Sheffield Clandestine Cake Club – Live the American Dream

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

On a beautiful summer’s afternoon we made our way through the Peak District to the Swiss House Bed & Breakfast run by Clandestine Cake Club members Mary and Martha Holmes. A welcome breeze wafted through the breakfast room as we sat down to enjoy our American themed cakes.

Mary and Martha made a cake each and they were completely different from each other. Mary made a delightfully light Lemon Chiffon Cake with whipped cream and blueberries. The recipe was originally created in 1927 by Californian insurance salesman, Harry Baker, who kept it a secret until he sold it to General Mills. They gave it the name ‘Chiffon Cake’ and published it as part of a recipe leaflet under their Betty Crocker brand.

In contrast Martha made the gloriously chocolatey Brooklyn Blackout Cake. This involved baking three layers of chocolate cake of which one is blitzed into crumbs to sprinkle on top. Inbetween the layers and covering it was a chocolate custard. The Brooklyn Blackout Cake was invented by the Ebinger Baking Company which had a number of stores around Brooklyn, New York. It was inspired by the blackouts in World War II that required lights to be turned off and windows covered with dark material.

Our organiser and Life Coach Karen Perkins came with Jaimee who made a Disney Cake with a Minnie and Micky Mouse chocolate cake inspired by her recent visit to Disney Land. Jaimee used some of the cocoa she brought back from America in her American recipe but only made half the frosting. I’m not sure why any more would have been necessary!

From cartoon characters we went to literary heroines with Fleur’s Anne of Green Gables Plum Upside Down Cake. The novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery was a favourite of Fleur’s mother as a child. The rice malt syrup in the recipe was replaced by agave syrup.

Fleur’s Mum Christine made a four layer Key Lime Cake based on the pie which was first made in Key West, Florida. The Graham Cracker crumbs around the side were substituted with digestive biscuits. Christine decided to reduce the quantity of lime flavoured frosting and omit the cream stated in the recipe. How much frosting do Americans need?!

 We went down to the deep south of America with Deb’s Hummingbird Bundt Cake. Deb found the recipe in an American friend’s cookbook and contained the traditional banana, pineapple and walnuts.

You can’t get much more American than Apple Pie and Victoria came up trumps with her Apple Pie Cake. A combination of a can of apple pie filling, walnuts, cinnamon made for a very morish and moist cake.

I decided to make an chocolate iced ring doughnut cake. This was based on a Savarin recipe which I drizzled a sugar syrup on (50g caster sugar dissolved into 50ml of hot water). Then I made some chocolate icing with 70g of icing sugar mixed with 1 tbsp cocoa powder and 1 tbsp milk. This went on top with some chocolate strands to finish off.

Many thanks to Martha and Mary for hosting us in their lovely B&B. Join us on the 1^st August for our Yorkshire Day Celebrations sponsored by Yorkshire Tea. We are also holding our annual Cakenic on 10^th August.

Sheffield Clandestine Cake Club – Cocktails and Mocktails

 

Royal Ascot and Wimbledon tennis – the British summer season is truly upon us so it was only fitting we should have a theme of ‘Cocktails and Mocktails for our June meeting of the Sheffield Clandestine Cake Club. We made our way to the lovely home of member Christine and we were rewarded with a fine selection of homemade cocktails and drinks.

First up was our organizer and life coach, Karen Perkins. Karen made a Cherry Bomb Cake which was cherry sponge with cherry brandy.

A love of cats was Dawn’s inspiration for her Black Cat Cocktail Cake. This was a Cola and Vodka sponge with vanilla cream, cranberries and a cherry brandy and cola icing topped with fresh cherries.

Young baker and co-hostess Fleur made a summer favourite of a Pimms lemon drizzle cake with fresh mint and strawberries.

Baking duo Paul and Moira adapted a standard lemon drizzle recipe and turned it into a Limoncello Savarin Ring Cake with flaked almonds.

Hostess Christine made a very impressive Gin & Tonic Opera Cake which needed an even more impressive 12 eggs! The cake was sandwiched with a white chocolate and Earl Grey tea ganache and soaked in a gin, tonic and lime syrup.

A cocktail party isn’t complete without some Champagne and Deb added some Champagne flavouring to her Blackcurrant Cake. Deb was a bit unsure of what quantity she should put in but how much can be enough?!

From cupcake to big cake Victoria took an American cupcake recipe and converted it to make her Bloody Mary Cake with Cayenne Pepper Buttercream. The butterceam was made by making a roux of flour and milk and then beating in the butter and icing sugar.

The ‘Sex and the City’ favourite cocktail of a Cosmopolitan was made into an innocent mocktail cake with Emily’s sponge cake. It had a ‘Cosmo’ Cranberry and Lemon jam filling plus orange icing and candid peel.

Bernie’s Tequila Sunrise cake was based on the ‘Dark & Stormy’ Cake in the Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook. The rum infused cake had several layers and also contained orange and cut peel.

One of our new members Margaret took a Nigel Slater coffee and walnut cake recipe and made it into a cocktail cake with the addition of some Kahlua. The coffee and rum liqueur was added both in the cake and in the buttercream frosting.

A normally boozy cocktail of was made into in a non-alcoholic cake version by Jaimee. Her cake was based on a Strawberry Daiquiri.

Another non-alcoholic cake was made by Wendy with her Pina Colada cake. This was topped with some dried pineapple.

