Old and New

I've been baking and making quite a lot lately. Some recipes have been old favourites like this lovely recipe for a lemon polenta cake that I got from Delicious Magazine when I was lucky enough to have an annual subscription.

I've made this cake many times. It has a lovely taste and texture and goes down as well as a dessert as it does a cake. With only 4 teaspoons of flour it has low gluten content too. I made it this week for the latest CCC event. The theme was 'Doing the Continental' This cake has an Italian theme so it fit in really well.
The standard of baking in our local cake club is astounding.

After tasting Helen's Black Forest (voted favourite by me & my children!) I decided to come up with Black Forest Cupcakes. Sadly my idea didn't really work out. They looked lovely when they came out of the oven, but rapidly collapsed! The taste was very nice but the texture was all wrong so I shall rethink those ones.

I also made a fruit cake with a difference. I decided I should try making a fruit cake, but no one in our house, apart from me, really likes it. So I made a light fruit cake but turned it into a chocolate cake. I really wasn't sure it would work, or what it would taste like, but actually it was really nice. All three children and Mr P liked it. It worked!

Lastly, an idea I'd had rattling around in my head for ages was a PB&J (Peanut Butter & Jelly) Cheese cake. The girls in this house (yes, I'm including myself in that!) love PB&J sandwiches and out of nowhere the idea of a PB&J cheese cake popped into my head. I worked, out in theory how I would make it happen and today I put it into practice. I'm delighted to say it turned out really well. Mr P, having never tried a PB&J sandwich (shocking I know!) reserved judgement as he really wasn't sure he'd like it.

I'm very pleased to say, he did indeed like it! It's a very light cheese cake, and it wasn't too sweet or sickly so it works really well.
So two out of three inventions worked this week. I can live with that.

I'm in the club!

NO! Not that club, the cake club or to give it it's proper name The Clandestine Cake Club. Clubs are popping up all over the place it seems. I'd read about it, seen posts from people I follow on Twitter, marveling at the cakes they'd seen and tasted and I'd even visited the website. I was very intrigued and so this time when I was invited to go along I said yes (the first time I declined you can read about that Here)

Every CCC meeting has a theme, set by the event organiser, in our case a lovely lady called Helen. The theme for this event was the Patron Saint of cakes. You can interpret the theme in any way you want to. I, as usual, put way too much thought into what I was going to do, to the point I got really stressed! Helen assured me that this really isn't what cake club is supposed to be about and it's certainly not a baking contest.
I decided to make my take on an Angel Cake, not an angel food cake, but the old fashioned pink, yellow and white cake that as a child we had with our Sunday tea. I didn't want to make it in a slab, or bar as you buy it in the shops as it needs to go round a fair few people. Being 'Angel' cake it fitted in with the heavenly theme quite nicely but also I used a recipe from my own saint of cakes, my lovely Mum. She was always baking something. In years gone by she and my Dad had made celebration cakes for people, Mum always baked for church events and often she would disappear, only to be found in the kitchen whipping up a Victoria Sandwich or a batch of jam tarts! So I used her recipe, what she used to call "4,4,4,2" (Butter, Sugar, Flour in ounces and 2 Eggs)  I used a triple quantity of that mixture, added some Vanilla extract, divided it into 3 bowls and coloured one portion pink and the other yellow and baked the three sections in sandwich tins.

I sandwiched the three cakes together with a simple vanilla butter cream, dusted the top with icing sugar, sprinkled on some glitter, stood back and started to panic!

Was it big enough? Would it be too simple/plain/ordinary? Would my cake look like the poor relation among all the other creations?

I'm happy to say I worried for nothing. When I arrived at our venue,(always somewhere different and never revealed until about a week before the event) I was greeted by welcoming smiles and a table full of cake of every kind.

Everyone finds a space for their cake on the table, then fills in a slip with their name and the title of the cake that they've baked.

I'm pleased to say my humble little cake didn't look out of place at all.

After a brief welcome from Helen and an informal introduction from us bakers, of us and our cakes it was time to dig in. Our venue was Cheshire Cakes a cake shop that doubles as a coffee shop. They kindly let us use the shop on the understanding we purchased tea and coffee. So it's like being in a nice coffee shop but having free reign of the cakes. I found choosing which to try really hard. There were sixteen cakes to choose from! I wanted to try as many as possible so chose to take tiny slices in the hopes I'd be able to sample a lot of the selection.

