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.

A talk about CCC at the WI

I was recently invited to give a short talk at the local Women's Institute about the Stamford Clandestine Cake Club. Last night, I stood up in front of 43 members of the Deeping St James WI and shared with them the joys of our cake club.

I gave a little history about the CCC – how Lynn Hill founded the group and how it has now grown exponentially due to her hard work, with nearly 200 clubs across the UK and internationally.

I amused the WI members with tales of teapot cakes, cakes eaten by the dog, and how we share our love of baking once a month in our underground society.

The ladies were fascinated to hear why we love the group so much – the sense of community that sharing a large cakes brings, as opposed to cupcakes or muffins.

I bust a lot of preconceptions about the CCC during my talk. Many women spoke to me afterwards and said they'd heard of the club, but were scared that it was competitive and that their humble cakes wouldn't meet our exacting standards. But I quickly banished their fears and explained that we're all just home bakers ourselves, with no element of judging or competition at all – just a mutual love of cake.

Several ladies flicked through the pages of the CCC book and hopefully I've got a few new members lined up.

I was incredibly nervous about the talk. Even though it was only to last 10 minutes, I had my bottle of Rescue Remedy close to hand... Standing right next to the boiling radiator in the hall (yes, even though it's the end of May, we still needed the heating on) wasn't the best idea – about two minutes in to the talk I had to jump across the hall with a red face as I was burning up! I was already blushing through nerves so I think I went an attractive shade of Red Velvet Cake!

The group were so welcoming and friendly, I am now inspired to join the WI, which I've been considering for a while anyway.

For more information about Clandestine Cake Clubs click here.

For more information about the Women's Institute click here.  

Pinwheel cookie fail

Steve and his brother went away mountain biking for the weekend. I thought it would be a nice idea to make them some cookies to take with them, and thought Mary Berry's pinwheel cookies would be fun to do. They were in the Children's section of her 'Baking Bible' cookery book so I thought I couldn't lose. A chocolate dough, rolled with a vanilla dough - easy stuff.

Mary Berry's easy creations

GOOD LORD these were dreadful!

I'm not going to repeat the recipe, as I wouldn't want to inflict them upon you all. It seemed quite basic and straightforward, so off I set. However, I soon realised that the 'dough' that needed rolling out in fact resembled 'batter' and in no world would ever be rolled anywhere. Even after chilling for 15 minutes the texture was far too loose. No rolling here.

Instead, I dolloped the mixture on to the baking tray, making an attempt to mix the two together in a bit of a swirly fashion. They did not look good.

Perfect. 

Once cooked, they tasted disgusting.

It's not often Steve won't eat something. That means they're really bad.

They went in the bin.

Mary Berry, you have failed me!

A definite candidate for CraftFail.

Cappuccino cake

For cake club this month, my boyfriend Steve made Mary Berry's cappuccino cake, from her 'Baking Bible'. However, her directions are to bung all the ingredients in the bowl together and mix, and I hate that method I'm afraid. I've done this cake before using her method and I found there were lumps of chocolate and it wasn't nice and smooth. So we altered it a bit.

50g cocoa powder
6 tablespoons boiling water
3 eggs
50ml milk
175g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
100g margarine
275g caster sugar

Pre-heat oven to 180C (160C fan) and prepare two 20cm cake tins.
Mix the cocoa powder with the hot water until it makes a smooth paste.
Cream the marg and sugar until fluffy.
Add the beaten eggs and milk, and a little flour if it starts to separate.
Mix in the cocoa paste.
Sift in the flour and baking powder and mix but don't overdo it.
Pour into the two baking tins and bake for 25-30 minutes.

To finish, whip 300ml double cream. Stir in one teaspoon of instant coffee that you've dissolved in two teaspoons of hot water.
Sandwich the layers with half the coffee cream, then spread the other half on the top. Dust with a little cocoa powder before serving.

I loved this cake. I was actually my favourite at cake club this month. It was light and fluffy, with the bitter coffee cream really setting off the sweetness of the chocolate sponge.

To find out more about Clandestine Cake Clubs, click here.

Mini muffin man

I bought a fabulous new Wilton mini muffin tin with some leftover Christmas vouchers, so this weekend I christened it by making some mini chocolate muffins. It would have been rude not to really.

I used a very simple batter:
4oz butter
4oz caster sugar
3oz self-raising sugar
1oz cocoa powder
2 eggs
A little milk

Cream together the butter and sugar until really fluffy.
Add the beaten eggs.
Mix in the sifted flour and cocoa.
Bake at 180C (160C fan) for about 12-14 minutes (keep an eye on them as they're so small).

To make the buttercream, mix 80g butter and 250g icing sugar with a little milk, for at least 5 minutes in a mixer.
Once really light and fluffy, mix in one tablespoon of Nutella by hand.

Amazing. But a warning - they're so small and moreish, you keep having more!