Last week, we held our annual Queens’ staff Christmas baking competition. This year the task was to bring in eight Christmas themed, cookies/biscuits. The event was held in the Long Gallery of the President’s Lodge and was judged by President Dame Menna and her husband Mark.
18th December 2025
All staff were invited to enter and 12 entries were received in total, with a variety of recipes and designs being showcased, from gingerbread men to spiced snowflake cookies.
The warm and welcoming decorations around the President’s Lodge made the perfect setting for the bakes, with entries from a range of departments around the College. Everyone had worked hard to bring in impressive and delicious bakes, which made for a tough challenge for our judges!
Menna and Mark went around the table together, tasting each entry and scoring them on four different categories:
After some in-depth discussions, they managed to whittle down the competition to a top three. Before announcing the podium places, they gave a shoutout to Toma’s entry, which was an incredible basket filled with delicately decorated biscuits to represent a range of Christmassy items.
Coming in joint third place were Emily and Lucy. Emily’s biscuits were ‘Spiced Christmas Crinkle Cookies’ which had been shaped and decorated to look like Christmas Puddings. Lucy’s entry was white chocolate, cranberry, and orange cookies. Lucy’s cookies also received a shoutout as the best-tasting entry at the event!
Second place was awarded to Louie. His entry was a festively decorated chocolate cookie, which had been decorated to look like Christmas puddings. They were presented in a Christmas box and tasted delicious!
Taking the top spot was Donna. She had created a beautiful biscuit wreath with delicately decorated spiced ginger and cinnamon cookies. A well-deserved winner who managed to score highly in all four judging categories.
Well done, Donna!
We want to thank all who participated and came along to celebrate their peers and to Menna and Mark for judging everyone’s efforts.
You can see pictures of everyone’s bakes in the gallery below.
Queens’ College has achieved an outstanding double milestone in institutional health and safety by securing two major honours at the 2026 RoSPA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents) Health and Safety Awards.
6th July 2026
In March, Queens’ President Dame Menna Rawlings hosted her first Queens’ Conversations event in celebration of International Women’s Day, exploring the theme of Impactful Women.
1st May 2026
Queens’ College is delighted to hear of the announcement that the University of Cambridge has received a commitment of £190 million to establish the Rokos School of Government.
2nd April 2026
You are invited to join us for the launch of our latest Old Library exhibition: Sultans, Syntax & Scripture: Encountering the Islamic World at Queens’ (1550-1700).
4th March 2026
Site Search