Cake International Manchester 2013 - my experience of entering the competition!

 

Have you been to Cake International? It's been running for many years, but I've been to the Birmingham one for the last three years.  The first one, I drove there from Manchester with my mum, spent a fortune on goodies and came home full of ideas, and totally in awe of anyone who entered the competition, thinking it wasn't anything that I'd ever do myself.

 

The second and third years I went with cake friends and stayed over near the NEC. It was a really social experience, spending time in person with 'real live' cake friends, not just chatting to them over the internet! Each year different friends entered the competition and, with them, I lived through their anguish beforehand whilst making their competition piece, their nerves when waiting for the judges to announce who had been awarded what grades, and their joy and sometimes disappointments at how they had been scored.

 

But I hadn't ever entered the competition myself. Well, I lived in Manchester, and the cake had to be delivered to Birmingham before 8.45am on a Friday morning, and I had work, or had to take the children to school, so I couldn't possibly get it there, could I?

Good enough excuse I thought.

 

Then Cake International moved to Manchester. And not just Manchester- to Event City, which is less than ten minutes away from where I live in Urmston. So the 'I can't get it there' excuse was no longer relevant. Hmmmmmmmm.

 

So, when the time came to think about buying my tickets for CI, it was crunch time.  Was I going to buy a three day pass? Or enter the competition and have a three day pass because of it? So I entered the competition. I read through the rules of each class and decided on Class B: Celebration cake with all edible decoration.

 

 

I decided to stick with something I knew I could do. Some people enter CI to really challenge themselves, and hats off to them for doing it. There are some absolutely fantastic pieces there, such as this amazing piece from Rhu at Pimp My Cake By Mama Rhu. But I thought I'd make a cake which I'd make for a customer, and just have fun making a cake I enjoyed. Which is exactly what I did.

 

I like making cakes with lots of detail. Cakes which make you look a little bit closer. Cakes which have decoration at the back as well as at the front. So I kind of went to town with it on this cake.  I didn't stress, I didn't worry, I just enjoyed making a cake that I wanted to make.  So far so good I thought.

 

On the morning of delivery I was still fairly relaxed about the whole thing. Until the point of putting it on the table. Then I started to feel nervous. Lots of people would be looking at my cake over the next three days. The judges would be scrutinising it in a matter of hours. People might wander past it and criticise it. I might be there and hear them! Suddenly I wasn't quite so calm! But I felt confident enough in my cake to think I might be awarded a merit, and if I was lucky enough to get a bronze, then I'd be thrilled.

 

After taking the children to school, and going home to bake for a order, I returned to CI at about 11am. As soon as I arrived I went to the competition area and saw a judge with my cake! Suddenly I felt very sick.  Suddenly it really mattered to me what this person thought of my cake, and I needed to know as soon as possible. 

Then I, and other cake friends, waited for the results to be announced. And waited and waited and waited. Three o'clock came round and I had to leave to collect my children from school. On returning home I was glued to my laptop, waiting for Rhu to let me know what the results were. Then Rhu posted a picture for me.

 

Stunned. Totally stunned. In fact I think my first response was 'Noooooooooooooooooooo!' But completely and utterly pleased and proud. Thrilled that one of my cakes, one I'd make in the same way for a customer, achieved a gold at Cake International!

 

Quick jump to Sunday afternoon, and the award ceremony, and not only did I manage to meet John Whaite (winner of GBBO) who presented my certificate, I was also awarded best in my class. Here's me with a daft grin, and trying not to cry!

 

 

Happy caker :)

 

And just because I have one, here's a picture of Mary Berry with my cake. Well, almost with my cake. I'd like to think she was at least looking at it!

 

 

Would I enter CI again? Yes I think I would. I might even step out of my comfort zone and enter a class I'm not so confident in. I have a few ideas forming.......

 

So that's it, my journey to Cake International Manchester.

