Last night I had the pleasure of attending the Edinburgh Cake Ladies first event of 2012 at the uber earthy Earthy Foods Cafe. I say uber earthy because this cafe is all about local, fresh, in season, and good for the environment...organic veg, free range eggs, fair trade coffee and fully biodegradible diapers under one roof! Not to mention that local artisanal cakes and pastries and lunch time goodies.
This is the fourth bake I've been to and I have to say it just keeps getting better and better. These ladies (no gents this time) know how to bake...and more importantly they know how to eat and work the cake buffet. 21 cakes this time...all different...and all incredible.
My colleagues at work think I am totally bonkers when I blab on and on about the Cake Ladies and the great people I have met and our mutual love of not just eating cake but baking it. It is so apparent that each and every cake I have ever tasted at the cake ladies has been born out of love (and maybe a few stressful tears) and that's what I enjoy the most. These ladies love to do this, some are in the food industry, some are just setting out (more on this another time) and some...like me...wish we could quit our day jobs and do what we love. Bottom line is the Cake Ladies don't judge...
I arrived a little bit late and the feeding frenzy had well and truly begun, but I managed to get a couple of snaps before the plundering really took hold. Two of my faves in the foreground of this picture Made By Fi's moorish Bakewell Cake and Michelle's gorgeous Raspberry Ripple. Ashamedly I didn't manage to eat them on the night...but snuck two rather large slices home in my doggy bag! Two I didn't manage to get a decent picture of were Edinburgh Eats' luscious Espresso Chiffon Cake and Sophie from Scottish Food and Drink Fortnight's Parsnip and Maple Syrup Cake (I know...parsnip...so great!)
One of the bonuses (if there were any) of arriving fashionably late was that my cake plate was infact a Cake Slate Plate! I don't, as a rule, like slate plates...but for cake it was incredible...more like a platter, actually! On here you can see Lea's drool worthy Tipsy Trifle Cake and the lovely Helen's Red Velvet Cake (my all time favourite cake flavour).
The other piddly piece on the slate? Well, that's mine!
My family favourite...(Nearly) Dead Apple Cake, which I blogged about way back in September 2009. I have to say my reasons for picking to make this cake were numerous, but I mostly picked it because it is one of the first cakes I learnt to make, it is one of the first cakes I ever made for David when we met at university, it is one of the first cakes I ever blogged about and it is probably my comfort cake. It makes me think of so many happy times, and also the time the ants got into it at my mum's house one summer and they came crawling out when it was sliced...but, thankfully that didn't happen last night.
Victoria, I do admire you arriving late, I'd have been camped at the door at least 10 hours before the start! What a superb selection of delectable cakes, next time can you take a doggy bag for me?
ReplyDeleteEvery time you write about the cake ladies I am transported back to the 'cake walks' we used to have in elementary school, where all the amazing cakes were laid out on a display table, and if you were lucky you got to go home with one as a prize. As always, it sounds like such fun.
ReplyDeletehow fantastic! I am so intrigued... parsnip and maple syrup cake?! sounds awesome.
ReplyDeleteI'm in awe of this Cake group....to be able to get through taste-testing that many samples is amazing!!! I guess it's the cake lover's equivalent of "dying and going to heaven" !!
ReplyDeletelucky lucky you....
mummi-ji
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