Winning Ways

On the day I was born my Nana came to visit me in hospital. As I lay there sleeping she turned to my mum and said "she has a determined mouth that one" and how right she was!

Determination is definitely a strong characteristic of mine, and that can manifest itself in a competitive streak - I want to be the best at everything I do.

And we firmly believe that at The Cakehouse too. We always use the best ingredients and our cakes are baked to perfection.

But that doesn't mean we don't want other people to do well too!!

So we were over the moon when we were asked to judge the Spring Bake Off in Roath yesterday.

The competition, organised by the wonderful Wayne, was held at Milkwood Gallery where people gathered from right across Cardiff to enjoy the warm weather, the marvellous music and of course the cake creations.

The standard was high, but after tasting, nibbling and munching our way through the entries with our fellow judges (Nicky from Your Last Mouthful, Christian from Loves the 'Diff, T.J. Crows and social media writer Allan Beaton) we eventually found our winners.

In 3rd place was Gareth's Victoria Sandwich, cleverly disguised as an albino hedgehog. Our next runner up was Daniel who baked a lemon and poppy seed cake, which was a favourite with several on the judging panel. But the overall winner was an Easter Celebration Cake, made by Ann who said she'd only been baking for about a year.

And it wasn't just the bakers who were in winning ways on this sunny Sunday - our Cakehouse competition also came to an end. We promised to give away a cake to one lucky winner as soon as we reached 1000 followers on Twitter, and that happened yesterday. So congratulations to @FannyIngabout (or Jane as she's really called!) who'll be receiving her prize too - a first class cake from The Cakehouse.

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