
We have done catering for diocesan events before but we knew we were going to have to raise the game for Mary Berry and certainly not risk the pies having soggy bottoms. "We decided the first pies were a little too spicy.
Caroline's husband Neil kept bringing them down to us and it was third time lucky on getting our approval.
We then thought we'd try and put the letters GDO on them but our daughter said it looked as though we couldn't spell God. "We've decided on the final pies and left Caroline with the task of ensuring the batch she cooked for the day were top notch.
There were three different variations with Neil running down with them.
She is just hoping that when she makes them for the weekend they will be alright," added Daphne, who loves cooking and has been providing lunches for a village community club for 13 years. Caroline and Daphne also worked together on sandwich fillings including stilton with pear and radicchio and pastrami and cream cheese.
Busy Daphne planned to drop the posh picnics off at Christ Church before dashing back to Shippon to prepare for a big wedding at the church.