First Clandestine Cake Club Meeting SW France
A Clandestine Cake Club meeting in SW France
Clandestine Cake Club
Lots of CAKE for an Easter Weekend!
Chocolate Orange Cake with Flake Nest, Mini Eggs & Wafer Daisies
Spring into Spring with Flowers!
Theme:
Spring! Yes, I know that there is still some snow on the ground and it’s still cold enough for the electric blankets, but as the FIRST South West France meeting is at the beginning of April, trust me, Spring will have arrived by then! And what comes with the warmer Spring days, FLOWERS; so the theme of our first meeting is Spring Flowers. Anything floral is acceptable whether it be sugar craft roses, floral icing & buttercream, foraged daisies or edible violets, we want to see a spring in your step and flowers in, on and around your cakes!
Date & Time:
Saturday 7th April 2012
6pm to 8pm
Venue:
An old village house in a quiet Estuary village near Saujon and Gemozac; formerly an Auberge and Traveller’s Inn. Refreshments will be available and will comprise selected teas and tisanes, fresh coffee and home-made fruit & floral cordials. If Spring has not arrived, there will be log fires too!
Spring into Spring with Flowers!
The first Clandestine Cake Club meeting for the SW France group met on Saturday 7th April in an old coaching Inn in near the ancient Roman city of Saintes. The theme, as you may already have gathered, was Flowers and Spring, and the evening was warm and sunny, so there was no need for log fires. I had eight bookings for people to come, and I was delighted with the response, especially as eight bakers plus their guests seemed like a great number for the first meeting – eight cakes and just enough people so it would not be too crowded! The reality was that only THREE people turned up, including myself…….now, it would be easy at this point to be extremely negative and even drown my sorrows with an early glass of wine, but, I am an optimist and I would like to draw on the positives of the evening. Barb brought a lovely fresh lemon and almond cake with a lemon curd filling; she had only just flown into France five hours before the start of the meeting = POSITIVE! Jan brought a gorgeous Easter bonnet cake, made with chocolate and decorated with some of her hen’s feathers; she and her husband are building a house and just hours before she came, she was feeding the under floor heating wires in with her husband = POSITIVE! I made a fresh orange cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting, and decorated with a flake nest and mini eggs, as well as some wafer daisies; just two hours before the cake meet, I was weeding and cleaning out the oven, NOT at the same time I hasten to add = POSITIVE! With a special mention to my friend Lynn, who was desperate to come, but due to last minute work commitments, she missed it……but, she is UP for it next time she said.
Three cakes and three ladies to eat them!
The result of our first SW France CCC meeting? Fabulous! Initially disappointment at those who didn’t turn up and who didn’t let me know, but then a wonderful evening of friendship, catch up and chat, tea, coffee and CAKE, because after all it’s all about CAKE! I AM planning a second meeting at the beginning of June, and will post more details on a special page that I will publish on my blog, as well as on the CCC site too. With thanks to Barb and Jan who made cakes and came along, and also to my husband who swelled the ranks for a while and enjoyed the cake. The biggest thanks goes to Lynn Hill, the remarkable lady behind the Clandestine Cake Club……..a fabulous idea and I am thrilled to be part of it. I will leave you with the THREE cakes! Happy Easter all and see you soon, Karen.
Karen, Moi = Fresh Orange & Chocolate Cake with Mini Eggs and Wafer Daisies
Jan = Chocolate Easter Bonnet Cake with Noodle Nest and Hen's Feathers!
Barb = Fresh Lemon and Almond Cake with Lemon Curd
They look fantastic! Hope you had a nice time. I love cake club because it’s the chance to natter about cake then scoff it! X
Thanks Rachel! You have it in ONE! Chat, cake and scoff! LOL!
Hi Karen, what wonderful cakes and so sunny, Spring like, floral and colourful. I’ve used those edible floral decorations on small cakes. There may have been only three cakes, but they are fantastic looking cakes at that.
Thanks Lynn….my plan was to make a cake with crystallised violets, by my husband cut the grass whilst I was away late week and with it the violets!
Brilliant Karen. What a lovely start and the cakes have me drooling. We don’t have our first meeting until next Sunday. Can’t wait.
OH fabulous Jac, I cannot wait to see what you bake and take…..and have fun won’t you? I am sure you will!
Happy Easter, Karen. Wow, the three cakes that you did have look gorgeous! My homemade lemon curd would be good for the yummy almond cake and I love any type of chocolate cake too! A great start particularly for rural France! Xx
Thanks Ren, I decided to make the whole evening a positive event and we did have fun and the cakes were JUST lovely too – I have asked my friends if I can share their recipes on my blog, and they said yes, so I will be posting all three recipes over the next week. 🙂
Well you know what? You made cake. You ate cake. Youre in French France Things could not be better in the world. I will be at the next one. Especially if the ratio is one person per cake!! Love you xx
THANKS Dom! Mwua right back and I expect you at my next CCC meeting en France! 🙂
What a spectacular trio of cakes they are all so inspiring. I may well be copying the Easter Bonnet for my daughter to take to school and share on the Easter Bonnet Parade Day, next year. Jude x
Thanks Jude, my friends are going to send me their recipes so I can share them here, so look out for the Easter Bonnet cake!
What delicious looking cakes. I am very jealous as would love to be living in SW France AND be a member of your group.
Linda, there is always room for a passing visitor if you come to France! Thanks and Happy Easter!
The cakes looks fabulous!! Well done on your first cake club even though the attendance was small but it does mean a lot of cake for all :)I’ve only been to one cake club so far and would really like to go regularly but sadly work and distance does not allow it for now. Hope you had a great Easter x
Thanks Ros, it did turn out to be a lovely evening and the cakes were LUSH too! Have a lovely Easter weekend! 🙂
If only I lived closer !!! This is my sort of club !
Thanks Kate and a very Happy Easter too!
Those cakes look wonderful! Shame about those that didn’t come but a splendid effort from the 3 that did! Well done!
BIG thanks Jayne and all the more cakes for us too! 🙂
Happy Easter – what a great cake line up. Shame I don’t live closer!
Wish you did live closer you could have made it FOUR cakes!
Happy Easter – what a great cake line up. Shame I don’t live closer!
PS: Happy Easter to you too and thanks!
What a great start to your CCC venture. Lovely cakes all and I’m sure the numbers will build as people start to hear about it.
Thanks Janice, we are a rural area here, and I think some people didn’t fancy the drive! The cakes were lovely though…..
That is the BEST array of Easter cakes I have seen this year, Bravo. People have been going crazy for my Provencal Lavender Honey to tuck into at tea time.
Thanks Celia! Hope you had a Happy Easter!
I would love to have been there – the cakes look excellent. Cake is, of course, one of my favourite things and I love that area of France. Funnily enough, I had an excellent chocolate cake in Saintes a few years ago – can’t remember the name of the restaurant, sadly. Maybe I’ll get back there one day – I hope my favourite bar up the road in Bignay is still there.
Thanks Phil; there are several excellent pâtisseries in Saintes, down the main road mainly as well as two near St Pierre church in the back lanes around there. As for the bar at Bignay, I may need to explore that area to see if I can find it now!
Oh, so much chocolate and so many mini eggs! I adore mini eggs, as well as Cadbury’s creme eggs – but I only let myself eat them around Easter and I haven’t started yet. (Which may have something to do with the local Sainsburies not having any last time I visited). Shared on G+