I think I managed six tastings and I didn't finish them all, as hard as I tried. There wasn't a single cake that I tried that I didn't like, they were all lovely.
We spent the evening chatting, eating cake and drinking tea. I got to know some of my newer friends a little better and forgot about the things that had been troubling me through the day.
There was a lot of cake left over, but never fear none of it is wasted. One of the great things about cake club is you get to take lots of cake home! We each cut slices of the cakes we'd wanted to try but hadn't got round to or the ones we really liked and wanted another taste of and filled our cake carriers with slices to take home.
What could be better than that? An evening eating cake, drinking tea and chatting to lovely cakey people, fantastic.
I really was worrying for nothing. Everyone was so friendly and I'll most definitely be putting my name down again.
I came home to Mr P, whose eyes lit up at the sight of my cake carrier laden with slices of cake. I simply got him a fork and he got stuck in. I'd had enough cake for one night so simply told him which was which. He didn't eat it all, there were about about eight slices, but he did have a try of each. This afternoon when the children came home from school we sat down with cups of tea and forks and did the same. It was all very civilised!
M's favourite was the Maple and Pecan, which was also one of my favourites. It reminded me of the Maple Brazils my Mum used to treat me to if ever she saw them in a nice sweet shop.
L's favourite was the double chocolate and cinnamon and R couldn't decided which he liked best, he liked them all, which is a huge compliment as he doesn't generally eat that much cake.

If you think it's something you'd like to take part in have a look at the link at the top of this post and see if there's a club near you and if not why not set up one of your own? You'll get all the information and advice you need. I can guarantee you won't regret it, we're a really friendly bunch!

So Far So Good....

I'm determined for this year to be a good one. I feel like we're due one, but I also realise that you can't just sit back and wait for good things to happen. There are certain things that I hope will happen, but they are not in my control. So while I watch and wait I'm going to make some good things happen, little things but who knows where they will lead?
I wrote a New Year blog post and I have to say the amount of lovely comments, messages and emails I received really gave me a boost. Everyone commented on what a positive post it was, I had said in it that one of my aims was to be more positive about things and once you write something in a blog and tell the world about it, you have to do it....right?
I'd like to think I've had less downs and more ups, it certainly feels that way and yes I know it's only the middle of January but that's me being positive!

This year I'm going to try and say Yes more. Yes to more things that I want to do. It's no secret that I haven't made many any friends since moving North and that's not because I'm not friendly or approachable, the opportunity just hasn't arisen. Drop off at two separate schools to start with didn't help, nor did finding a job where you work alone in a different location everyday, so how do you make friends?

I met four amazing ladies (Juju, Julia, Helen and Fran)  through the wonder that is Twitter and met up with three of them in Manchester at the Christmas markets. It was like meeting up with old friends, not new ones and the only downside is that we're pretty spread out in terms of where we live, but that won't stop us meeting up as and when we can. I class them as real friends and I'm very much looking forward to meeting up again very soon.
Helen, who lives closest to me, couldn't make the markets, but had previously asked me along to a Clandestine Cake Club. I didn't go. If I'm honest I was too shy to go along. I would have known no one and I had no one to take either so I didn't go (Sorry H x)
 I've previously let too many things pass me by, well not any more!
Helen, amazing lady that she is, was setting up a new branch of The WI and again asked me along. I ummed and arred  about going, as again I would know no one and had yet to meet Helen face to face, but other than that I could find no reason not to go. I had a word with myself. For work I stood up infront of a hall full of strangers on a daily basis and yet I was stalling going somewhere to meet like minded people in my area. So that settled it, I told Helen I'd be there and went along to the meeting.
At the meeting I of course met Helen, in person and sat myself next to a lady, who happens to live very close to me indeed! We'll meet once a month, but there will be sub groups set up with the opportunity to learn new skills or crafts and share interests too. Suddenly I don't feel so alone.

And I've also signed up to go to the next meeting of a local CCC  where the theme is Patron Saint of Cakes. I have no clue what cake I will make and take along, so suggestions welcome! But as the organiser pointed out, it's not a competition, it's just for fun. Fun......yes....I think I remember how that works!

So that will be two new things I've joined or taken part in this month already!
I'm also set on making foodie things that I've never made or maybe never tried before. Some of them are simple, like tomato soup! No, I had never made it before, not until last weekend, that is. As for cakes I want to look more at using royal icing or sugar paste to decorate small and larger cakes. I've never tried, so today I took a tiny step in that direction and made some cupcakes for MB's birthday. I usually just do swirly butter icing but today I did some with Royal icing too.

I hope she'll like them. I've got a little glittery pink '8' candle to stick in the top cake for her.

On the sewing front I aim to make my first garment. I've had the pattern and the fabric for months, just been putting off trying it. Not for much longer, well until next week. It's only comfy pants or house trousers for my girls, but as M pointed out to me the other day if I don't make them soon, she'll have outgrown the pattern!

So, I think it's so far so good on the 'new' front...I wonder what else new will come from there first steps I've taken? New friends, new crafts, new skills.....who knows, but it's all very exciting!