March - Mad as a March Hare!

For this month's meeting, we decided to embrace all things MAD. Baker's were invited to come up with something a little bit topsy turvey - and they delivered!

We had a savoury layer cake from Gemma, and sweet sushi from Joy. Sally brought some inside-out carrot cake muffins, Laura S offered up some cookies made with chickpeas, I baked beetroot and goat's cheese brownies, Tom made us some dinosaur cookies which we had to construct ourselves, and Aileen's peppermint cupcakes were mad as a box of frogs!

We're all mad here...

February - The One I Love

For February we decided to have a little walk down memory lane by baking our favourite cake or bake from a previous meeting... and it was lovely! Sadly, not many of us could make it so it was a small meeting, but we still ended up running over our time and being kicked out by the wardens!

Joy baked Sally's Venezualan Pan de Jamon from our Around the World month, Mary-Anne baked my Princesse Torta from our Eurovision Bake Contest, I baked Lorna's Pecan Cake from our Fairytale Picnic, and Tom baked Sally's Chocolate Orange Spiced Cookies from our first Christmas together. Since Ollie hadn't been for a while, and Gemma is a new member, they decided to bake some of their personal favourite recipes - for Ollie this was a triple layer Red Velvet Cake, and Gemma made her infamous Chocolate Brownies. Needless to say, we all loved them!

June - Jubilant Jubilee

Given that we were given a 4 day weekend immediately before our June meeting, we thought it would be apt to continue our celebrations of Ma'am's Diamond Jubilee by baking the best of British recipes. We also had Union Flag bunting.

The bakers really showed their sweet-tooth this month - not a savoury in sight! Catharine brought in two delicious goodies: a Home-Grown Rhubarb Cake and a Berry Cheesecake, Jen treated us to a Bakewell Tart and some Jam Tarts, Katrina wowed us with her Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes, Sally baked a beautiful Blueberry and Raspberry Battenburg, Stacey baked a rather large Champagne Victoria Sponge, Tom baked some amazing Shortbread Crowns, and new member Zeena baked an Iced Almond Cake! A feast fit for a Queen...

May - Around the World in 80 Bakes

This month our bakers decided to escape the wet and windy Spring we're seeing to take a round the world trip from the comfort of their kitchens. Each baker was randomly assigned a country on which to theme their baked treat, and we all had a lot of fun finding, baking and eating something different!

Angel baked some delicious Mamon from the Philippines, Catherine baked an Andorran Croques, new member Jennie baked an Icelandic Iced Prune Jam Sponge Cake, Joy baked some Jamaican inspired Mango and Coconut Tartlets, Lorna baked a Lithuanian Napolean Torte, Sally baked a Venezuelan Christmas Bread - Pan de Jamón,  Stacey baked some Singapore Red Bean Spiral Mooncakes, and Tom baked a delicious Apple and Plum Strudel for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

We all had a lot of fun with our different countries, and there are quite a few countries left so this could be a theme we revisit in the future!

April - Eggcellent Easter!

We've gone a bit Easter mad over at the Cake'n'Bake Club, but it's been a great month for trying new things. We also realised that when it comes to baking, mini-eggs are the key ingredient for making your recipe Easter-y.

A few of us thought that tonight would be a chocolate over-load, but when it came down to it there wasn't much chocolate at all. Catherine baked a Raspberry and Amaretto Cake, Charlie baked a Lemon Sponge (filled with home-made lemon curd to boot!), Jaymes baked some Melting Moment Cookies, dipped in chocolate and covered with crushed mini-eggs, Katrina baked some Orange and Lemon Cupcakes, Lorna baked some Chocolate Chip Hot Cross Buns (to cater for those of us adverse to raisins...), Olly baked a Blueberry Pie, Sarah baked some Traditional Hot Cross Buns, Stacey baked a Lamb and Apple Pie, and Tom baked his mum's Traditional Simnel Cake!

We also handed out the prizes to the winners of our Easter Baking Competition, pictured below are Sarah and Jaymes with their goody bags at the meeting, and Katrina, who couldn't come to the meeting due to a last minute change of plans, dropping off her cupcakes and collecting her goody bag. Well done again to the three of them for their wonderful Easter-y creations!

March - Baking in Bloom

For our March meeting, we decided to welcome in the Spring by setting ourselves the challenge of baking something with a floral theme.


This time we welcomed two new members, Olly and Lou, who made some Vanilla Cupcakes decorated with fondant roses, and some Mojito Cupcakes (respectively). As for the regulars: Angel baked some Flower Cookies, Charlie baked  Lavender Shortbread, Joy baked Sunflower and Sesame Seed Flapjacks, Lorna baked Lemon and Poppy seed Cookies, Sally baked some Poppyseed Bagels, Sarah baked a Chocolate and Guinness Cake (Guinness is made from hops, and hops are flowers!), Stacey baked some Flowerpot Bread, and Tom baked some Bread in the shape of a flower!

This month both Tom and Stacey decided to take on photography responsibilities - yet even with two of us doing it we still didn't manage to get a photo of all the bakes together - so here's a photo of a plate full of goodies!

