Harlequins take their eye off the ball and get baking

With their recent Aviva Premiership rugby semi-final behind them, players from Harlequins rugby club decided to turn their attention to some really serious business and got stuck into cake baking.

Quins players Mark Lambert, Joe Marler, Olly Kohn, Will Skinner, Matt Hooper, Rob Buchanan and Nick Evans competed against each other in a special baking contest to raise money for Sport Relief and professional players charity the RPA Benevolent Fund.

The challenge was to bake the best Elizabeth Sponge cake and decorate and sell 1,000 cup cakes in order to make as much money for the charities as possible.

The Quins did their baking at the Sainsbury’s Food Centre in central London, where their efforts were judged by Sainsbury’s Judith Batchelar and Eric Lanlard, who created the Elizabeth Sponge, with Will Skinner emerging as the winner.

Quins players are no strangers to the subtle craft of cake creation. “We have a forwards baking club at Harlequins,” revealed Mark Lambert.