Macmillan World's Biggest Coffee Morning

We at the Cambridge Cake'n'Bake Club have been bitten by the Charity bug this month, and would like you to join us in raising funds for some very worthy causes. On the 28^th of September this year the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning is going to be taking place. This is a fantastic one day fundraising event hosted by Macmillan Cancer Support to raise money for people with lives affected by cancer.

Our friends over at Baking Mad have let us know about a fantastic new competition that Silver Spoon, the official sugar sponsor for the World's Biggest Coffee Morning, are launching as part of their activity. On the 24^th August 2012 Silver Spoon and Macmillan are launching Silver Spoons Little Local Hero Awards. They are scouring the country for local heroes under the age of 18 who have done something truly special. Your local little hero could have looked after their little sister when they were ill, gone to great lengths to make Mother’s Day very special, or done something fantastic to raise money for charity.

If you know someone under 18 in your local area who you think would be a worthy winner, just follow this link and explain in less than 100 words who you are nominating, why, and what you would bake them to say thank you

www.macmillan.org.uk/littlehero

Master Pâtissier Eric Lanlard, star of Channel 4’s Baking Mad with Eric Lanlard, will choose a Silver Spoon National Little Hero and to celebrate he will bake them a special cake of their choice! 10 runners up will also receive a Silver Spoon Baking Hamper packed full of exciting treats.

There are sure to be some amazing stories from our local little heroes all over the country, but in the meantime don’t forget to register to hold your own coffee morning on the 28^th September, just follow this link and you can help to raise money for people with lives affected by cancer. http://coffeeregister.macmillan.org.uk/2012/register.asp. And, if you're planning you're own coffee morning don't forget to head over to your local Marks and Spencer's Cafe to pick up The Little Book of Treats - it's a fantastic little recipe book with lots of great ideas for luxurious treats to bake and sell at your coffee morning. 

Most of the recipes were submitted by celebrities and celebrity bakers, but if you pick one up you might recognise a familiar name - we're in it! It's only £4 and all of the proceeds go to Macmillan, so we'd definitely recommend you head to your nearest M&S Cafe to pick one up - they'll be on shelves from 5th September.

August - Blooming Great Tea Party

The meeting house where we usually hold our events was closed for Summer Holidays in August, so we decided to take the opportunity to head outdoors and have a picnic themed meeting. Joy virtuously suggested that we turn this into a Blooming Great Tea Party to raise funds for Marie Curie Cancer Care - so that's exactly what we did!

We all headed over to Churchill College and spent the afternoon drinking tea and lemonade in the glorious sunshine whilst tasting eachother's delicious bakes. And, as we didn't have a room hire charge, and as we'd all invited lots of friend this time we managed to raise a tasty £105.22 for Marie Curie!

So, what did we all bring? What didn't we bring! Catherine baked some Mini Blackberry Bakewells, some Chicken Rolls, some Mini Pizzas and a Coffee Marble Cake, Jen baked an Iced Chocolate Cake and a Banana and Walnut Cake, Lorna baked some mini-quiches and a Walnut and Blueberry Cake, Ruth baked some Thyme Shortbread and a Tomato, Onion and Cheese Roll , I baked some filled Picnic Rolls, some Jammie Dodgers, an Angel Cake and some no-bake Peanut Butter Fudge, and Tom baked some yummy apricot buns!

Smiley, happy bakers and their smiley, happy guests!

Stacey's Olymp-bic Medals

Whilst I wasn't able to attend the meeting this month, I didn't want to miss out on the non-Olympic baking fun! I was sat watching the Olympic Opening Ceremony last weekend, and got a sudden urge to bake - so here's my take on the non-Olympic theme: gold medal biscuits to give to people for non-sport related achievements, like this:

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 12-15 minutes

Makes 16 medals

Ingredients:

100g margarine

85g caster sugar

Almond flavouring, to taste

4-5 cherry drops, crushed

170g plain flour

100g white chocolate

Gold edible shimmer spray (I LOVE this stuff!)

Writing icing, to decorate (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
2. Beat the margarine and sugar together until pale and creamy, then stir in the almond flavouring, crushed cherry drops and flour until the mixture comes together to form a dough.
3. Lightly flour the work surface, then roll the dough out to 1 cm thick. Cut circles out and place these onto the prepared baking tray, leaving at least a cm gap between each. cut out a small circle at the top of each cookie for the ribbon, then bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown. Leave to cool on a wire rack.
4. Once the cookies are cool, thread a little bit of ribbon through each. Melt the white chocolate and then spread generously over the top of each cookie, then leave to one side to set.
5. Once the chocolate has set, spray the cookies gold by following the directions on the can of edible spray. Use your writing icing pen to write on each medal why the receiver deserve this Olymp-bic medal - favourites of mine were "champion eater" and "best helper" :-)