Stamford Clandestine Cake Club does Christmas

Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin baked a cake... I recently wrote a guest post on the Clandestine Cake Club website about why we love Christmas cake - read it here! 

Christmas came early to the Stamford Clandestine Cake Club on December 9, as we gathered in the Tallington room at the Tobie Norris for our festive meeting. The theme was 'C is for Christmas, cake, and...' and we had 13 wonderful cakes to try. 

The venue was brilliant – really festive, with beams hung with holly, mistletoe, and evergreens, and there were lots of baubles, and some super mulled wine. The staff we really helpful when I panicked over the missing cake labels, and their eyes lit up when I presented them with a huge platter of cake to taste. 

The Tobie Norris is renowned amongst Stamfordians as being the best purveyor of home-made pizzas in the town. Although we didn't have room for any pizzas after all that cake, they certainly smelled excellent. We made the ladies in the room next door, eating their florentines, very jealous with all the cake. For more information, visit the Tobie Norris website. 

This month's meeting was relaxed and cheerful, and time flew past. We each introduced our cakes briefly, in an attempt to help us remember everyone's name, and also explaining a bit about our bakes. Newbie Celia made an apple crumble loaf, using a new type of apple, the Opal, which is grown locally in Wisbech. Vic's clementine loaf was so healthy and 'without' so many ingredients (flour, butter...) that we wondered what was left in – but there was plenty, as it was delicious. Becky's cake was a Yule log with a difference, featuring crunchy peanut butter. Rhoda's Carribean banana cake was fabulous, if a little difficult to slice up at the end (my apologies again, Rhoda, for slicing it up so that it looked like I'd kicked it!). The race for the cake trough at the end of the night was like bees round a honey pot. The icing Christmas tree atop my cake was made using skills I learned at the CCC 3rd birthday bash up in Liverpool, of which I was quite proud. 

It's been a fantastic year for the Stamford CCC, with some amazing cakes baked, and some real friendships formed. Here's to an equally brilliant 2014 for our club.

The cakes were:
Cranberry and pear loaf - SophieClementine cake - VicApple crumble loaf - CeliaCaribbean banana cake - RhodaCoca Cola cake - KerryChocolate yule log with peanut butter - BeckyCranberry and orange drizzle - VickyChocolate brownie cake - SarahChocolate caramel cake - AliceCranberry and orange stollen - KarenCranberry and marzipan cake - AliChristmas gingerspice cake - SamCourgette and chocolate cake - Katrina

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

Spicy pear cake

I baked this spicy pear cake to use up a glut of the fruit (read more about that here) and I was very pleased with the results. This is a recipe from the Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook, one of founder Lynn Hill's recipes from CCC Leeds. I served this cake warm with custard as a pudding - ingenious! Lynn has kindly agreed that I can post this on my little blog (thanks Lynn!).

2 pears, peeled cored and quartered
Juice of 1/2 lemon
115g butter
115g light muscovado sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 tbsp buttermilk (I didn't have any, so used a bit of plain yogurt mixed with a little milk)
115g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp grated nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 190C (170C fan).
Prepare a 20cm round loose-bottomed tin.
Place the pears in a bowl with the lemon juice to prevent them from discolouring.
Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Combine the eggs and buttermilk, then add to the sugar and butter mix.
Add the flour and spices gradually until thoroughly combined.
Pour the batter into the tin. Pat the pears dry with kitchen towel, then place artfully on top of the batter.
Bake for 20-25 minutes.
Serve warm with lashing of custard. Perfect!

Cranberry and pear muffins

We went to a friend's 30th birthday party last month, where said friend got a little bit merry. At midnight, she decided we should pick some pears from the tree in their garden. In the pitch darkness, I managed to pick about 10 pears, but goodness know how. They weren't even ripe, and only became edible last week. They turned quite suddenly, so I needed to find a fun recipe to use some up. Cranberry and pear muffins sounded perfect. I'm entering these into the Calendar Cakes December blog challenge, hosted by the fabulous Dolly Bakes and Laura Loves Cakes.

These are quite festive and Christmassy, you could even decorate them with fresh cranberries and some foliage to look like holly.

300g self-raising flour
1/2tsp bicarb
150g caster sugar
2/3tsp mixed spice
2 eggs, beaten
100ml yoghurt
75ml milk
100g marg, melted and cooled a bit
3 pears, peeled, cored, and diced
60g dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 200C (180C fan). Line a 12-hole muffin tin (I used some fancy muffin cases from last year's Good Food Show).
Mix the flour, bicar, sugar, and spice and sift into a big bowl
Combine eggs, yoghurt, milk, and butter. Add the pears and cranberries.
Stir the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
Spoon into the muffin cases
Bake for about 20 minutes.
Decorate with a little plain icing and a few dried cranberries.

Lemon meringue pie cake

I loved lemon meringue pie as a child, even though my mum used the packet mix for the lemon part - but that didn't bother me, and it still wouldn't today. This comes from the woman who loves Bird's custard and Paxo stuffing. Some things are just meant to be. 

I digress. For the November meeting of the Stamford Clandestine Cake Club, caker Louise (who admitted she doesn't actually like cake - the horror!) made a delicious lemon meringue cake. Here I share her recipe as it was absolutely fabulous. 

3 unwaxed lemons
200g softened butter
200g caster sugar
3 medium eggs
250g self-raising flour sifted
6 tbsp milk

For the meringue

2 egg whites

100g caster sugar

For the filling

250g tub mascarpone

2 tbsp sifted icing sugar 

Half a 450g jar of lemon curd

Preheat the oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 21⁄2. Line the bases of 2 x 20cm sandwich cake tins (about 5cm deep) with nonstick paper. Grate the zest from the lemons and put in a bowl with the other cake ingredients. Beat together with an electric hand whisk for 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy. Spoon into the tins and level the tops.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then gradually whisk in the sugar until the meringue is stiff. Spoon half the meringue over each cake and spread to within 2cm of the edges. Swirl the meringue with the tip of a knife.

Bake the cakes for 35-40 minutes until the meringue is crisp and golden and the cake is firm. Test by inserting a fine skewer through the meringue – if just a few crumbs stick to the skewer, the cake is ready.

Allow to cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then invert each cake on to a folded tea towel and then invert again on to a wire rack so the meringue is uppermost. (Alternatively, for loose-bottom tins, sit the tin on top of a can and gently push down the collar to free the cake.) Leave to cool completely. The cakes will keep for up to 2 days in a tin at this stage.

Beat together the mascarpone and sugar. Put spoonfuls of lemon curd over the mascarpone and swirl gently together. Set one cake on a serving plate and spread with the filling. Top with the other cake and dust lightly with icing sugar.