Stamford cake club at Love Stamford

This month, I took the Stamford cake club to the new venue Love Stamford. This is a great community venture, mixing shops with a cafe, and a children's play area, plus craft, art, and allsorts of fun stuff. I love the atmosphere in this open-plan venue, and knew it would be perfect for our cake club.

The owner, Andraya, laid out her gorgeous unique armchairs and sofas around little tables for our cakes. It was a great afternoon and everyone enjoyed themselves. Not only did we get the chance to scoff 11 different cakes baked to a Stamford theme, but we also got to do a bit of shopping too - I came away with a new foxy scarf from The Little Scarf Co.

Cakes this month were:
Daniel Lambert Strawberry Roly-Poly Swiss Cake
Georgian vanilla baked cheesecake with almond biscuit base
Dundee cake
Chocolate mousse cake
Chocolate box church cake
Stamford Stone ginger cake
Scripture cake
Daniel Lambert chocolate cake with buttons and belt
Coconut cake with blackcurrant jam
Coffee and walnut cake
Gingerbread cake

All delicious. To find out more about Clandestine Cake Clubs click here

Strawberry Swiss Roll

The recent Stamford cake club theme was quite literally Stamford - find a recipe inspired by the Georgian town itself. I related to the fattest man in England, Daniel Lambert, who's a notorious character in Stamford. He died in 1809 weighing 52 stone. So, I thought, he was a bit roly-poly... Now, I couldn't make a Jam Roly Poly pudding for cake club, so instead I made a Strawberry Roly Poly Swiss Roll Cake.

A simple recipe:

4 eggs
100g caster sugar
100 self-raising flour
Dash of vanilla paste

Whisk the eggs and sugar together until very light and fluffy, leaving a trail when you lift up the whisk.
Carefully fold in the sifted flour, and drizzle in the vanilla paste.
Pour into a Swiss roll tin prepared with butter and greaseproof paper.
Bake at about 200C for 10 minutes, until nicely brown and coming away from the sides.
Turn out on to another piece of greaseproof paper dusted with more caster sugar. Peel off the greaseproof paper from the back, scour a line an inch in from a short end with a sharp knife.
Spread good-quality strawberry jam over the sponge while it's cooling, cover with chopped up fresh raspberries, and roll.
(NB don't leave it to cool for too long before rolling, as I mistakenly did, as then the outer layer will stick to the sugar and the greaseproof paper and will come off. However, if that happens, just cover it in icing sugar like I did!)

To find out more about Clandestine Cake Club click here