Showing posts with label cakes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cakes. Show all posts

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The Ginger Baker


Its with great pleasure that I am writing this article telling you about a new cafe / bakery / tearoom that has recently opened in the Ribble Valley village of Longridge. What makes "The Ginger Baker" so special is that its a mainly "gluten free" venue, Sharon the Ginger Baker who has been baking Gluten Free for several years has had dreams of opening her own venue for years, so she jumped at the chance when this cute venue became available in heart of Longridge.


The Ginger Baker stocks a wide range of gluten free treats, snacks and breads along side great coffees and drinks at great prices. The breads range has been sourced from Wheat Free Bakery Scotland which is all gluten free and it tastes, looks and smells amazing. The cakes and pastries are a either carefully sourced from Gluten free bakeries or baked on the premises by Sharon and her team.

                           

Situated in the heart of the village there is ample local parking for your visit and you can book afternoon teas and special events with the tea room.

                       


Its well worth a trip especially if you need a Gluten Free diet  and the welcome is warm and genuine, you can find the venue on Berry Lane, Longridge. You can also find the Ginger Baker on Facebook and twitter too.






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CCC no 20 - Strictly come baking at Cakes by Ruth in Chorley.




For our 20th event for South Lancashire Clandestine Cake Club we paid a visit to a newly opened celebration cake and cake decorating shop in Chorley town centre. Cakes by Ruth is the home of talented cake decorator Ruth Potts and her lovely shop is a colourful addition to Lancashire's favourite market town.

                               

Inspired by the new series of "Strictly" we had chosen the theme of "Strictly come baking !" for our evening event. Our bakers inspired as ever came up with a great selection of cakes.

Despite a few no shows on the night (I try not take this personally !), we had an enjoyable event enjoying a lovely range of cakes and chatting generally about cakes and baking with Ruth.




Our cake selection featured


  • Waltzing mathilda cake - a gorgeous spicy bundt cake

  • Dancing Dolly cake - lots of buttercream, sponge and jam topped off with a dolly

  • Torta Mojada - Argentinian Wet cake - a moist decadent chocolate cake with citrus layers

  • Lucious Lemon glitter ball cake - lemon sponge with lemon curd, meringue and fresh cream, topped off with Lemon and white chocolate silver cake pops.

  • Tango'd cake - a freshy zesty orange layer cake

  • You've been tango'd - a orange and chocolate confection, very moist and moreish.
You can find Cakes by Ruth on St Georges Street, in Chorley town centre, the shop stocks a great range of decorating materials and of course Ruth can supply any celebration cake needs you may have.

A massive thanks goes to Ruth for hosting our event and opening up specially on a cold November night for our meeting. 
  

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Orange blossom honey, spelt and poppyseed cake - almost healthy !

I love baking (if you are a regular reader this is nothing new  to you !) but how to make cakes more healthy ?

From time to time I experience a guilt trip and remind myself that where ever possible I should be making my baking more healthy, food fads come and go, eat that don't eat this, so that sometimes its difficult to determine as to whether the changes and tweaks you are making to your baking are making it any healthier, but the one thing I do know is that I like to try different things. So this cake was born, using a natural sweetener, spelt flour and poppyseeds.




A month or so ago I was sent some honey for review so I currently have a nice selection in my store cupboard, so I chose to bake with the orange blossom honey on this occasion, so here's what I came up with.

What you need

  • 50g poppyseeds ( you can buy in most healthfood shops or collect your own)
  • 180g orange blossom honey ( you could use agave nectar or maple syrup also)
  • Grated zest of one large orange
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 3 eggs free range please
  • 180g spelt flour (sieved to remove the majority of the meal)
  • 180g butter - softened
What you do 
  • Preheat your oven to 170c
  • Oil spray and base line a 20cm loose bottom or springform tin
  • In a large bowl or your mixer, cream the butter until fluffy, now add a little of the flour and beat in eggs one at a time
  • Beat in all the flour, baking powder, honey, orange zest and poppy seeds
  • Scoop into your tin, levelling and bake for approximately 35 - 45 minutes until tested cooked with a skewer.
  • Cool in the tin for approximately before transferring to a wire rack to cool fully.
  • If you wish you could make an orange drizzle syrup or frost with a cream cheese butter cream.

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Opportunity to help a new local business and win £25 voucher towards a bespoke cake or cake class.

