Cranberry and pear loaf

For this month's Stamford Clandestine Cake Club, the theme was 'C is for Christmas, cake, and...' I couldn't help but want to share the recipe for cranberry and pear muffins with the group, but obviously couldn't make muffins. So I crossed my fingers, made the mix, bunged it all in a loaf tin and hoped for the best.

It turned out really well, very tasty, and everyone approved. It didn't have the lightness of the muffins, and I ran out of icing sugar so it didn't have as much as it should have, but I was quite pleased.

I also made a Christmas tree out of Renshaw's sugar paste. I learned this technique while at the CCC 3rd birthday bash up in Liverpool at the weekend. A lovely lady from Renshaw gave us a demonstration on how to make an icing Christmas tree and I was excited to try it out. Easier that I thought it would be, it made a cute addition to my cake. Thank you, Renshaw, for the skills!

The cake at the CCC birthday bash was amazing - featuring models of founder Lynn Hill and three other founding cake club organisers. It was a great afternoon, spent eating lots of cake and meeting other organisers and members from around the country.

Read my guest post on the CCC website: Why we love Christmas cake