The alcohol was definitely present in Stephanie’s Pina Colada cake. She used a recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery which contained pecans. Malibu and lime zest.

We went back to Pina Colada mocktails with Mary’s cake as she used Rum extract to flavour it. The covering was made from coconut cream and desiccated coconut.

Mary’s sister Martha used Nigella’s Chocolate Guinness to form the base of her Black Velvet Cocktail cake. The mock Champagne topping also had some deliciously rich Jersey double cream in it.

If you are going to use a bundt tin then don’t use a silicone one was Liz’s advice! A failed first effort was just a distant memory once her Baileys Cake was revealed. A splash of the Irish Cream was in the sponge and also the mascarpone and icing sugar frosting. Some grated chocolate finished it off.

Top chefs will always tell you that you should taste your food as you cook it to make sure you have got all the flavourings right. Anne confirmed that she made sure there was just the right amount of Malibu in her version of Rachel Allen’s Pina Colada cake! The mascarpone and icing sugar topping was paired with some crushed pineapple.

My baking student is of course rather underage for any alcohol and so her obligatory chocolate cake was mixed with some caffeine-free Cola to make her bundt cake. The icing was also flavoured with Cola and cocoa. In the middle was a mixture of fizzy and gummy cola sweets.

As a non-drinker (you can’t beat a cup of tea with a slice of cake) I decided against a cocktail drink cake but made one based on a tin of fruit cocktail. I used dried topical fruit and added some glacé cherries and plumped them up by soaking them in orange juice. The icing sugar was mixed with some water and orange extract and then drizzled down the sides.

With 19 cakes we certainly had our work cut out to try them all out. Thankfully as always we were able to take samples home with us. Many thanks to Christine for welcoming us into her home and to her husband for being today’s cocktail mixer. As they say, we will meet again on 13^th July for our American cakes meeting and again on Thursday 1^st August for an evening to celebrate Yorkshire Day.

Newark & Sherwood Clandestine Cake Club – Mid-Summers Madness

It has come to the middle of June and soon the nights will start drawing in again! Thankfully the weather was on our side for once as we gathered for our Summer meeting of the Newark & Sherwood Clandestine Cake Club. Our small but select group made our way to Worksop to Debs’ house and we were treated to an evening of drinks, chat and of course cake in the garden.

We were joined for the first time in this group by mother and daughter Carol and Amy. They had travelled from Newark with their delightfully summery Pimms Cake. Apparently their first cake attempt went a bit wrong and ended up being eaten by a local fox. Lucky foxy I say if their second attempt was anything to go by. Carol and Amy’s sponge cake was flavoured with 6 capfuls of Pimms, fresh strawberries in the middle and a cream cheese and blueberry topping.

 

Our hostess Debs took the de-constructed pudding that is Eton Mess and put it back together again in the form of a cake. She made it with yoghurt rather than cream but it still had the traditional broken homemade meringue topping.

 

Christine’s cake not only had a mad ingredient in it but also had a mystery moment of madness after it was made. When cut you could see it had a rich reddy-orange colour which was all down to the tin of condensed tomato soup in it. Bizarrely after it had been cooked and left to cool it had a bit of a cake slide. We tried to work out why this could happen and since the cake was perfectly cooked we were at a bit of loss as to why this would have happened. Answers on a postcard please! (or in the comments section below). While the tomato soup gave colour it tasted more like a carrot cake (I love carrot cake) which was helped by the addition of cinnamon, ground cloves and raisins.

 

When I thought about Mid-Summers Madness I had visions of Alice in Wonderland, Mad Hatters and chessboards. I made two sponges but pipped them in circles into the baking tins so when the cake was cut it looked like a chessboard. This was all covered in some chocolate buttercream.

Thank you to Debs for hosting the meeting and also to Carol, Amy and Christine for bringing their cakes for us to share. Look out for another one of our meetings in the future.

Sheffield Clandestine Cake Club – Cakes from the vegetable patch

We braved the weather for our May meeting of the Sheffield Clandestine Cake Club to make our way to Dave Darwent’s marvellous garden high up in the south-west Sheffield suburbs. Dave opens his garden several times each for the National Gardens Scheme but we were lucky enough to have our own private opening plus plenty of cake and drinks.

With our location being in such a beautiful garden our theme was appropriately ‘Cakes from the vegetable patch’. In total we had 20 cakes of which six had beetroot in. We could have had our own beetroot bake off but remember there is no judging of cakes at Clandestine Cake Club meetings!

Our organizer and life coach Karen Perkins made our first beetroot cake and combined it with chocolate. Inside was a mascarpone filling and it was topped off with a chocolate ganache.

Our second Karen also made a chocolate and beetroot cake with a chocolate ganache topping. Her cake though also had candied beetroot and walnuts on top.

Paul came with his wife Moira and a cake so freshly baked it was still warm! He adjusted a recipe he found so he could scale it up to fit his larger tin. His chocolate and beetroot cake contained sunflower oil instead of butter plus some maple syrup and honey to sweeten it.

The garden theme was evident in home coach Helen‘s cake with her home made bunting on top of her rich chocolate and beetroot cake. The 85% cocoa solids chocolate was mixed with ground almonds and finished off with a sour cream, icing sugar and dark chocolate frosting.

Mother and daughter Sophie and Charlotte have become chocolate and beetroot cake experts this week as this one was the fourth one they had baked! They added some lemon juice to the mix to help bring out the natural red colour of the beetroot. Some edible flowers, butterflies and ladybirds finished it off perfectly. My daughter made a special request to take some of this cake home with us.