I was recently approached by one of my fellow clandestine cake clubbers who is also Market researcher as to whether I would assist her in surveying the baking community of Lancashire about what they would like to see in a new cake shop that was opening in Chorley.

          Wedding Cakes by Ruth

Given that I am local gal and like to support local businesses I said yes !

Ruth Potts from Cakes by Ruth www.cakesbyruth.co.uk in Chorley.  She is a professional baker of celebration cakes, she teaches amateur bakers how to decorate cakes and icing techniques and is opening a cake shop in Chorley in September this year.  The shop will be where she bakes and decorates her cakes as well as holding decorating classes and hosting children’s parties.  In order to help Ruth know what bakers (amateurs and professionals) want from a high quality local cake shop she has commissioned this survey to ask the bakers themselves.  There is a prize of a £25 voucher to go towards a cake decorating lesson or a cake.
                              
                                                      
So all you have to do to have a chance with winning this voucher is complete a short on line survey. Apologies to readers from outside Lancashire but I don't think survey would be of much interest to you.


The survey window is now open  will close on Friday 12th July at 5pm.  The winner of the free prize draw will take place on Monday 15th July.



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CCC No 13 - At Coppers Tea room, Leyland


Hello,ello , ello what have we got here, South Lancashire  clandestine cake club being held in the former victorian police station now tea room Coppers in Leyland !

                                         

Complete with cells this former local police station has been converted in a delightfully quirky tearoom and coffee lounge, handily situated near the towns railway station. Its a great spot for afternoon tea and that's exactly what the theme of our March meeting was "Lancashire Afternoon Tea", the friendly staff serve a wide range of drinks, snacks and cakes , many featuring local produce.







My bake was a twist on the local classic Goosnargh cake but you can find out more about this cake here.

Once again our bakers rose to the occasion and brought along some beautiful cakes which where great interpretations of the theme. We also had our first male baker who brought along a fabulous Zingy lemon curd cake along with his gorgeous 9 month old son and his partner to help eat all the cakes. We also had two young foodie visitors who had make a great cake label for their mums bake and who also assisted in helping us eat our way through 10 cakes.



  1. Zingy Lemon curd Cake
  2. Imogens Sultana and apple farmhouse cake
  3. Coconut and raspberry cake
  4. Bakewell Cake
  5. Coffee cake
  6. Chocolate Roulade
  7. Passionfruit victoria sponge
  8. Raspberry Cakewell
  9. Goosnargh cake with Orange buttercream
  10. Battenberg Cake

Let the feast commence !

Wonderful cake label 

Raspberry Cakewell

Just some of the teapots in Coppers Tearoom 
Zingy lemon curd layer cake
Thanks to everyone who attended this cake club meeting and made it such a great sucess and thanks to the staff at Coppers who so warmly welcomed us. 

Our visit was also featured in the local newspaper

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Clandestine Cake Club Cook Book

I may be biased as I have a recipe in this cook book, but I think that this an absolutely beautiful book and set to be one of this years best sellers, I am so glad that the publishers haven't gone in for over egging the pictures and lots of fancy decoration, as this is a book of honest to goodness homestyle cakes. 

                                                         

All Clandestine cake clubbers are avid home bakers and the recipes in the book reflect that, relatively easy recipes with creative thoughtful twists, you just know they are going to be a success and so far all the one's I have baked have been. The book has a practical wipe clean cover which is essential in my kitchen and is helpfully divided into the following sections

  • Classic Cakes
  • Victorian Cakes
  • Fruity Cakes
  • Global Cakes
  • Zesty Cakes
  • Chocolatey cakes
  • Celebration Cakes
  • Creative Cakes
There are hints and tips on icing and frostings and what to do if you have a cake wreck, all regular cake clubbers have experienced these, myself included when I dropped a cake on the way to a meeting ! the book also has the history of the cake club movement and tells you about Lynn Hill the founder.

Clandestine Cake clubs are now a world wide phenomenum, so I suggest you get out a buy yourself a copy pronto !

My recipe is featured on page 68/69 and is a Magic Bean Cake which I originally baked for a theme of "Full of Beans", in celebration of the launch of the cookbook I baked this recipe for cake club again plus a Lemon, lime and yoghurt cake as contributed by Kate Dickens on page 131.




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