Stamford Clandestine Cake Club's harvest festival

Who needs the Great British Bake Off when you could be at the Stamford Clandestine Cake Club? 

Combine harvesters in the fields, children going back to school, the time is nigh for mists and mellow fruitfulness... And in the spirit of all those wonderful autumnal themes, the Stamford Clandestine Cake Club met at The Bull and Swan at Burghley for a 'Cracking crop of cakes'. We missed the third episode of GBBO to meet up, but I'm pretty sure we all watched it on iPlayer when we got home afterwards. 

The pub provided us with our most sumptuous surroundings to date. We holed up in their dining room, on a spectacular T-shaped table, with gorgeous cutlery, cake stand and presentation boards, candles, and the most magnificent cake knives we've ever seen. Decorations in the room alluded to it being the base for an historical drinking society – how appropriate!

The staff at The Bull and Swan looked after us brilliantly, and we may even have a couple of new recruits... They certainly appreciated the plate of cake we provided them with, served on the biggest plate I have ever seen – apparently it is what they serve their Sunday roast on, which means I'm definitely going there for Sunday lunch soon.  

We considered ordering the evening with a Mad-Hatter type change of seats every five minutes, but we decided this was too much exercise when so much cake was to be eaten. There were 16 cakes to be tried and tested: 

Spiced pumpkin cake with orange icing - Me

Marrow cake - Mel

Tractor cake - Jon (with the registration plate Crap1, it was renamed the Craptor)

Pear, honey, and walnut cake - Vic L

Chunky apple cake - Kelly F

Plum and cardamom cake, without the cardamom - Judith 

Carrot cake - Anthea

Courgette cake - Vicky R 

Apple upside-down cake - Louise 

Parsnip cake - Kerry 

Apple and ginger wine cake - Kelly M 

Apple and pecan cake - Kat 

Berry crumble cake - Jennifer

Sticky lemon cake - Danielle 

Apple cake - Sarah

Apple cake - Amanda 

Well done to the two bakers, Amanda and Sarah, who managed to bake a cake with only a few hours' notice, due to a couple of cancellations. Judith's cake was a star of the night, despite not being able to find ground cardamom in the local shops. Congratulations to Jon, who graduated from long-term guest and taster to fully fledged baker with his tractor cake. Kudos to me for decorating my cake with some corn, hastily nabbed out of a local farmer's field (thanks, Mr Farmer). 

A couple of quotes from the evening included "This would be good with a cup of tea" and "I've got a sharper knife if you need it" - you have to love the self-deprecation of bakers and their cakes. 

It was good to have a couple of new faces, plus a couple who haven't been able to make a few meetings. We're enjoying how each month the different venues change the dynamics of the group, meaning no two cake clubs are the same. 

Spiced pumpkin cake with orange icing

The theme for the latest Stamford Clandestine Cake Club was 'Cracking crop of cakes' - our version of a harvest festival, for which I made a spiced pumpkin ring cake with orange icing. 

I knew a lot of the members of cake club would be using apple, berries, plum, and other fruits, so I thought I'd go left-field with pumpkin. I love pumpkin and squash and was quite exciting at this bake. 

I did it as a ring cake, so it was nice and easy to slice, and would look good with the orange icing (colour and flavour). It was easy to make, reasonably, and looked pretty good once I threw some heads of corn at it for decoration. 

150g margarine

300g caster sugar

3 eggs, beaten

340g self-raising flour

225g pumpkin puree (I used leftover pumpkin flesh from last year's Hallowe'en, which had been frozen, and then I sieved to lose some of the water)

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp allspice

For the icing:

Icing sugar

1/2 orange juiced

Orange food colouring 

Beat the sugar until creamy. Add the sugar and beat until pale and fluffy - it won't be too fluffy due to the amounts. 

Add the eggs a little at a time, with a bit of flour if necessary to stop it splitting. 

Sift in the flour and spices. 

Fold in the pumpkin gently. 

Pour into a prepared ring tin. 

Bake for about 45 minutes at 180C (160C fan). 

Make the icing once the cake is cooled, adding as much food colouring as you wish. I went for a deep sherbert-type colour. I would have gone brighter, except I had no time to go to the proper shop for the colouring and had to buy some rubbish from Tesco, which needed so much adding in order to get the right colour that I was worried about the quantities. 