To give you an update on the valentines competition we entered - we came third!

See http://www.bakingmad.com/blog/2012/02/valentines-blogger-competition-winners/ for full details, including the AMAZING 1st place cupcake and cake pop bouquet!
Everyone agreed that it was great fun to do, and that we'd like to get together to do something similar again, so watch this space!

February - Be My Valentine

Wow, we certainly pulled out the stops and showed our sweet side for our Valentine's themed bakes!

Can you believe we forgot to take a "group" photo for the second month running! 

Not a single savoury in sight! We had a really nice mix last night of first time Cake'n'Bakers (new to the club, that is!) and regulars, and the abundance of sugar made the volume in the room quite high at times! This time round Sarah treated us to some Red Velvet Whoopie Pies, Joy made some Blackcurrant Bakewell Tarts, Craig made gooey Chocolate and Maple Syrup Cookies, Sally invented a Cherry Chili Chocolate Cheesecake, Charlie brought her Red Velvet Cupcakes and Stacey made some Cake Pops - it was a labour of love! To introduce our new members and their bakes: Becca made a Bakewell Tart (with homemade jam to boot!), Lorna made a Marmalade Cake with Chocolate Ganache, Oli made an impressive Fruit Cake, and Tom brought some traditional Ginger Bread.

Needless to say we all left feeling slightly nauseous after that lot, but it's an unwritten agreement that we do try at least a little of everything! Kudos to Joy for being the Champion eater on this occasion!

We also had some great news today - we entered this blog into a competition with Baking Mad, and we were one of 15 selected to receive a sample of  Silver Spoon and Neilson Massey products to use to create, photograph and blog about our ultimate Valentines bake. The prize for winning the comp is a bit bounty of cutters, silicone bake-ware and posh flavourings, which we'd share amongst the group at our March meeting.

Once we've received the samples and know what we have to work with we'll all be pitching in ideas and voting for the one we'd like to take forward, which we will then get-together to bake! The closing date for publishing our competition entry blog-post is Tuesday 14th February, so watch this space! In the meantime, we'll be sharing our recipes from this month's meeting.

Happy baking!

January - New Year, New You

Happy New Year!

I forgot to get a snap of all the goodies together, so here's a collage.

For January's meeting, we decided to follow the New Year theme by baking something entirely new - a dish we've never attempted before. This was a fairly small meeting, with only 4 bakers (plus one guest!), but we had such a giggle and managed to almost over-run our time in the room!

This time Joy made some ginger and chocolate cookies, and some cranberry and chocolate cookies; Sally made some delicious sausage rolls; Sarah made delicious chocolate eclairs; and Stacey brought in some Macaroons (or Macarons, if you like)

We didn't have much left over at the end, which is a testament to how tasty everything was! Looking forward to February...

December - Fabulously Festive

Delicious Festive Treats

For our December meeting we went with what only seemed natural for this time of year: "Fabulously Festive". Various festive bakes were made - including some savory ones this time - and we had a good old Christmas shindig, complete with cheesy Christmas songs, crackers and paper crowns! We also had a bit of a growth spurt this meeting - clearly baking is everyone's cup of tea!

There are a mixture of experienced and beginner amateur bakers in the group, but yet again the quality of the bakes were astounding. Craig's second ever attempt at baking was equally as successful as the first, with some lovely cinnamon and almond puds. Charlie's gingerbread biscuits were both delicious and beautifully decorated, and Joy's nut-roast tartlets went down a treat! Stacey bought in a few "cupcake selection boxes" containing 3 different varieties of Christmassy cupcakes. As for our new-comers, Rosie and Angel, being of Swiss and Bulgarian descent (respectively) bought us some traditional festive treats based on their mother's recipes- from Rosie a Swiss chocolaty biscuit and from Angel a Bulgarian feta-filled pastry (both of which I've forgotten the real names of, but I'm sure Rosie and Angel will update!) Sally baked some amazingly gooey spiced chocolate orange cookies, Catherine treated us to some pear and cranberry pies as well as some traditional gingerbread, and Sarah blew us all away with her sausage rolls, veggie rolls and cuter then cute reindeer cupcakes!

Doggybag time!

Although there were more mouths to feed this time, there were also more bakers present so we ended up with a lot more leftovers, and each took away a decent sized doggy-bag!

Looking forward to next time already!

November - The Signature Bake

In order to get to know each other at our first ever meeting, we decided to go with "The Signature Bake" as a theme. The Cake'n'Bakers were invited to bring along something they had a bit of a reputation for baking, or otherwise their favourite cake to bake (or eat!)

Charlie brought along some amazing banana muffins, Craig baked a gateaux (which was extremely brave for his first ever baking attempt!) Joy came with some yummy stained-glass-window cookies, and Stacey contributed a rainbow cake! The quality of the bakes was fantastic - and we all left with very full tummies!

Next time we'll be going with a festive theme, but in the mean time our recipes will be coming this way soon!