Last week I took a new step in my baking journey – feeding my
cake to complete strangers!
If you haven’t heard of Clandestine Cake Club before (it is
clandestine after all…) it’s a kind of social club for bakers. Once a month
bakers (and their guests) get together in a “secret” location. The only requirement
is that you bring along a cake to share. (And that’s a cake, not brownies or
cupcakes nor tarts or flans.) There is usually a theme to loosely base your
cake on but it’s not a competition and there’s no judging. This month was my
first time and after feeling a bit awkward at the begining I soon got chatting.
I’m always looking for an excuse to bake and people to feed my creations to so
I’ve signed up until September!
The events are held in all sorts of different places like
cafes and shops and even more unusual locations. This time it was in Warehouse
13 in Morecambe. This is a really funky shop with gifts, homewares, vintage
bits and all sorts of craft materials. So the cake theme was “crafty cakes”. I’m
just talking about my cake but if you want to see the others they’re here.
Method
I decided to use my new found icing technique (used on Mum’s
birthday cake) to create a patchwork pattern on the top of my cake. I made two
vanilla and two chocolate round sponges and layered them up with apricot jam. I
then used (ready roll) white icing to cover the cake which was stuck on with
boiled apricot jam. Then I put on the patchwork pattern with writing icing,
runny icing and sugar crystals.
Results
I was pretty pleased with my cake. The sponge was nice and
light and the chocolate flavour just about worked. However, it was very sweet
with all the jam and icing. Considering it was made up of four layers the cake
looked fairly straight. However, you could tell it really wasn’t when I came to
decorate. I’d made the icing far too thin anyway and it ran everywhere. Also,
the covering icing could have been a lot neater too. But this was the first
time I had ever attempted anything like that, and the cake was a bit squishy.
Score: 7/10
Soundtrack: Greg James on my new (old) kitchen radio
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