 

Our last beetroot cake was made by Vicky and it was the only one without chocolate in. Instead Vicky used a Nigel Slater recipe which has a mixture of seeds including linseeds, sunflower and poppy seeds in it to give the cake a crunch.

 

Our next batch of cakes were the parsnips! Alice added stem ginger to the parsnip base and added some fried parsnips to put on the icing topping.

There was no mistaking Suzanne had made a parsnip cake as she put a whole parsnip on top! In the actual cake was some mixed fruit, spice and ginger. The icing on top was made from lemon and yoghurt.

From parsnips we went to carrots with a cake from our second Suzanne. Her carrot cake had pecans in it and was topped off with cream cheese frosting and fondant carrots.

Deb used carrots in her cake but also added some courgette and orange too. The extra vegetables was shown off by the homemade fondant vegetables on the cream cheese frosting.

Mary and her sister Martha run the Swiss House bed and breakfast in Castleton and gave us a taster of what their guests can expect with her courgette and raisin cake. The cream cheese topping was finished off with a ring of pistachios.

Our other courgette cakes also had a citrus zing to them. Liz made a courgette and lemon drizzle cake. In the sponge mix she added some poppy seeds.

There was no mistaking who made the cake with the bright pink icing as it matched its baker’s hair! Dawn made her own lemon curd to fill her courgette, lemon and raisin cake. I’m hoping she gets the chance to make a rainbow cake soon.

We were back to the root vegetables with a sweet potato cake from famed local baker Silvana. Her pretty bundt cake had a rhubarb liquor butter glaze.

Some more deep digging was required for the swede in Christine’s cake taken from Harry Eastwood’s ‘Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartache’ book. The drizzle on top was made by infusing rosemary and orange. The gluten-free recipe has rice flour in it and uses the swede to replace any fats.

The chocolate heartache cake in Harry Eastwood’s book was made by Christine’s daughter Fleur. The dark chocolate was combined with puréed aubergine to make a very rich cake which shimmered with edible gold glitter.

Mary came with her sister Martha who also made a chocolate and aubergine cake. Her recipe was from the Green & Black’s chocolate recipe book. There was no skimping on the chocolate with a whopping 300 grammes of 70% dark chocolate used in it but no added fat or sugar.

 

The most intriguing cake of the day came from our host, Dave. A pound of Brussels sprouts went into his cake. Yes, you read that right. The icing on top had no artificial colouring in it as avocado was used to give it its green hue. A splash of lime juice stopped it discolouring.

I used some of the rhubarb from my garden to make a rhubarb and lemon ginger cake. The rhubarb was poached in a caster sugar and lemon juice syrup and then put on top of a ginger cake with both ground ginger and crystallised ginger in it.

My daughter kept with her continuing chocolate theme by making a chocolate and mashed potato cake. This was made by combining the mashed potato with flour, almonds, whisked egg whites and yolk and a quantity of finely chopped dark chocolate. Some grated chocolate topped it off.

While I tried my best to sample as many as possible I was defeated but I was able to take a box full of samples home as usual. Many thanks to everyone who came with their fabulous creations. Special thanks to Karen for organizing but especially for Dave for allowing us in his garden and keeping us supplied with tea and coffee. If you want to join us our next meeting is on the 22^nd June with the theme of Cocktails and Mocktails plus an American extravaganza on the 13^th July.

Sheffield Clandestine Cake Club – Spring Fresh Tastes

After a day of rain and hail the early evening brought us beautiful sunshine – just the right weather for the Sheffield Clandestine Cake Club Spring Fresh Tastes meeting. Our organizer and Life Coach Karen Perkins had arranged for us to have a spring clean of our houses and bring any unwanted but saleable items to the The Conservation Volunteers shop on the Ecclesall Road.

The staff and volunteers had kept the shop open especially for us and supplied us with tea, squash, plates and cutlery, plus the chance to have a look round the shop. Two of the staff even joined us in baking cakes!

The first cake was Douglas’ Lemon Meringue cake which was a delightful combination of fluffy meringue filled with zingy lemon and fresh cream.

The other staff member, Denisa, made a Pineapple and Coconut cake.

This was covered in cream and had a secret spiral filling inside.

We had several new faces, which is always lovely to see. First up was Bernie who made a Ginger Syrup Cake based on recipe in The Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook. Bernie liked this recipe because she could make it with ingredients she already had in her cupboards. On the top was a maple syrup frosting.

A classic sponge cake was given a fresh taste by Alison by filling it with her first ever batch of homemade lemon curd and mascarpone. On the top of the lemon sponge was fresh strawberries.

Sisters Mary and Martha of the Swiss House Bed and Breakfast in Castleton took the opportunity to bake something different. Martha’s Orange and Pecan cake also had honey in it with a filling of homemade orange marmalade and mascarpone.

Sister Mary took the recipe for a Victoria Sponge in The Clandestine Cake Cookbook and flavoured it with creamed coconut. The filling was a mix of mascarpone and citrus juices.

Our last newbie was Hannah who made a very pretty two tier sponge cake.

Inside one half was flavoured with lemon zest and the other with lime.

