Tales from the Meadow
and
A Giant Meadow Cake
PLUS Giveaway!
On Wednesday the 22nd July, Londoners were surprised and amazed to see a HUGE four metre long cake in front of Liverpool Street station! Weighing a staggering half a tonne, this giant cake depicted a typical scene from an Irish meadow, complete with cows, hay bales, a pond, trees and even a farm-house and a cottage! This stunning creation was part of a collaboration made in cake heaven with Kerrygold, that most wonderful of Irish butter producers, and renown sugar artist, Michelle Wibowo. The cake was laid out like a piece of rolling Irish countryside outside the station and all the passers-by were offered a slice of this buttery edible Irish meadow! The cake served up OVER 3,000 slices, now that’s what I call a REAL show stopper cake, as Mary Berry would say!
The cake took over 160 hours to make, I’m not surprised and was certainly the talking point of the day with all the commuters. If you have a burning desire to see how the cake was made, as I do, then you can pop over to YouTube here to see how it was constructed: Surprising Londoners with Kerrygold’s Meadow Cake. The cake was made with 30 kilos of golden Kerrygold unsalted butter, and everything was edible, event the hay bales and the cows! So why did Kerrygold decide to make this giant cake, well, following research it was revealed that nearly half of all the British public have never been to a country meadow, so Kerrygold decided to bring a slice of the meadow to the city, complete with Kerrygold grass-fed cows, whom I’ve met on a recent trip to Ireland.
Other staggering facts that were revealed in a poll of 2,000 British adults were:
– More than one in 10 Brits (11%) even admit they’ve never heard a cow ‘moo’ in real life.
– Almost 22% of the UK has never made daisy chains in a country field, according to the research. Among those who have, 60% haven’t made a daisy chain in the countryside for more than 10 years.
Research even revealed that six per cent of the 2,000 adults we polled thought the National Trust was either a bank, a video game or a boy band.
Almost 3 in 10 Brits (29%) don’t know what Pooh Sticks are. And, 43% have never played Pooh Sticks in a countryside stream.
A further 12% of Brits believe that a Kissing Gate is either a special garage door, a celebrity scandal, the way that people walk when they’re with their lover or an album by an American rock band.
This big city disconnect from the UK countryside means nationwide knowledge of British nature is diminishing at a worrying pace too. For example, the Kerrygold study reveals that 10% of the UK believes that cows produce Mcnuggets, Mutton and eggs.
Funny though some of those facts are, they are terribly sad, and if this giant meadow cake managed to revive memories of idyllic countryside days, or the desire to visit the countryside again, than that was all to the good. Kerrygold marketing manager, the lovely Gemma Singh whom I met when I was in Ireland recently said: “We firmly believe that wonderful countryside is a huge asset for the nation and it is also really important that we make every effort to enjoy it”, I totally agree with her and if a product such as butter made with grass-fed cows, as Kerrygold butter is, ignites a wish to visit the countryside with their families, then as I said before, it all has to be to the good. And, I think this idea of bringing a little bit of the countryside to the city was a brilliant idea, even if I missed out on enjoying a slice!
As well as this giant meadow cake, Kerrygold have also published a book as part of their Tales from the Meadow campaign; the book called The Tale of City Sue, by renown children’s author Jeanne Willis and Irish illustrator Dermot Flyn, will enchant all readers, both young and old. It’s a tale about a city cow, Sue, who goes to live with the free-range country cows and discovers a whole new way of life. At first she’s a bit scared of some of the weird things they do – like eat grass – but she soon realises it’s actually a pretty cool way to be……I have read the book and I LOVE it! With some really wonderful illustrations, the book is allegoric, with the underlying tale of factory farming versus fee-range farming as one of its prime messages.
Kerrygold have very kindly offered all Lavender and Lovage readers the chance to win one of THIRTY copies of this charming book, and all you have to do is leave a comment below, in answer to the question, “Which is your favourite farmyard animal and why?” So do enter, there are lots of chances of winning a book for your son or daughter, or grandchildren and it’s one of those books which is great fun to read together as a family. That’s all for today, if you were one of the lucky people who had a slice of that giant meadow cake, so leave me a comment below, I’d love to know what you thought of the cake when you saw it and tasted it! Karen
*Commissioned Post*
Giveaway:
30 x The Tale of City Sue Children’s Books
To enter this Giveaway, all you have to do is the following:
1. Complete the Rafflecopter widget below to verify your entries – ONE mandatory questions will appear, which you need to answer by leaving an answer to the question shown above at the bottom of the post, before going back to the Rafflecopter form and hitting “Enter”.
2. Entries are by blog comment only.
3. Closing Date: 31st July 2015
GOOD LUCK!
Karen
All my other current giveaways are here:
Lavender and Lovage Giveaways
I have always loved kid goats because they are not fussy with their food (ie they eat anything) an they are known to be mischievious!
The Pig whose intelligence and love of company is often overlooked
I love the chickens, they always seem to be such busy bodies love to watch them.
Pigs, without a doubt. They are so intelligent and contrary to popular belief they are actually clean animals. It’s humans who make them dirty!
I adore lambs! They bounce!
