The Cake Club Takeover

Cake Queen’s blog has been highjacked for the first post of 2017 by me, the bestie, but you can call me Lou…

Last Saturday saw the cake club meeting for the first time this year, we hadn’t all been together since our adventure to Choccywoccydoodah (yes I had to look up the spelling) in October but as always the hours flew by while we chatted and ate our way through the cakes on offer.

We were honoured to be hosted by the Cake Queen herself in her home and she did not disappoint with her baking skills, making a fab Chocolate Brownie (my personal favourite) and a psychedelic Vanilla Rainbow Cake. Also on offer were Fruit cake (rum/black cake), in cupcake form too with a rum frosting, an apple tart, chocolate, red velvet, salted caramel, and chocolate lava cakes. Not to mention the salt fish fritters, salt fish, and chicken patties that were on offer as savoury choices.

The landslide winning cake was the Fruit cake, made by Aunty Denise. This time her prize was a medal, a gift bag full of chocolate coins, and a 50% off card for any ‘Say It With Cake’ creation. Well done Aunty Denise and congrats on your prize.😊

A part of our 5 hour conversation included a discussion about the future of Cake Club and it was a unanimous decision to continue meeting. Cake club may have started out as a reason to get together once a month and eat as much cake as possible in an afternoon but I think it’s safe to say that it’s become an important part of everyone’s life. It gives the bakers in the group a reason to bake and a chance to experiment and gives everyone a chance to get together and share what’s going on in our lives, a luxury that would normally be reserved for special occasions. So we’re scaling back our meetings to every two months and we’ll see how that works for everyone.

In the meantime we’re taking suggestions on different places for the cake club to try, so if you have any, please feel free to leave them in the comments.

In the meantime I’m looking forward to our next meet up in March.

Thanks to the Cake Queen for having me as her first guest blogger, it’s been a blast.

Until next time (if she has me back),

Peace & Love,

Lou 😘

I’m Telling Everyone To Say It With Cake

So I’m finally taking the plunge (more like a dip) and offering my cake making services to friends and family…

As many loved ones keep saying that I should let more people taste my creations, I have agreed to start making cakes that others (outside of the inner circle) can also enjoy! I am offering the selection above, plus any other new flavours that I bake-up in the coming weeks. I am also happy to create new flavours with any interested parties!!

So I’m basically telling everyone that whatever the occassion (birthdays, congratulations or good luck) – Say It With Cake (By Andrea) 😉

A Choccywoccydoodah Birthday!!

So this weekend was my birthday -woohoo! And I wanted to do something different (from any other birthday)…

Initially I was going to go on a “Cake Crawl”, but after a visit to the world famous Choccywoccydoodah where the very friendly and charming staff gave me a tour of their “Secret Garden Room”, I couldn’t resist having my birthday there! So off to Choccywoccydoodah we went…

And they did not disappoint, from the moment that my guests and myself arrived, we were treated to the most amazing chocolate and cake bonanza you could ever imagine! The dedicated room was decorated channeling the “Mad Hatter’s Tea Party” vision including toy rabbits and sheep and had masses of artificial flowers and greenery – so you felt like you were in a magical outdoors. Even more enticing was the long tables laden down in all of the chocolate and sweet treats – honeycomb, chocolate brownies, blondies, chocolate plumpies, jelly beans, nougat, tiffin, biscuits, chocolate buttons, marshmallows plus endless flavours of chocolate cakes!

I don’t think any of my guests were prepared for the magnitude of chocotastic offerings that were on offer and there were points during the party that they couldn’t believe that there was even more to come including my very own (and very big) ice cream cake! Everyone was also treated to strawberry champagne ice cream shakes, tea, coffee and other soft drinks – we wanted for nothing! Our host – Annette was very nice and accommodating and my guests spoke highly of her too.

I loved the idea of this place and seeing it in reality was truly awesome -thank you for a great time Choccywoccydoodah! 🙂

Strawberries & Basil Cake

With the last of the summer holidays on the horizon, I wanted to  add the recipe for the Strawberries and Basil cake that I made for the recent Cake Club. Everyone was taken by the flavour combination and pretty colours!

Strawberries & Basil Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

• 200g butter
• 200g caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 200g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 50g olive oil
• 25g fresh basil
• green colour paste (optional)
• 100g strawberry jam
• 150g vanilla frosting
• fondant icing (to cover) or you could use vanilla frosting

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170 C / Gas 3. Grease a 6″ cake tin.
2. Blend the basil leaves with the olive oil until you  have a paste consistency.
3. In a large bowl, mix the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
4. Add the eggs one at a time and vanilla extract to the butter mixture.
5. Add the flour, baking powder and basil paste – fold together gently.
6. If you would like the cake to have a stronger “green” colour then add the paste at this stage and mix thoroughly into the batter.
7. Pour into the prepared cake tin.
8. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool before icing.
9. Divide your cake into 2 or 3, layer and stack with vanilla frosting and jam then cover with fondant icing or vanilla frosting.

Birthday Cake Challenge: Ferrero Rocher Cake & New Name!

It was my lovely Sister In-Law’s birthday this weekend, so I put on my apron, got out my baking tins and had fun with her favourite chocolate!

I created a chocolate and hazelnut cake complete with Ferrero Rochers (of course) 😉 She has assured me that it tastes of “pure indulgence” – so it was a success. Here’s the recipe for those that want to sample the same indulgence. This cake also fits in nicely with the blog’s new and improved name…“Say It With Cakes”!