Dave opens his garden throughout the year as part of the National Gardens Scheme and is used to providing his visitors with a selection of teatime treats. He made his own invention of a Citrus Crunch cake which had chopped candied citron peel in it. When cooked this gives the cake a toffee taste. On the top was flaked almonds plus a secret crunch ingredient which we couldn’t guess. This turned out to be brown sugar cubes.

The Carrot cake made by Betsy was the first time she had tried to make carrot cake but it didn’t go as planned! Betsy tip was to make sure you use the right size tin and don’t wash your sultanas. She was able to rescue some slices for us. The cake was made with wholewheat flour and brown sugar. For the cream cheese frosting Betsy also used brown sugar, giving it a darker than normal appearance.

Suzanne raided her garden to add some spring flowers to her Pansy Viola Gâteau Sponge. The cream filling was flavoured with rose. The edible flowers gave a sweet and tangy taste to the cake.

• 

Our organizer Karen went to the Ukraine and back with her Lemon and Poppyseed cake. A lemon glaze over the top added moistness to the cake.

Another recipe from The Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook was the Lemon, Lime and Yoghurt Bundt Cake made by Debs. She added a cream cheese frosting and used tulips from her garden to decorate it.

One of the first sweet treats to show in the garden is rhubarb and Christine cut a batch from her garden and used it her classic combination of Rhubarb and Custard Tea cake. The glitter on the top showed off the rhubarb perfectly.

Christine’s young daughter Fleur made an Apple Crumble cake. This used the last of the stored apples from their garden.

Home Coach Helen has decided to give her diet a spring clean and used flaxseed powder and fruit sugar to give her cake a lower G.I. level. The Cherry and Almond cake was inspired by a recent spring walk in the hills with her friend.

A simple Victoria Sponge was turned into fresh creamy delight by Dawn by filling it with a combination of blueberry, elderflower, coconut and vanilla.

I decided to spring clean my cupboards and use some polenta I had brought previously for another cake. To give the cake a fresh, zesty flavour I put grapefruit peel and juice in it plus some grounded almonds. For extra moistness I made a grapefruit juice syrup of which half is poured over when slightly cooled and the rest when completely cooled.

My baking assistant daughter kept up her chocolate cake theme but this time used mint for a fresh, clean taste. The bottom was a moist chocolate cake made with hot cocoa and crushed clear boiled mints. The middle was a buttercream frosting flavoured with peppermint extract. On top milk chocolate and butter was melted together and a drop of peppermint extract stirred in. Once the chocolate was spread on top it was refrigerated until the chocolate had set.

It was great to see some old friends plus make some new friends. If you want to join our next meeting is 18^th May with the theme Cakes from the vegetable patch. On 22^nd June we will be gathering again for some Cocktails and Mocktails. How can you resist?!

Newark & Sherwood Clandestine Cake Club – Cakes for Lent

Newark & Sherwood Clandestine Cake Club – Cakes for Lent

 

Now we were halfway through Lent it was time for the members of the Newark & Sherwood Clandestine Cake Club to show that giving up cake isn’t necessary and with a few clever twists can be virtuous as well as delicious.

Despite the freezing temperatures outside we were assured of a very warm welcome from our host and member, Christine, in her lovely home. Our organizer Carol had prepared some very smart cake name holders for us and once all the cakes had arrived it looked a very impressive spread.

Carol had made two cakes. The first was a Greek Lenten Bundt cake. This contained almonds, cranberries and sour cherries. The original recipe also had Ouze in it but Carol decided to leave it out this time!

The second cake Carol made was an Orange and Rosemary Polenta cake. The reason Carol made this cake in particular was because one of our members is a coeliac so is unable to eat gluten which is found particularly in standard flour. The original recipe requires the drizzle on top to be made out of orange liqueur but since most of us would be driving back and the liqueur isn’t cooked at all, Carol decided to give up the alcohol in favour of orange juice instead.

One of our new members, Paul, has decided to give up flour for Lent so baked an old recipe from his Mum for ‘Easy no-flour fruit cake’. In place of the flour it has cornflakes as well as mincemeat and condensed milk

The Orange Lenten bundt cake was made by Deb. It conformed to the traditional Lent custom of giving up eggs and other other diary produce. To give it its fruity tang half a pint of orange juice was included as well as some marmalade.

Our young baker Fleur made one of her favourite cakes of a Pineapple Upside Cake. It was meant to be gluten-free but there was a little mix up with the flour! However, it still proved to be a fruity Lenten delight.

Our host, Christine made the Parsnip and Maple Syrup cake complete with glitter sprinkles. With the inclusion of apple in the recipe this made for a very tasty way to have 2 of your 5 a day! The filling in the middle was made with mascarpone. If you are unsure about parsnip cake but like carrot cake then you’ll have need need to worry as the taste is very similar.

Simnel cake was traditionally eaten during the middle Sunday of Lent in what has now become Mothering Sunday. Girls in service on a rare day off would take their mothers a Simnel cake. Nowadays it is usually saved until Easter itself. Pat made her version of a Simnel cake complete with marzipan three crosses and an angel.

Joyce was unable to join us but she very kindly bought us a Fruity Squash Loaf. This was very moist and the colour of the butternut squash could be clearly seen in the cake.

Another new member to the group was Janet who made the traditional Greek Lenten cake of Tahinopitta. As the name suggests this contains the sesame seed based paste of tahini. It has in it walnuts, almonds and orange juice but no animal fats or products.

Lois has coeliac disease so can’t eat any products containing gluten. She has recently purchased Gluten Free Baking and her Carrot cake was one of the recipes in it. This shows that giving up gluten needn’t be cake free!