 

Any ideas how many eggs the Easter Bunny hid in the garden?? ;0)

 

 

How to make homemade chocolate pudding and toffee sauce

 

Looks lush doesn't it? Let me tell you.....it is! ;) My other half even said it was the sort of pudding you could serve in a restaurant- high praise indeed!!!

 

So without further ado, let me tell you how to make it for yourself.....

 

For the chocolate pudding (to serve four) you will need:

50g unsalted butter

50g caster sugar

2 eggs

90g SR flour

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

 

What to do:

1. Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the eggs until the mixture is light and fluffy.

2. Sieve the flour into the bowl, add the cocoa powder, and beat in until fully combined.

3. Pour the mixture into 4 buttered bowls or ramekins. 

4. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until risen.

5. Tip out of the moulds and serve with toffee sauce and vanilla ice cream.

***IMPROVISATION ALERT*** I don't have ramekins, or four suitable bowls to use for this recipe, so I used mugs.  Yes that's right mugs that you'd normally have your cuppa in. Worked a treat. You can grease the inside with butter or, like I did, spray Fry-Lite, or Cake Release into them before adding the raw mixture. The cakes just tipped out when it was time to serve them :)

 

For the toffee sauce you will need:

170g butter

260g soft light brown sugar

2 tablespoons water

1/4 teaspoon salt

180ml evaporated milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 

What to do:

1. Put the butter, sugar, water and salt in a saucepan, over a medium heat and stir until melted and combined.

2. Bring to the boil for 3-5 minutes until the toffee sauce thickens to the desired consistency.

3. Remove from the heat and stir in evaporated milk and vanilla.

 

Easy as that!!

 

So now you've decided that it's easy enough to make, we'll have another picture of it to convince you to make it sooner rather than later....

 

 

Let me know if you make it and what you think of it!

 

 

www.mariesbakehouse.co.uk

 

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How to make Anzac Biscuits

Last week my eldest daughter Grace had to do a talk at school. She had visited The Imperial War Museum North with her Dad and younger sister Alice, whilst I was poorly in bed. So she decided to talk about her visit there. We also talked about what could have been baked during a war and came up with Anzac Biscuits. I'm sure you know about these already, but if you don't....

They are made from butter, golden syrup, water, bicarbonate of soda, oats, coconut, flour and sugar. Anzac biscuits were made by the wives and girlfriends of soldiers to send them in the war, to cheer them up and keep them fighting fit. They do not contain anything which will go off quickly, so were ideal to last the journey to the battlefield.
Anzac Day is celebrated in Australia to mark the first anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the first world war.

So we decided to make a batch of them for Grace, and her class mates, the teachers and teaching assistants....and a few left over for us too- we made five batches in the end!! They are yummy, and taste like you are having something healthy with the coconut and oats!!

Here's how to do it.....

 

 

The ingredients:

 

85g porridge oats

85g dessicated coconut

100g plain flour

100g caster sugar

100g butter

1 tbsp golden syrup

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

 

What to do:

 

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/fan 160/gas 4.  Line 2-3 baking sheets.

Put the butter and golden syrup in a saucepan and melt together.

 

2. Whilst that is melting measure the dry ingredients and mix them together in a large bowl.

 

 

 

3. Put the bicarbonate of soda and 2 tbsp boiling water in a cup and mix together quickly, then tip it into the melted butter mixture and stir quickly.  You'll get a lovely bubbly mixture with lots of air incorporated into it.

 

4. Tip the melted butter mixture into the dry ingredients and mix everything together until fully combined (forgot to take a pic of this bit-sorry!)

 

5. Roll the mixture into walnut sized balls and place on a baking tray a few centimetres apart to allow room for spreading. It makes about 20 biscuits. Excuse the paper on this photograph, this was batch number five baking now! Bake in batches for about 8 minutes until golden.  Leave to cool on the tray for a couple of minutes then transfer to a wire wrack to finish cooling.

 

And here they are finished.  Really yummy :)  Crunchy round the edges, chewy in the middle. They'd also be good with some raisins, chopped dates or maybe cherries or ginger added.  I might try that next time.  Have a go and let me know what you think x

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