Ferrero Rocher Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

• 200g butter
• 200g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 150g plain flour
• 50g cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 75g crushed hazelnuts (plus more to decorate)
• chocolate frosting
• 1 box of 16 x ferrero rochers                                                                 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170 C / Gas 3. Grease a 6″ cake tin
2. In a large bowl, mix the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs one at a time and vanilla extract to the butter mixture.
4. Add the flour, cocoa and baking powder .
5. Fold in the crushed hazelnuts.
6. Pour into the prepared cake tin.
7. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool before icing and decorating with ferrero rochers and hazelnuts. Enjoy!

Cake Club: A Slice Of Summer & More!

The summer sun has arrived and before the Cake Club took it’s annual summer break, we indulged in an afternoon of cakes (yay!)

Following my latest cake decorating class, I wanted to practice my new icing skills and practice it certainly was! I also wanted to bake a new and different flavour cake and after some summery thoughts, I decided I wanted to incorporate strawberries. This lead me to think about what went well with strawberries…and basil sprung to mind! Strawberries and basil cake it would be (recipe to follow in a separate post I promise)!

Everyone made a terrific effort in their cake ideas, and as well as my strawberries and basil cake there was a choice of chocolate ganache cake, coconut cake, disaronno cheesecake, cupcakes and scones (with jam and clotted cream). We all enjoyed the offerings and I think everyone likes the idea of not knowing what will be on offer at each (home) Cake Club.

Once again we weren’t without topics of conversation and as the next Cake Club won’t be until the Autumn there will be a lot to discuss by October 😉

Cake Club: The Longest Yet…!

We achieved a new all-time record at this Cake Club…

This month’s Cake Club was lovingly suggested by a fellow Cake Clubber and I was very happy for the suggestion! We went to the Aspers Casino in Westfields for afternoon tea, and we were even more delighted on arrival that it was on an introductory offer at half the price – result!

There was a nice-looking spread of cakes, sandwiches and scones for us to share and although it wasn’t the most appealing afternoon tea in taste – the company and atmosphere more than compensated for it! We were enjoying ourselves so much that time escaped us and we ended up staying for cocktails too!

And what a treat they were! By the time Cake Club called it a day, the sun had gone to sleep and nightlife was beginning to get started! 😉 We had a great time and cannot wait for the next time when we get to put the world to rights again.

CAKE CLUB RATING: 3/5

Cake Club: Cheesecake Battles!

Okay so I’m a week late, but it doesn’t change what a delightful Cake Club it was…

Once again the spread was plentiful and appetising. Everyone made an effort to bring something different and decadent to the table. This time I decided to opt for a cheesecake! So I thought a Chocolate and Baileys cheesecake (far right) would be well received by the ladies – recipe to follow in another post! It was one of the easiest cheesecakes to make and was very tasty – a definite crowd pleaser. However I wasn’t the only person to bring a cheesecake along – novice baker Tracy (her words not mine!) also delivered an Oreo Cookie cheesecake – which got just a lot of Mmmm’s.

There was also Carrot Cake, Banana Cake, Cherry and Almond cake, Lemon and Strawberry cake, Pineapple Cake and Banoffee tarts – the choice was again overwhelming, even for me! However the supreme winner this time was Tracy and her Oreo Cheesecake. I also kept my promise and delivered the last winner’s (Julie) chosen Malteaser cake. This time the prize for Tracy is that we’ll be treating her to a cake at our next “Restaurant” Cake Club. Well done Tracy – can’t wait to taste your next creation! 😉

Hello Spring…Goodbye Winter’s Treasures (Cakes)!

Despite the cold days and dark nights, winter brought many pleasures in the cake / dessert form…

As I am never one to miss out on a good dessert, this has still been one of the niceties that I have enjoyed during the winter months. And as well as baking A LOT more in recent months, I have enjoyed my fair share of sweet cuisine made by others. Here’s a few of the favourites which have included cupcakes from Buttercup Cake Shop, cookie dough cake from Bella Italia Restaurant, Levi Roots’ ginger and pecan brownies, salted caramel and chocolate torte and chilli chocolate brownies from The Manor House.

You can probably see there’s a theme of chocolate in a lot of the tasty treats that I’ve had, and I would say that chocolate is definitely an attraction for me, but then I expect a lot from that dessert because of it! Now that we’re having warmer days and nights, my sweet palate will only get intensify – it will now be that time of year when cheesecakes and eton messes will make a grand appearance – hooray!! 🙂   

Cake Club: Sunny Skies & Cakes Galore!

It was that time again, when  we don’t need an excuse to enjoy cake…

The plan was to visit Forest Gate local – Coffee 7 this time. However on a stroll in the sunny climes before meeting the Cake Clubbers, I came across this secluded and very inviting cafe across the road –Familia Cafe! So the club made the decision to take advantage of this little place, where they promised we could lounge in the garden, while we sampled their sweet homemade treats!

The cafe did deliver as promised a tempting and well presented spread of cakes, brownies and muffins. The small garden provided the perfect escape from the generic hustle of the main road, and the staff were very friendly and accommodating. I chose the carrot cake and red velvet cake, and others opted for the cheesecake and meringues. Although there wasn’t resounding cheers for everything chosen, I was very happy with my choices and even got treats to go!

It was a lovely find for a sunny day, and everyone was pleased with the location – definitely somewhere I would go again!

CAKE CLUB RATING: 3/5