Friday 25 April 2014

Let them bake and eat cake…

On Wednesday we joined in the Clandestine Cake Club meeting at Le Grand-Pressigny, organised by Jean.

IMG_8412 Tim baking his first ever cake.

His favourite, date and walnut. All went well until the cake came out of the oven. He believed the recommended cooking time, and had faith in our oven thermostat!

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It came out very slightly singed, but he took it along anyway! It tasted rather good, and in retirement he will be assigned the role of i/c date and walnut cake baking!

I am altogether more experienced at baking, but even so my cake also had it’s problems! My favourite cake would have to be carrot cake with a cream cheese frosting. I decided to use a recipe that I’d never used before. My good friend, Sue, gave me a Paul Hollywood recipe book for my birthday. The book is in the UK, so I found his carrot cake recipe online and adapted it to include some of my favourite ingredients, and to fit in with the contents of my store cupboard and fridge!

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IMG_8423  Grating carrots is an awful task! Usually I would assign such a task to Tim, but he was busy with the fosse!

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In honour of the inaugural Loire Valley CCC event my cake became a Carrot, Cointreau and Clementine cake. 

A big thank you to Jean and Nick for setting up a Loire Valley branch of the CCC and for hosting our first, very successful event.

A few other photographs of the event…

IMG_8442 Jean.

IMG_8441 A wonderful array of ‘favourite cakes’.

IMG_8445 Tim and Elizabeth.

IMG_8443 Waiting for the tasting to commence.

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And we all did… eat cake,eat cake and eat cake!!

9 comments:

  1. Wow what a great idea. I am not a great cake lover , but am partial to a piece of Carrot cake :-) not so much on the icing but I am sure everyone had a great cake tasting time. Love the name for your cake too.

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  2. It was very good, I can vouch for that... It did look like it was expecting a baby cake though!! Keep it up Tim. C

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  3. The take-away of the Carrot, Cointreau and Clementine cake has received huge praise from a friend who devoured it with much gratification! I agree that Tim's cake was very tasty...I don't mind a visual disaster if it tastes yummy! However, those gel cases collapse and still need to sit in a metal tin. Teachers know that 'practice makes perfect' and always keep an eye on what's cooking in the oven!

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  4. The cakes look fantastic..what a great time looks to have been had by all. Somehow , some good old English baking always goes down so well in France. Nipping out to the patissiere is one thing...but nothing beats cakes like these.

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  5. Stuart asks if he can make a cake when we come over!! ;)

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  6. Looks like fun. Nigel is off to a week long cookery course in August held in La Rochefoucauld, he is really looking forward to it. Most people are staying there, but as we are so close, N will go in each day and he got a special price :) Keep well Diane

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  8. My friend is part of the Clandestine Cake Club in Cleckheaton. I think a French Loire Valley club sounds a wonderful idea - and obviously went down a storm. I mooted the idea a year or so ago, no one was interested... such shame! Glad you enjoyed it. Axxx

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  9. More often than not my mum would slightly overbake most things so it was a very familiar taste for me.
    (I think it was her obsession with not undercooking food to avoid an upset tummy that was to blame!)
    For a very first attempt it was a brilliant cake and delicious too, so well done Tim!
    And your CCC cake was really lovely too (mustn't give all the credit to Tim, just because it was his "first time"!). It was also delicious and I am very fond of the traditional cream cheese frosting.

    Thank you for taking part in the event and helping to make it such a success. I was thrilled with the way people got properly into the spirit of the thing!

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