Wednesday 28 March 2012

The Taste of Spring

Last weekend we took some time out of the kitchen to enjoy the warm spring sunshine.

As we lay in the park watching families play rounders and couples walk dogs, our thoughts turned to carefree Sundays when we were small.

Remember how exciting it was to pack a picnic with ham rolls, cucumber sandwiches, Victoria Sponge slices, beautiful biscuits and fizzy pop.


We may be a few decades older now, but those early memories have stayed with us and we still love nothing better than delicious home made treats.

So inspired by the wonderful weather, this week we've been planning our Easter menus.


So how do you fancy a zesty lemon cake sandwiched with our signature lemon curd, flapjacks with juicy sultanas, freshly baked blondies, or, my personal favourite, Easter nests with chocolate eggs?!


With those festive flavours of spring, even if the weather takes a turn for the worse, it will still be sunny at The Cakehouse.

Wednesday 14 March 2012

Brilliant Bake Offs

As you know, at The Cakehouse we LOVE cake! So imagine our delight when we were asked to judge not one, but two bake offs!

Fired up with thoughts of moist cakes filled and topped with juicy jams and sweet icing, we headed to the Coffi House on Wellfield Road for the Roath Bake Off. The event was organised by local socialite Wayne Courtney, and what a feast he arranged!




The selection was varied and the standard high - how do you decide between spinach and goats cheese muffins, fruit tarts, pies, red velvet cakes and classic victoria sponge?!




Well, after tasting and deliberating (and tasting some more!) we gave each of the entries a mark for taste, presentation and originality, then finally we found a winner.
 
Kate Lloyd-Hughes's Earl Grey Chocolate Fudge Cake was creative and delicious, with an unusual combination of flavours that complimented each other beautifully in a light and moist sponge. There were also prizes for Lisa Watts with her Sticky Toffee Walnut Tart and Stefanie Lehman who baked a Pineapple Praline Creme Torte as well as a special award for 6 year old Silas - his chocolate covered Weird Cake which was green inside!

And thanks to all the bakers involved the bar has now been set for 1st April.



That's when we'll be judging the Spring Cake Off, and we hope you'll be involved too. All you need to do is pick up an entry form at The Milkwood Gallery or the Coffi House, and decide what to bake. Then at 2pm on 1st April bring your cake creation to The Milkwood Gallery.

We can't guarentee you'll win, but we can guarentee it will be a great afternoon - it may even be the tastiest event you'll visit this Spring!


Thank you to www.roathcardiff.net and @craftycakes on Twitter for providing us with pictures of the Roath Bake Off