The Lemon and Sultana cake was made by Barbara. This recipe uses less sugar and margarine than other recipes.

 

I decided to make a cake from the new Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook. In it is a recipe for a very Lent friendly Vegan Lemon Cake. It’s very quick and easy to make as essentially it is lemon flavoured sponge. The recipe says to use limoncello in the filling but since I don’t drink and it is Lent afterall I substituted the 2tbsp of limoncello for 1 tsp of lemon extract.

It was a lovely evening that passed by very quickly. Many thanks to Christine and her husband for letting us meet at their house and keeping us supplied with drinks. Also thank you for Carol to organizing. The Newark & Sherwood group will be joining the Nottingham group for a book launch event on 21^st May at Nottingham Waterstones. If you would like to come please book a place.

 

 

Sheffield Clandestine Cake Club – Stir up some Passion Cakes – My Chocolate Valentine

 This month’s Sheffield Clandestine Cake Club meeting saw some more freezing temperatures but thankfully no snow this time as we made our way to the cosy Cocoa Wonderland on Ecclesall Road. An early start ensured that we would be having cake for breakfast, all washed down with pots of tea provided by Cocoa Wonderland, including their English Breakfast, Black Forest Gateau and Pink Potion varieties.

It was great to see a number of new faces this month including our guest speaker Dave Darwent. Dave opens up his garden in Sheffield as part of The National Gardens Scheme and told us the history of his house and garden plus how he got into baking. In order to raise funds Dave has produced a recipe booklet inspired by his Grandma’s baking which he sells on open days. Some of his creations can be found on his website.

Dave very kindly made us two cakes to try. His first cake was a Passion Cake which he found in a 1984 Family Circle book. Over the years he has adapted it from a standard carrot cake so it now contains vanilla paste, walnuts and walnut oil and also some crushed honeycomb on the cream cheese topping.

The second cake Dave baked was a Cointreau Chocolate Cake which started life very innocently as a Be-Ro chocolate cake but now includes several tablespoons of the orange liqueur.

Our organizer and Life Coach, Karen Perkins made a stripy chocolate ganache heart cake. The inside had layers of vanilla and chocolate in between a cocoa cream filling.

We were without Paul this month but he did make us a gorgeous Sachertorte which was brought along by his wife Moira, who decorated the top. The pair had a late night panic as they ran out of ground almonds but they were able to substitute some ground walnuts instead. I can confirm this worked very well!

Home coach Helen knows a thing or two about baking and came with a beautiful twist to a classic Be-Ro milk chocolate cake. Added to the top were kumquats and marmalade and it was filled with chocolate crème fraiche.

The caramel cake was made by Betsy who patiently melted lots of sugar, cream and butter to make a caramel filling and frosting for her sour cream cake.

A triple layer chocolate cake from Jen was flavoured with chilli and cinnamon. Some gold and silver sprinkles gave it some star appeal.

Silvana has gone from home baking to making a business of it with Silvana’s Cakes. Her stunning pink Champagne cake was decorated with white chocolate ganache and glitter.

Hannah’s passion cake with cream cheese, bananas, carrots, spices and walnuts was given some heart with some praline chocolates on top.

Chocolate Guinness is always a hit amongst cake lovers and Clare’s was no exception. Instead of the usual cream cheese topping Clare made her own chocolate bottles filled with whisky.

Another cake made famous by Nigella Lawson was Debs’ offering of Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake. This was rich and delicious and may have you sneaking down to the fridge late at night for a midnight treat.

Newbie Adam came with his version of the of his idol’s, the Barefoot Contessa, Chocolate and Coffee cake with added salted pecans. Adam’s buttermilk cheat is to mix milk with lemon juice and leave for 10 minutes.

Another new face today was Dawn who treated us to her version of a chocolate, orange and chilli cake. Dawn uses chilli powder in the recipe to make sure the chilli flavour isn’t too hot and overpowering.

A veteran of Clandestine Cake Club is Christine who made a passion fruit cheesecake with some beautiful piping. The original recipe called for an extravagant 12 passion fruits to be used but cutting down that number didn’t change the lovely freshness of its taste.

I decided to make Fiona Cairn’s white chocolate and cardamom cake but omitted the filling for fear of the cake falling to pieces when I tried to cut it. Instead I glazed the top with rosewater icing. The recipe asks for a 20cm round tin but this corresponds perfectly to a 22cm heart shaped tin.

My baking apprentice was very happy with the choice of chocolate for a theme and made a chocolate truffle heart cake with strawberry hearts decoration. The eggs were separated with the whites whisked and then folded in. The topping was a dark chocolate ganache.

Today was our highest ever number of attendees and I’m always amazed by the variety of cakes that are brought along. Thank you to everyone who came and a special mention to Karen for continuing to find us some fantastic venues and to Cocoa Wonderland for looking after us so well.

Sheffield Clandestine Cake Club – ‘Healthy Cakes’

Sheffield Clandestine Cake Club – ‘Healthy Cakes’

After a night of snowfall the hardy members of the Sheffield branch of the Clandestine Cake Club made their way to the first meeting of 2013. Many peoples’ thoughts once the new year dawns turns to diets and healthier eating so the theme for the month was quite aptly ‘Healthy Cakes for a New Year, New You’. Low fat, wheat or gluten-free, vegetable ingredients, superfood fruits and brain enhancing nuts and seeds – there was plenty of choice of cakes for us to bake. Karen Perkins, our hardworking organizer known to many as @fabcoach on Twitter, found us a rather unique venue for Sheffield in the Pure on Raw café.

