Monday 2 June 2014

Clandestine Cake Club…

A couple of months ago Jean set up a branch of the Clandestine Cake Club in the Loire Valley. We had our second meeting last week, and as Jean wasn’t able to be present she asked us to host. Hosting isn’t complicated, all we needed to do was tidy the house and lay on some drinks. We went for Pimms, Belvoir elderflower cordial and tea.It isn’t a cake competition, just an opportunity to bake a cake, share it with others.

Following the theme ‘let’s get fruity’, members produced some magnificent looking, delicious cakes, many of which were works of art. Needless to say our efforts weren’t wonderful to look at, but tasted fine.

Both Tim and I decided to produce gluten-free cakes. Mine was a cherry and coconut almond cake. It was also going to have white chocolate and become another CCC cake, but at the last minute when I checked the provenance of the chocolate I found that it was produced in a factory where gluten is used.

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IMG_4701_640x427 Tim - sunken, drunken fruit cake   Gaynor -  cherry and coconut almond cake

Tim produced a sunken, drunken fruit cake. Sunken because with the Dove’s farm gluten free flour the fruit sinks, and drunken because the fruit was soaked in Amaretto and Cointreau, which might also have contributed to it sinking!

In total we had 12 cakes and 18 people, with an age range of over eighty years!

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   Ann - peach and almond cake.   Elizabeth – strawberry surprise swiss roll

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 Pauline – banana, date and walnut cake        Edna – raspberry rondelle

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Sally – scones with jam and fresh cream       Liz – Dorset apple cake

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Victoria – pear and white chocolate cake    Pauline C – spiced fruit cake

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   Gail – citrus poppy seed cake                Chris – mille fueille cake

Johnny, our oldest guest won the raffle and was delighted to receive a Delia Smith baking book. So the next time he comes we’ll be expecting something wonderful!

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Before, during and after the tastings. Not our best look!

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15 comments:

  1. Thank you both for being the perfect hosts! It was a lovely afternoon with some splendid cakes. P.

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  2. We had a lovely afternoon, with delicious cakes and great company. Thanks Gaynor and Tim for hosting the event. Hopefully Jean and Nick will be able to join us next time! x

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  3. Gaynor, I must disagree with you - your cakes looked wonderful!
    They all looked great to me, from the photos anyway!
    Thanks again for hosting the event, you and Tim did a great job!

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    1. Thank you, but you'd already organised everything! Looking forward to the next one.

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  4. What a fun idea. All of the cakes look delicious.

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  5. Oh dear, I'm really trying to eat healthily and now my tastebuds are twitching and my stomach is rumbling. They all look delicious and such a great variety - needs must try them all, I suspect!
    Axxx

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    1. Only very small pieces. You also get to select slices of a few to try later. The other trick is to eat very little lunch on a cake day!

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  6. What a wonderful idea, and how fabulous do all those cakes look !

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    1. They were delicious. Also you get to taste cakes you might have come across in recipe books but not had the confidence to try.

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  7. So confess - how many tastes did you have?! Sharon

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  8. I tasted most, but literally a small forkful of each! We then chose about three to keep a slice of for later.

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