A TALENTED trio from a Sanctuary Care home in Bordon went head to head with staff from the organisation’s care homes across the country to win two prizes in the annual Christmas cake bake.

The creative ladies at Ashley House residential care home, on Forest Road, crafted an impressive gingerbread house, the base for which was a Jamaican cake.

The entry was made by the home’s administrator Karin Hoogenhout, chef manager Wendy Reid and support worker Hayley Paterson.

The house, complete with stained-glass window and glowing candle, proved to be the icing on the cake in the competition, held at Sanctuary Care’s Worcester offices last week.

It scooped the staff prize for the best-designed cake and third place in the competition overall. The win gave the home £100 to spend on Christmas treats for residents.

Ms Reid said: “It was a wonderful team effort and our residents also added some of the sweets so they thought it was very pretty.”

As part of the competition rules, entrants had to provide a sample taster cake so that the judges did not have to cut into the real thing, enabling the cake to be saved for the residents to enjoy next week.

Margaret Powell, manager at Ashley House, said: “We are so enormously proud of our talented trio – the cake is absolutely incredible and our residents are really looking forward to enjoying it on Christmas day.”