Friday 22 March 2013

Clandestine Cake Club Bedford - Easter Theme Meet

Clandestine Cake Club - Bedford

Last night was the first meeting of the new Bedford 'Clandestine Cake Club' - read my blog post here all about the CCC or go to their website. 

The theme was set as 'Easter' and the location as always was kept secret until just two days before the event. This months meet was at one of my favourite places in Bedford - the wonderful Fancy tea room on Roff Avenue - a perfect location to drink tea & eat cake! 

I baked a new recipe I'd not yet tried (madness I hear you cry!) called The Queen Mother cake - I used to eat this cake as a child, when my mum used to buy it from the May Fair stall in our local village hall once a year, and have often meant to get round to trying to bake it myself. I found a recipe online here and bit the bullet. I am pleased with how it turned out (especially the AMAZING toffee topping) however, next time I bake it I will tweak the cake mix slightly by adding some sultanas soaked in booze, some mixed spice, and maybe a brown sugar buttercream centre. In fact, I think this cake could even take some grated courgette for added moisture. 

My finished cake with marzipan balls, mini eggs & Malteaser bunny

I arrived with my friend Liz, cakes in hand, to join 13 other cake-eating and baking enthusiasts in cooing over our easter creations. 

Being faced with a buffet table full of 15 different cakes - all of which you're allowed to eat....well....it was just HEAVEN! The only downside was having (stupidly!) eaten dinner before the event, and also being pregnant and not having my usual ability to consume cake in very large quantities. I still managed some small pieces of 5 cakes - be proud! 

The wonderful Carmela, who is the organiser of the Bedford CCC events, made us all extremely welcome & created a wonderfully relaxed environment. We all chatted away & discussed cake, baking and everything else in-between. 

Let me share with you the lovely photos I took ... 

cake cake cake

yummy

 mini eggs were a real trend :-)

passion cake

lemon and white choc cake

lemon daisy cake

chocolate cloud cake by Lovely Liz

chocolate and raspberry cake by Carmella

Simmnel cake

chocolate orange loaf cake

Lovely Anwyn's amazing take on a battenburg cake in the round....

The impressive inside of Anwyn's cake :-)


spiced carrot cake with sugar craft  bunnies

my cake - Queen Mother cake with toffee drizzle

and even better - you get to take a big plate of cake home at the end to share with friends/family :-)

Do come along to the next meeting if like me you love cakes, tea, chatter and baking. Just sign up on the website and find the Bedford group. 

The next meet is Saturday 27th April 2013 2-4pm - location and theme yet to be announced.

Love

Mrs B 

xxxx