Located on Shalesmoor, the Pure on Raw café serves locally sourced, organic food as per the vision of owner Inga Dirziute. Despite the freezing temperatures outside Inga gave us a warm welcome to her fresh and bright café. Inga gave us a talk on how a raw food, vegan diet had benefited her family. She also gave us some of samples of her raw cakes to try. After this it was onto our cakes!

Even though I have a mantra of ‘Cake is good for you’, I decided to make a cake which ticked as many healthy boxes as possible – wheat, egg and diary free, vegan and low fat. My Castagnaccio cake is an Italian chestnut flour cake from Tuscany. As it has no eggs or other rising agent it is quite a dense but moist cake. The flavour of the cake comes from the raisins, flaked almonds, pine nuts, rosemary and orange zest on top of the cake. The only added fat in the recipe is a tablespoon of olive oil.

 

As ever my protégée wanted to make a chocolate cake. In order to fit in with the criteria standard wheat flour was switched not for the standard ground almond substitute but instead ground Brazil nuts. The chocolate used was 72% dark chocolate, which is linked to improved cardiovascular health, stress reduction, lower blood pressure; need I go on?

 

Our organizer Karen made a low fat version of Sunday tea favourite, the Victoria sponge. Karen made it a fatless but very light sponge by using just flour, sugar and eggs. The filling was a low fat fromage frais with fresh blueberries. To finish it off was a dusting of icing sugar and a sliced strawberry.

 

The very pretty Blueberry Madeira cake was made by Deb. It was a lovely moist, gluten-free cake made with cornflour and ‘Doves Farm’ Gluten & Wheat free self-raising flour. On top were some more blueberries and edible glitter.

 

Anne found a perfect way to combat a snowy Friday night by spending it by preparing her orange and almond cake. The oranges have to be boiled for 3 hours, left to cool and then the pulp puréed. The ground almonds replace the wheat flour and no butter or other fats are needed. The resultant cake was very light and moist and extremely orangey. Thankfully Anne had the foresight of bringing copies of the recipe with her. I for one will be making that cake in the future.

 

Another one of our young bakers, Fleur, baked a carrot and date cake made with gluten-free and wholemeal flour. The topping was made using Delia Smith’s low fat carrot cake recipe and was a combination of low fat cream cheese, vanilla extract, a pinch of sugar and a dusting of cinnamon.

 

In the late nineties a lady named Linda Kearns from West Yorkshire developed a recipe for a HRT cake designed to be eaten every day instead of taking HRT drugs. The idea is that the ingredients in the cake contain the nutrients required to mimic female hormones, just like HRT. Christine made us a version of this cake which has a dizzying array of ingredients – Soya flour, wholemeal flour, rolled oats, linseeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, flaked almonds, raisins, Soya milk and malt extract to name a few!

 

Hannah made her twist on a carrot cake in the form of a courgette and walnut cake. Based on Rachel Allen’s recipe in her book ‘Bake’, the recipe has no butter but uses oil instead. The loaf cake had a delightful soft texture to it. You would never be able to tell that the cake contained courgettes.

 

Our baking couple of Paul and Moira came with a superfood blueberry cake. Made with spelt flour and sweetened with agave nectar, it was dairy free and contained no eggs or butter. Deliciously moist, the blueberries were scattered throughout the cake.

 

Our final cake came from our second Karen. Her cranberry, orange and pecan cake was made using just 1 tablespoon of oil and 1 tablespoon of sugar. The icing sugar glaze was flavoured with orange juice. If you’re not a fan of traditional Christmas fruit cake this would make a great festive but light alternative.

 

Despite the difficult travelling conditions it was wonderful so many people had braved the elements to make it into the city centre to share their cakes with each other. Thank you to Inga for opening especially for us and to Karen for organizing it. If you like the idea of meeting in secret, baking cake then sharing and eating it with others, join us next month for ‘Stir up some Passion Cakes…My Chocolate Valentine’ on Saturday 23^rd February.

 

 

 

Sheffield Clandestine Cake Club – Christmas Your Way

Sheffield Clandestine Cake Club – Christmas Your Way

First door on the Advent calendar opened, December has arrived, Christmas is coming! For many years now there has only been one acceptable Christmas cake in my household and that is Mary Berry’s rich, fruit celebration cake. However, having spent the year going through my baking books in search of inspiration for our monthly meetings I kept coming across various alternative Christmas cake recipes. While there could be no suggestion of any deviation from my usual Christmas offering I was secretly hoping for a Christmas themed Clandestine Cake Club meeting to try out something different in the form of the Italian Panforte.

The panforte isn’t a difficult cake to make but it does require a lot of chopping of the nuts and a bit of elbow work to mix it all together. Once cooked and cooled a dusting of icing sugar gives it a Christmas touch. To make it extra festive I cut out a snowflake and used it as a template to give a Christmas tree and hearts pattern.

The Italians serve panforte in thin slices usually with a cup of coffee. The richness of the cake dictates a small portion. To give an indication of its depth of flavour the recipes states that although it is made in an 8in tin it can serve between 20-24 people. With the addition of some cocoa powder my version was a panforte nero.

