“ENOUGH is enough” I muttered! I simply could not bear the taunts any longer.

All the constant niggling jibes from my cake-addicted colleagues in the Star’s newsroom about my lack of baking skills had finally tipped me over the edge.

Drastic steps were needed... so I vowed to head back to the classroom and learn how to twirl up a floury festive feast.

Now while I can navigate my way around a stir fry, sadly the art of puff pastry is completely lost on me, so I accepted the challenge to sign on for a basic baking lesson with a Christmas theme.

Legh Vale Primary School kindly allowed me to join their reception class as they learned to bake mince pies and chocolate reindeers.

My fellow junior masterchefs pulled on their whites and we set to work, making dough from scratch, with the aid of Betty the rag doll, who simply loves to bake... apparently.

As we kneaded and rolled, conversation inevitably turned to the imminent arrival of ‘Santa Paws’ as one of my charming little helpers called him.

We didn’t get to sample the end result however, as they were placed into handmade Christmas baskets for delivery to the residents of nearby O’Connell Community Centre.

Chatting to our head Chef, Audrey, she told me that many traditional parts of Christmas had been lost in favour of convenience.

Although I don’t think Nigella has anything to worry about, I did find that baking the pies was surprisingly simple and quick to do, and as we sat listening to a CD of carol songs I came over all Christmassy.

But the proof of the pudding as they say is in the making... and I have promised to put my newly-gained mince pie baking expertise to good use by rustling up a batch over the coming weekend to satisfy any doubters who still believe the tasty looking morsels pictured on this page were really made by my ‘junior partners’.