I love sheep because they are so cute
i love black and white cows
i love pigs, always makes me think of Wilbur from charlottes web x
My favorite farm animal is the cow. I love their big eyes, and they seem so gentle.
Chickens because they give lovely eggs, but baby goats are hilarious and always make me laugh. Really I just love all animals!
Do love border collies. 🙂 We had one who wasn’t used for herding sheep, but she was so intelligent. When she wanted to go for a walk she would bring your shoes in. If you said “that’s the wrong shoe” (for which person she dropped it at the feet of) she would keep going until she brought 2 of the right person’s shoes in. 😀
I love the cows, such gentle giants x
I’m a dolphin fan, such beautiful creatures.
Well I was going to say my favourite Farmyard animal is a Dolphin, but Tina beat me to it!?!? 🙂
So I’ll say a Horse, love watching them galloping around the fields.
I like sheep because my girls think they look like marshmallows!
Chickens because they’re so interesting and lay eggs and the kids love their wandering and pecking x
Lambs because they just look so sweet
Cows, cows are super ultra cool with their funky black & white outfits and their moo moo language.
Lambs as so cute and like feeding them
Got to be the little cute ducklings
Pigs, because they’re so intelligent & full of personality!
We love making chicken impressions here
A cow i am crazy for black & white animals i love cows there so cute
chickens i love watching them busy pecking away
I like pigs as they look cute and as if they are having a lot of fun whilst rolling around in the mud!
Goats because they are So playful
I love pigs!
I love the chickens,
I love goats 🙂
I love the sight of new born lambs – signifies the start of Spring!
Sheep! Especially lambs, super cute
I like lambs- they’re the cutest animals every and my daughter absolutely adores them cause they are nice and fluffy
Sheep, because they’re cute and dumb
Goats because they’re so funny 🙂
Pigs! They are such comical creatures and so friendly too.
I love sheep!!!!
Lambs! Because they are just adorable – I love to pet them and can’t wait until my baby boy is old enough to go to the petting farm.
Pig 😀 Love there cute little snorts!
I love pigs, have done ever since I was a little kid there is just something about them the way they roll in the muck and wallow is so me lol. Piglets are super cute too.
I’d love a pig poor pig would get blamed for everything, From burping to nicking the cookies ……well have to blame someone.
Lama as they are so fluffy
My favourite book as a kid was The Discontented Pony – I just loved that story and because of that my favourite animals are horses
I like Ducks I love their colours and how they waddle, and if they have ducklings in tow, oh so cute.
Horses. They’re beautiful and run with such grace. Love seeing them with their foal too
i love ducks, i have 3 pet ducks and they are so funny, they follow me everywhere too
I like Rabbits. They are so cute and cuddly.
Sheep because they are fuzzy and friendly. Plus my children love them.
I love pigs. They just do their own thing
Piglets as they are so cute.
Goats – they’re completely bonkers!
Goats are hilarious and so definitely are my favourite!
Sheep because they look so cuddly with all that wool.
I love cows, they are so cute and give tasty milk 🙂
I like chickens, the way they move their feet is so funny
Pigs , they are the most interesting to watch.
I love cows, they seem so happy and content with life. They are also my children’s favourite animals so we have spent a long time looking and finding them whenever we are out and about at farms or in the country etc 🙂 xx
I love donkeys…they always have a sorry looking face…ive always said if i win the lottery i would love to open up a donkey sanctuary
The one I love is the big fat pig
Who uses his pink nose to dig
The other thing that’s favourite makin’
Is the smell and taste of lovely bacon.
I like the farm cat. They spend their time catching rodents, having fresh milk and cream and sleeping in a cosy spot.
Love pigs – they are amazing when you are close up to them
Cows, they so laid back and you can clearly see their individual character traits just by looking at them.
Pigs! We love pigs! They’re just so… oinky!
Cows because they are so cute and have amazing eyes.
I love pigs, always have, not sure Why! I collect the “piggin” series too by David corbridge
Sheep especially cute little lambs so fluffy and adorable me and my little one absolute favourite
Cows! Can’t beat Highland cattle, both beautiful and functional ☺
My favourite farmyard animal has to be geese. They made the best guard ‘dogs’ ever!
we love ducks cause they are fun to follow around the farm
Calves – as I used to help rear them as a teen
I love cows as they look cute plus they provide milk
I love sheep dogs, as we used to have one and they remind me of him 🙂
Sheep, especially lambs as they are super cute!
For us, its the ducks, because we like the noise they make. QUACK!
chickens cause i love fresh eggs 🙂
I like cows…always have. Cows are gentle creatures…they never cause trouble.
horses
My dad keeps pigs so we have a bit of a soft spot for them. My daughter loves the funny noises they make 🙂
I love pigs! they have super cute little faces and i love how their snouts get into everything!!!
sheep because they are cute 🙂
Sheep – the fields around where I live are full of sheep so they always remind me of home
I love horses as they are so beautiful
I would have to say pigs because they’re so cute! Oink Oink!
Chubby little piggies – so lovely x
Ducks! I just love them, couldn’t tell you what it is but they have always had massive appeal for me. I’d love to own Aylesbury ducks one day 🙂
I like horses, because I can ride them – and they are also pretty smart