I’m now accompanied to the meetings by my trainee baker. As always her cake recipes do require some chocolate in them. We decided to make a cake I had worked out a couple of months ago using my Lakeland Savarin ring tin. It’s a chocolate and walnut cake but to give it a Christmas twist my daughter rolled out coloured icing and and used cutters to make Christmas shapes. These were then placed around the cake to form a Christmas wreath and sprayed with some edible gold simmer.

So onwards to our ‘Clandestine’ location which was the lovely home of faithful Sheffield Clandestine Cake Club member Christine and her daughter, Fleur. I met Christine at the inaugural meeting of the Sheffield branch back in April and have picked up many baking tips from her. Her house looked wonderful with the Christmas decorations and a warm welcome was given to all who came. A beautiful scent of cinnamon filled the house while we were offered English Breakfast or Earl Grey tea, coffee or mulled wine.

Our brilliant organizer Karen Perkins (@fabcoach on Twitter) made a ‘Molly’ cake. If you still want a fruit cake at Christmas but without eggs or any added sugar or fats then a ‘Molly’ cake is the one for you. As it contains no milk or other diary products it is also suitable for vegans and those with a lactose intolerance. Karen used a Waitrose recipe which involves boiling the fruit before adding the flour. The moistness of the cake makes it the perfect guilt-free Christmas cake. To top it off Karen made a sauce using lactose free cream cheese and icing sugar.

Christine is becoming well known in these parts for not only her wonderful cakes but also her great bundt cakes. Last night I was wondering if Christine had the fabulous Nordic Ware ‘Holiday Tree’ bundt tin and and our hostess did not disappoint me. Using a sticky gingerbread recipe from Dollybakes Christine made gingerbread with a twist. While gingerbread is a family favourite chez Christine at Christmas this recipe differs as it includes Green & Black’s Dark Chocolate with Ginger and also Guinness. The day after you have baked it you brush it with warmed ginger preserve and then make a syrup using lemon juice and icing. A sprinkling of icing sugar and you have the prefect Christmas bundt cake.

Christine’s nine year old daughter Fleur made a Malteser chocolate cake from Jo Wheatley’s ‘Passion for Baking’ and then decorated it using the Polar Bear cake recipe from the same book. The cake has chocolate spread in the middle and is then covered with a chocolate ganache before the icing goes on.

We went off to Germany with Helen’s (@HelenMoyes1 on Twitter) traditional Stollen. A mix between a cake and a bread as it contains yeast, Helen’s stollen had the usual marzipan running through the centre but used her favourite dried fruits of cherries and mixed peel to flavour it.

Back to Blighty with Suzanne’s (@suzanneellacott on Twitter) version of Mary Berry’s Mincemeat and Cranberry Christmas Cake. The cake is a lighter version of Mary’s rich celebration cake that I normally bake at Christmas. Suzanne spiked it with brandy (I’m sure Mary would approve) and decorated it with holly from her garden and some dried cranberries. The marzipan topping looked extra festive with the addition of some dried cranberries kneading into it.

We were treated to another delicious Mary Berry recipe from first timer Clare and her Whole orange spice cake. To make the cake you start off by boiling a whole orange for a frightening 20 minutes before pulping and then adding to the rest of the cake mixture. On the top was a stencilled festive icing sugar dusting. If you don’t want a fruit or chocolate cake at Christmas this really is the cake for you. It was definitely a hit with us as the plate was left bare at the end of the afternoon.

It was also Jen’s first Clandestine Cake meeting, who had come to us from Seattle via Ireland. However, Jen also went down the Italian route with her version of panforte di Siena. Jen’s version was lighter in colour as it was the more traditional version without cocoa. I put figs in mine but Jen added her favourite of cherries. We both found it rather hard to cut into slices but this is due to the high nut content in the cake. Thankfully to eat they weren’t tooth breakers but instead very chewy.

Our third first timer was Alice who spiced up a Mrs Beeton’s recipe for date and walnut cake to make a starry present loaf cake. To make the star ‘crater’ she used a star shaped cutter to take out part of the cake and then refilled it with icing and edible glitter.

Our final cake of the afternoon was Jane’s (@JaneHuckerby on Twitter) own creation of a sponge cake with mincemeat topped with a flurry of icing sugar. If you shun mince pies simply because of the pastry make this instead. It’s simple and light but the ideal alternative to the heaviness of traditional Christmas bakes.

After we had chomped through the festive feast it was time for the Secret Santa. I got some violet flakes from Cocoa Wonderland while my daughter got a mini spice and zest grater. Needless to say these were soon swapped and we were both very happy with our gifts. After that it was time to pack up our boxes with our takeaway cake and leave Christine to clear up the cake destruction scene!

Since April cake baking in Sheffield has changed with the formation of the Clandestine Cake Club. For this we have to thank Karen for starting up the Sheffield group and thinking up imaginative themes and finding terrific locations for us to meet in. So hurrah for 2012 and all the cakey loveliness it has bought us and onwards to 2013 with two meetings planned already. Join us in January for some healthy cakes and in February for Valentine’s cakes at www.clandestinecakeclub.co.uk

Finally thank you to other bakers who came and shared their cakes with us and of course to Christine and her family who so generously opened up their house to us.

