Clandestine Cake Club picnic in Stamford

On Sunday, June 2, the sun was shining upon Stamford CCC as we indulged in a chilled out picnic on Stamford Meadows. 16 bakers got together with 12 cakes in the sunshine with picnic blankets and chairs a-plenty.

In the background of cake club was a Victorian cricket festival, with cricketers in traditional garb competing from the local pubs, plus several children’s teams enjoying the gentle thwack of leather on willow. Some skillful dodging of flying cricket balls had to be done by the cake club members, but luckily none landed slap-bang in the middle of anyone’s cake. We also we treated to a fly past by a Lancaster (gosh, I know how to pull all the stops out!)

It was a very different club meet for us, which required me to act as main cake slicer, ending up in the middle of the blankets encircled by the other members. It did mean we couldn’t mingle as much, but we all chatted away regardless, and enjoyed some excellent cakes baked to the theme ‘Perfect for a picnic’.

The cakes included:
Apple and apricot – Sophie
Victoria sponge – Steve
Sultana baked cheesecake – Rachel
Blueberry and coconut crumbly cake – Kelly
Ginger cake – Simon
Lime and coconut cake – Kerry
Raspberry Bakewell – Rhoda
Battenburg – Vic
Sultana cake – Vicky
Lemon loaf – Esme
Toffee sponge – Sarah
Lemon cake – Susan

Vic’s Battenburg fared best under the sunshine, as the marzipan melted a little and made the cake even better! Simon was meant to bring a raspberry layer cake, but his mother got involved (we shan’t go into details) and he had to hurriedly make a ginger cake which was still warm when it got to us.

Luckily, no one was chased by a goose.

Pistachio and strawberry cake

The March meeting of the Stamford Clandestine Cake Club had the theme 'Surprise!', inspired by the venue's Garden of Surprises - we met at the spectacular Burghley House.

I was really lost with this theme (even though I came up with it) and in the end my cake was completely made up. I wanted two flavours that you might not put together and that had different colours, so in a conservative mood I plucked for pistachio and strawberry. Not marmite and celery or anything so adventurous. I decided that the main 'surprise' element of the cake would be the overall design, with a jack-in-the-box type presentation.

The first layer was strawberry sponge. I researched a lot of strawberry sponge recipes but couldn't find the right sort. I really wanted a light sponge that was pink in colour. Most pink recipes used powdered jelly, and that just doesn't exist in Deeping I'm afraid. A lot warned against using just strawberries as the flesh can make the cake unstable. In the end I made a jammy syrup and added that to a normal sponge mix. It looked pink in the bowl, so I didn't add any food colouring - but it wasn't very pink when baked, so colouring would help.

6oz butter
6oz caster sugar
3 eggs beaten
6oz self-raising flour
About 3tbsp strawberry syrup (I heated hulled strawbs with a tbsp of sugar, then sieved)

Beat the sugar and butter until really pale and fluffy.
Add the eggs and beat.
Sieve in flour, then add the syrup.
Bake at 180 (160fan) for about 30 mins.

For the pistachio layer, I added green food colouring, but to be honest I think it was green enough with just the nuts.

250g butter
250g golden caster sugar
4 eggs
Zest of one lemon
1/2tsp vanilla paste
120g pistachios, ground
100g almonds, ground
40g plain flour

Cream together the butter and sugar.
Add the eggs and beat.
Add the zest and vanilla.
Stir in the flour and nuts.
Bake at 160 (150fan) for about 45 mins (to be honest I lost track of time and it may have had a little longer!)

I sandwiched the layers together with strawberry buttercream, made using some more of the strawb syrup.
I then glazed it all over with melted apricot jam, then covered with ready-to-roll royal icing - my first attempt at a square cake. It didn't go too well and there was quite a lot of patching up!

I designed it as a jack-in-the-box with layers of icing peeling back, painted red and green to hint at the strawb and pistachio underneath. Topped with a home-made teddy holding a 'surprise!' sign.

The strawb layer didn't taste as much of strawb as I'd have liked, but it was nice and fluffy. The pistachio layer worked well and was surprisingly moist. I think I'd do the pistachio again, perhaps with a fluffy buttercream with cream cheese. The strawb might be nice as cupcakes, with more strawberries - perhaps topped with fresh cut ones.

Summery white choc strawberry cake

It's July. It might be peeing it down with rain outside, with a rumble of thunder and flash of lightning every few minutes; I might be wearing a jumper and socks; I might be contemplating a hot chocolate later....but dammit, I will make summer come into the kitchen, with a slice of this delicious White Chocolate and Strawberry Cake. This fits very nicely into the Alphabakes 'W' challenge for July, and also into the Tea Time Treats summer cake stall challenge. There's nothing like a fabulous cake and a couple of cakey challenges to make you forget about how pants this UK summer is turning out to be.

