The cake turned out to be really easy and very yummy - I skipped the meringue buttercream. Frankly it's a lot of faff and I don't think it tastes any better than the normal butter icing I make. It went down really well and was very refreshing on the warm summer evening. The rest of the cakes at the Club were delicious - I couldn't pick a favourite; but I really enjoyed the ginger beer and rhubarb cake, the pina colada cake and both the chocolate and stout/Guiness cakes.
Now I'm craving cake again.... I have a new niece, her name is Alice Poppy and I'm a totally smitten Auntie. This weekend she came round for a visit with her Mum and Dad. It was the perfect excuse to bake a Strawberry Drizzle Cake. There are so many delicious English strawberries available at the moment. This is the recipe - Strawberry Drizzle Cake I've got to say my cake rose a lot, so you couldn't see the pretty strawberries. They were so juicy that it took a long time for the centre to cook through; but it tasted amazing. I'd definitely recommend giving it a go. It wasn't exactly like a lemon drizzle cake. Next time I think I would juice the strawberries as they describe in the recipe; but then mix it with caster sugar instead of icing sugar. Then pour it over while the cake is still warm. It should give a sharper strawberry taste and the crusty sweet/tangy top that you associate with drizzle cakes. If you do try it that way, let me know how you get on. The afternoon tea was lovely and I got lots of gorgeous cuddles with Alice, so my cut-metre is full for now.
How did you spend your Sunday afternoon?
Sponge Cake - aka Football Cake
Method You can throw all the ingredients into a food processor or electric mixer and beat them together - this gives a classic Victoria Sponge with a denser, firmer texture that my Mum loves. Personally I prefer the creaming method because I think it gives a lighter texture.
Top Tips
I'm not sure if this happens to anyone else; but it seems to happen to me a lot. I woke up to an email from BBC Radio Norfolk who would like to interview me about the Norwich Clandestine Cake Club. I've done radio interviews before; but this is the first one I've done for the Cake Club - I mean it's the first time I've even organised my own meeting.
They called me up and we did a short interview over the phone that will go out on Sunday and then they're coming to the venue during the event, to record a longer item for the Monday Breakfast Show. If I hadn't been through this before I'd be completely freaked out and nervous by now. So at least my past experiences of talking about Live in Love in Laugh in and my ME/CFS has paid off. Sometimes I think my life is so weird. Fun; but weird. It's official, I've just taken over running the Norwich branch of the Clandestine Cake Club. It's typical me, I join a club and within a year I end up being one of the organisers. I always get really passionate and involved with the things I love to do. If you don't know about the Clandestine Cake Club, you can read more here... It's been a little scary having to find venues that will host the events; but I've managed to sort most of the rest of this year out. Some are places I know and love, a couple I haven't been to before and I'm looking forward to visiting. The hardest part of organising the events is the Clandestine part of the club - turns out I don't like keeping secrets, subterfuge is not my strong point. I am doing my best though. My first event is later this month and the venue is really unusual, I can't wait to reveal it to the members who go. It was touch and go whether it would all come together in time for June and as such the theme is Surprise Cakes. I'm not sure what I'll be doing. It can be a surprise ingredient, or one of those cool hidden cakes - though they look incredibly complicated. I think that might be too much of a challenge. Have you ever tried making one? What did you do and how easy was it? I've been fancying trying one of the giant Jaffa Cakes, with the surprise being the layer of orange jelly. I'm going to turn to trusty Google for some other ideas. If you were making a Surprise Cake, what would you bake? |
Claire WadeI'm an author, disability activist, winner of the Good Housekeeping First Novel Competition and The EABA for Fiction 2020 and founder of Authors with Disabilities and Chronic Illnesses (ADCI). The Choice is available from:DETAILS:
Title: The Choice Publisher: Orion ISBN: 1409187748 You can keep up to date with all my latest blog posts by signing up to my email newsletter.
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