Sheffield Clandestine Cake Club – Back to the 1950s

Sheffield Clandestine Cake Club – Back to the 1950s

In these austere times the Sheffield Clandestine Cake Club decided to return to a time when Britain was still trying to recover from the ravages of the War. For the first time I was accompanied by my six year old daughter who informed me that she wanted to do a chocolate cake. While I didn’t doubt that there would have been some chocolate cakes in the 1950s I felt it needed to fall more in line with the theme. While reading one night (yes, it was a cycling book) there was a mention of Rock ‘N’ Roll and then I realised we had to make a chocolate Swiss roll or a Choc ‘N’ Roll.

The first attempt didn’t go well as the recipe says to whisk 4 whole eggs with caster sugar until frothy and light. After this sieve in the flour and cocoa powder. However, the egg mixture was still runny at the bottom when we put it into the tin as it hadn’t been whisked enough and it had taken too long to sieve in the flour. Once cooked the cake had an eggy pancake like coating on the bottom. I tried to peel it away and then roll it but it just ended up falling apart. A quick glance at another recipe and it said to whisk for 10 minutes and prepare the flour first. Thankfully, take two worked and the light, chocolate sponge was a delight. Daughter wanted to fill it with homemade strawberry jam (which I can’t take credit for) and chocolate buttercream and finally we had a cake to take with us.

For my cake I decided to make a banana, pecan and maple syrup cake. Bananas were the last item to come out of rationing in 1954. My Mother has told me that she remembers eating her first banana and my Nan had to show her how to peel it.The VW Camper Van is reference to their first appearance in 1950.

I don’t actually like bananas once they have ripened (and that’s putting it mildly) so Daughter had to mash them for me. All the ingredients went into the loaf tin and the recipe said to to top it with the remaining pecans plus dried banana chips and a drizzle of maple syrup. I was a bit a dubious about this as I thought the topping would get crozzled. After the baking time was up my instinct had been right as although the cake was cooked through the top was burnt. I had to salvage the pecans, as I had no more, and the banana chips as there were no more left in my packet of fruit and fibre (remember – austere times). The top was cut off and the pecans and bananas replaced. Back a decade to ‘Make do and mend’!

Once the cakes had cooled there was just enough time to put on a lick of bright red lipstick (shade ‘scarlet velvet’) and make our way to The Vintage Tableware Company (www.thevintagetablewarecompany.co.uk) on Sharrowvale Road. Our room for the afternoon was beautifully laid out with authentic china teacups and saucers plus lashings of English Breakfast and Earl Grey tea and pots of coffee.

Our organiser, Life Coach, Karen Perkins (@fabcoach) made us a Victoria Sponge Cake using the 1950s housewife’s favourite of Stork margarine. The first television advert for Stork was shown in 1955. Karen had baked her cake in her mum’s 1950s’ non non-stick sandwich tins. It was filled with homemade raspberry jam and displayed on a 1950s’ glass cake stand.

Jane brought with her an eggless sponge based on a Marguerite Patten recipe. Jane first looked to her mum’s Good Housekeeping cookbooks from the era for inspiration. However, she found them to be quite plain cakes except for a few photos showing some iced cakes with some crystallised jelly fruits on top.

The attendance of Hannah, a student dentist, proved to us that cake eating obviously has no detrimental effect on oral health. Hannah had made a chiffon cake which became popular in the 1950s after the recipe was first published to the public in 1948. Hannah’s was a lovely lemon feast with a lemon curd filling and lemon icing. Sadly Hannah wasn’t able to take home any of her cake to her hungry student friends as we scoffed the lot.

Just as ‘Great Britsh Bake Off’ has a showstopper we were treated to our own version with Karen Willsmer’s ‘Orange Creamsicle Cake’.

Karen had found that towards the end of the 1950s with the austerity years ending cakes started to become a bit OTT. Inside the amazing piped frosting was four layers of sponge with a secret ingredient of orange gelatine injected into it.

It was Sian’s second appearance at a Clandestine Cake Club gathering and therefore her second homemade cake in about 10 years! Sian went back to her childhood with her ‘School Victorian Sponge’.

‘Baby boomer’ Paul remembers growing up in Glasgow in the 1950s when cake making ingredients were still at a premium. Anyone who could cobble together enough eggs, flour, sugar and butter for a cake must have been doing well. Paul’s mother didn’t use recipes but was able to make cakes by sight of a picture and add whatever she had. Paul for his cake added cherries.

Deb made her Grandma’s favourite of a fruit Genoa cake which requires the eggs to be separated and the whites whisked in. This cake was a must for Sunday tea at her Grandma’s house.

Betsy made her version of Caraway Seed Cake based on Jane Grigson’s recipe in her book ‘English Food’. This has ground almonds in it and proved very popular with the cake eaters.

Christine used a Date and Walnut Cake recipe from Guardian columnist Dan Lepard. Apparently he got the recipe from a lady who had an antiques shop on Kensington High Street and she used to give it out to her customers. The cake had an added ingredient of malt extract in it.

Nine year old Fleur went full retro with her perfectly presented Pineapple Upside Down Cake. The cake had extra zing with some ginger and the pineapples were brightened up further with some glace cherries.

Last but not least was our second Jane of the day with our second Date and Walnut Cake. This one was a round cake topped with a lemon icing.

It was difficult to get a taste of all the cakes in the time allowed especially as we were tempted by the gorgeous vintage china in the adjacent shop. Good job that we had the chance to fill our tins with cake treats to take home. Thank you to Karen for finding us yet another great location and thanks to The Vintage Tableware Company for hosting us and keeping those wonderful teapots filled with tea and coffee.