A little bit of cake bakery

It's national bread week this week and Real Bread month is coming up in May, which means all things bread related have been getting lots of media coverage. There have been recipes in the Daily Mail, some great articles on the rise of artisan bread and the return of British millers in the Independent, and a one hour special on Scottish bakers on BBC Scotland's The Kitchen Cafe. All great news for Real Bread lovers and bakers everywhere.

Meanwhile, never one to miss a good marketing opportunity, I have been busy making cake! I like cakes. I like making them and eating them, but I'm not great at decorating them. I don't have the steady hand and nerves of steel required for it but once people know you can bake they tend to ask you to make things for them. Simple cakes like banana bread are my forte but I like to give more ambitious things a go from time to time with often amusing results.

This week I was commissioned to make a cake to celebrate a 10 year anniversary at work. I warmed up by making a massive pile of delicious gooey River Cottage chocolate and beetroot brownies to sustain me, then got to work.

My cake of choice was Edd Kimber's Bakewell homage; a three tiered almond sponge, with raspberry frosting which I pimped up with some icing and shiny hand painted stars. Now mine didn't look quite as beautiful as Edd's version on the BBC Food site, more like a slightly messy version of the Disney cake in Sleeping Beauty that I used to fantasise about as a child, but I was quite proud of myself none the less.

The downside to all these baking commissions are that you don't get to taste the finished result, so I've no idea if it was edible but judging by the amount of drink flowing in the room I
have a feeling the party goers may not have been that discerning by the time they got to cutting it! It was great fun to make and if a good time is had by all then I think that is all that a cake really should be.

Springtime Community Fever

Hello blog, remember me? Time seems to be on fast forward at the moment and with the clocks going forward, the sun shining and the lambs in the fields it feels like the world is waking up again. Here on the west coast of Scotland we have quietly been enjoying a blue skied hiatus in the weather whilst the wind from the east blows unseasonable Siberian chill and random blizzards over the rest of the country. On some days I have even detected something I believe is known as 'warmth' in the suns rays and generally have been feeling cheerier as a result.

My 'power of two' plan, where I try to buy two things each week from local businesses and producers, also seems to be working and over the last few weeks I've enjoyed: bacon & black pudding from Edenmill Farm, honey & jam from Heather Hills Farm, hot chocolate from Cup in Glasgow, cheese from the Blanefield Deli, rapeseed oil from Stark, and a bag of delights including shortbread, yoghurt, vegetables, olives and fish from various local businesses at the Killearn monthly Country market.

The market runs on the first Saturday of every month and is a proper community venture, set up by locals to support local businesses and bring local produce to people in the village and surrounding areas. By the time I arrived after my post-baking nap at 12pm the hall was buzzing with people and the stall holders were smiling as most of their produce had already been snapped up. Better yet, for £2.50 you could sit down for a cup of tea and all you can eat home made cake with profits going back into the community to support the village tennis club. I came away feeling re-motivated about the idea of living locally and inspired by the people in the community who work so hard to make sure it happens.

Over Easter I had a little taste of that myself when I ran the first Hels' Bakehouse pop up shop in the Blanefield Village Club on Good Friday. The hot cross bun sale was a sell out and I was touched to see so many people taking an interest in what I was doing and coming along to buy some buns and find out more. People were full of ideas about how to build the business and really interested in the whole concept. It's always good to have some reassurance that you are onto a good thing and I'm looking forward to the next opportunity to do something similar. May is Real Bread month so I think some kind of event will be in order, but first I think I will just sit back and enjoy the fact that Spring is in the air and that local life is good!