My icing technique needed a bit of refinement, admittedly. But on the whole I achieved the look I was aiming for. 

I would add more spices next time. The pumpkin flavour was subtle and fragrant, and the orange icing was a bit special. One cake club member asked if I had used custard powder. I didn't, I promise. 

Dodgy icing technique. 

Nectarine loaf cake

I had a few nectarines in the fridge looking decidedly dodgy, and, getting that feeling that you need to make a cake and nothing else will do, I thought I'd put them to use. I made a plain loaf cake mix, with extra flour to adjust for the liquid in the fruit; dotted chopped nectarines in layers with the mix, and also heavily on the top.

Once baked and out of the oven, I drizzled over a mix of granulated sugar that had been melted with some lemon juice. There was a LOT of sugar so the crust was really thick (and made my teeth hurt a little). I have mislaid my scrap of paper that had all the measurements written on, so I can't repeat the recipe here. But, it wasn't that great anyway. The nectarines didn't taste of nectarines much, and the sugar crust was too much. It was very moist, to the point of a little claggy. I won't be baking this one again (I can't really, anyway, seeing as I can't remember how I made it - good job really!)

It looked quite attractive though.

A very, very, very sugary crust

Earl Grey tea cake

For the August meeting of the Stamford Clandestine Cake Club, we met at St John's Church, Stamford, so I thought it appropriate to bake an Earl Grey tea cake - More Tea Vicar!

This is a recipe from the Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook, which I have made a couple of times now. The first time, I opened the oven after the allotted baking time, only to find it not quite done yet and quickly sinking in the middle as all the air escaped out of the oven door. This time, I left it in a big longer to avoid the same - and I think it was a little overdone. Next time, I will get it spot on.

2 tbsp Earl Grey leaf tea
200 plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarb
120g butter
330 caster sugar
3 eggs
120ml buttermilk (the first time I made this I had no buttermilk, so instead used a little natural yogurt and a little milk, and it seemed to do OK)
1/2 tsp vanilla paste

Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan) and line a loaf tin with baking paper.
Bash the hell out of the Earl Grey leaves with a pestle and mortar.
Sift together the tea, flour, and bicarb.
Beat the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy.
Gradually add the beaten eggs, adding a little flour if it looks like it is separating.
Mix in the flour a third at a time, alternating with the buttermilk. Add the vanilla. Mix well. Pour into the tin.
Bake for about 45 minutes.

Once the cake is cool, pour icing over the top to drip down the sides. Make the icing using icing powder, lemon zest (about 1 lemon), and a couple of tablespoons of cold Earl Grey tea until you get the right consistency. I never measure the icing sugar.

This cake has a lovely texture with an interesting fleck of tea through it. The tangy lemon icing really does the flowery tea justice, and it went down really well with everyone who tried it. I made this for a birthday party the week before the cake club, and it disappeared so quickly I almost didn't get a piece.

Delicious ginger biscuits

For my annual jolly to the Festival of Quilts, I made me and my friend some delicious ginger biscuits to snack on - the joys of the NEC food halls aren't much to write home about (or indeed write about in a blog!). These biscuits really look the part - better than you could buy in a shop, and with that wonderful home-made wonkiness that gives them their charm.

They're really easy to make, and make a good batch - about 26 - 30 depending on how big or small you go. I like to go a little small, so I get more out of them - quality and quantity.

115g butter
85g golden syrup
350g self-raising flour
1 and a half tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp bicarb
200g caster sugar
1 egg, beaten
2 lumps of stem ginger, chopped

Preheat the oven to 170C (150C fan) and prepare three baking trays.
Melt the butter and golden syrup over a low heat, then allow to cool until almost cold.
Sift the flour, bicarb, ground ginger, and sugar into a bowl.
Pour the butter and syrup mixture into the bowl, briefly stir, then add the egg, and the chopped ginger. Stir well until it all comes together - you might need to get your hands in to make sure it's a good dough.
Roll into golf ball sized balls and place on the baking trays, spaced out well.
Bake for about 15 - 20 minutes.

It is an effort not to eat several of these at once. They are great on the day of baking, as they are crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. The day after, if you haven't placed them in an airtight box (oops, I didn't), they might be a little less crunchy - but still delicious.

This is my favourite ginger biscuit recipe I think. I haven't made them in a while, mainly because they are just too moreish. I can't stop at one.