Clandestine Cake club meeting 2

 June brought the second Clandestine Cake club meeting of the Buckinghamshire club and if you read the first meeting your know it was an amazing do with lots of lovely ladies coming together who all have a passion for cake.

I was the last to arrive as i had Sophie in tow today and its only fair seeing as she helped make the cake,  We were all briefed on the theme weeks in advance and it was jubilee as we have just celebrated the Queens diamond anniversary so anything royal is a must. the secret location for this meeting was disclosed to us the day before and it was at Seasons cafe, Rowan Garden centre in Chalfont St Giles, a small independent garden centre with a charming coffee shop attached to it over looking a paddock of horses which Sophie enjoyed looking at.

 As we arrived we were greeted by our ever smiling and wonderful Chairlady Arden who welcomed us in and help organise the event.  Not only that but it seemed in one meeting our band of bakers had doubled with lots of lovely new shiny happy faces all eager to share in the cake passion. There was even 2 men that braved this clan of cake ladies, and that was really great to see as they brought to the table their own thoughts on flavour and favourites of the treats that were laid out.

 As you can see from these amazing photograph all taken by the very talented Mandy ( Big thank you ) the new ladies that joined showed off some amazing skills in cake baking and chocolatiering there was an array of amazing chocolate cakes which i think i the most difficult to make as mine always end up a bit dry, but the flair for adding biscuits in one and tempting intense flavours of chocolatiness in another was to die for!!! Not only that one lady manages to create a chocolate crown and paint it in metallic edible paint WOW! and the skills didn't stop there look at the amazing white chocolate crown cake above all hand cut and see the pretty pattern on the chocolate, i will have to ask how to do that at the next meeting.

The Chocolate cake didn't stop coming it was a dream come true and this one, a chocolate cloud cake was a flour less cake and this gave the cake a gorgeous fudge texture and topped with piles of fresh cream was so naughty but so very nice.

Apart from the Chocolate cakes there were many other varieties one clever lady decided to do something a little difference with this historical bread based spicy, nutty and fruit Bolo Rei Portuguese King cake, and it was a winner with all that i saw tucking into it.

 This Ginger cake was Divine and inspire by Prince Harry it had deep rich flavours and topped with lovely icing.

 Margaret one of the ladies from the first meeting really pulled this wonderful cake out of the bag inside was centre of juicy chopped strawberries marinated with mint and her butter icing was one of the best i tasted that day and she told me that she had found that golden sugar was the key if a little tricky to find in the stores this is a must try for sure.

 If you ever want to to know how to make the perfect red velvet cake Ginny is your lady the colour was perfect and her light fluffy cake sponge was utterly divine as was her butter icing.  We were totally spoilt as another lady also brought a red velvet cake too and Arden and i loved taste testing them as the second was was clever and slightly different as it had a spicy favour to it Arden thought cardomon may have been used and had to go ask the baker if this was so.

 As for Arden the Queen of cakes she never fails to disappoint and treated us all to the 3 tiered fruit cake how spoilt are we, two different jams at least you didn't feel too naughty while you tucked into it with the choice of fruit.

 As for me and Sophie we made this jubilee cake, and i had some crazy idea going round my head on how i could use my cake pop maker and put cake pops inside another cake, i really wasn't sure if it would work but thought hell lets give it a try, the cake pops were pink and had a strawberry taste and sat inside vanilla sponge i think the contrast of colours looks great, although i wouldn't cut the cake in half next time as you loose a little of the polka dot look and think next time will cover a polka dot cake in butter icing, i was nervous to cut into it as i hadn't tested this cake but happy when i did as all was ok.

Mandy Who took all these wonderful photos made a Kir Royal afternoon tea cake and put a lot of effort into her jam using Kir as Mandy described it looked like a giant scone and it was actually the first cake i made a bee line too as i loved her apricot and yoghurt cake from the last meeting.

What a wonderful afternoon we all had lots of new and old people to greet and chat with while talking over scrumptious cake and sharing recipes not only that we all got to take slices of each others cake home too, i wonder what the next meeting will have in-store for us all.