White Chocolate and Stawberry cake

I made this cake for a friend's 30th birthday. We got him a couple of nice gifts, but these days I love to give a cake too. It's such a personal touch, and really cheers people up - everyone loves that extra bit of effort and care that a cake takes, and it's great to share it out amongst friends and family too. A bunch of cupcakes were made for the party too, with elaborate pink frosting, but I only had half. The frosting made me feel a bit sick, and I think a whole bottle of red food colouring was used to try to get a real red colour - it turned out pink anyway, and there are supposed to be limits to how much of that liquid colouring you use!! Sometimes only a cake will do.

I haven't made a cake with melted chocolate incorporated into the batter before - sure, I've used cocoa powder a million and one times, but this recipe was a bit different and I didn't know how it would turn out. It was delicious - sweet and chocolatey without being overpowering, allowing the sweetness of the fresh strawberries to really sing on their own.

Happy birthday cake!

I did whip the cream too much. I set it off in my Kitchenaid mixer, and was busy arranging the strawbs on the base of the cake when I heard the sound change - I didn't reach it quickly enough and it was overwhipped a little. But no one noticed apart from me.

I scoffed two pieces. One at the alloted cake eating time, and another at about midnight, after a few glasses of vino. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and I credit late-night cake to my lack of hangover the next day. I'd recommend it.

This recipe comes from 'The Great British Bake Off - How to Bake' that accompanied series 2. 

150g white choc
200g marg
3 eggs
150g caster sugar
zest of 1/2 orange
200g self-raising flour

Preheat oven to 180C (160 fan).
Melt the chocolate. This has to be done very delicately, as too much heat and the choc will go lumpy. I stopped just as it started to melt, and stirred manically for a while, until the residual heat melted it all.
Add the marg and stir until melted. 
Whisk eggs until frothy. Add the sugar and orange zest and whisk until very thick and mousse-like.
Add the chocolate mix to the egg mix and stir briefly.
Sift flour in and fold with a metal spoon.
Divide mixture between two 20.5cm tins (As usual, my tins are too small - 18cm - so I also made some fairy cakes with the mixture).
Bake for about 20 - 25 minutes.

For the filling and topping, whip 200ml double cream.
Slice 2/3 of a 400g tub of strawberries, and mix with zest and juice of half and orange and a tablespoon of caster sugar. Leave for about 10 minutes to marinade.
Spoon the sliced strawbs on to the bottom cake layer. Top with half of the whipped cream. Place the other cake half on top. Spread rest of cream over the top, and decorate with the remaining whole strawberries.
To finish, grate some white chocolate over the top.
Eat. Eat some more. Maybe have another slice. Enjoy.

Tea Time Treats is hosted in alternative months by Karen at Lavender & Lovage (this month's host) and Kate at What Kate Baked. The Alphabakes challenge is hosted in alternative months by Caroline Makes (this month's host) and Ros at The More Than Occasional Baker. 

Fairy cakes too

 

How to make a strawberry meringue roulade

My boyfriend is brilliant, and knows how to make a strawberry meringue roulade, without any help from me... I feel proud, but also a little jealous that he's reasonably adequate in the baking department - that's supposed to be my thing!

 This recipe makes a really yummy meringue, squidgy in the middle, with a good crunch from the almonds.

4 medium egg whites
1 tsp lemon juice
225g caster sugar
1 tsp cornflour
Some flaked almonds
Some strawberries, chopped

Whisk the egg whites and lemon juice together until you have stiff peaks. It doesn't need to be totally stiff as if you were making proper meringues though.
Mix together the sugar and cornflour.
Whisk in the sugar mixture one spoonful at a time. You want the egg white mix to look thick, smooth, and gloss, but don't over-whisk.
Spread evenly into a roulade baking tin that you've lined with baking paper.
Sprinkle almonds on top.
Bake at 150C for about 45 minutes.
Turn meringue out of tin on to a piece of baking paper and allow to cool for about 15 minutes. Take the paper off and place on a cooling rack.
Once cool, whip some double cream - I never measure it, but used most of a 300ml tub of cream. Spread whipped cream on to meringue, sprinkle over the chopped strawberries.

Now, you're meant to roll from long edge to long edge, although sometimes I roll from short edge to short edge. The former gives you a longer sausage of roulade, meaning you get more slices out of it... however, the latter means you get less slices, but they're bigger slices...

Delicious. But it's best to feed a crowd - the boyfriend made it just for the two of us, and we kept the leftovers in the fridge, but with the strawberries this meant it leaked a bit. Best eaten on the day.