After a very exciting email and phone conversation with a
researcher at the BBC One Show offices last Friday afternoon, I was asked to
rally the troops and get 4 or 5 Clandestine Cake Club members from our
Cambridge club for a filming opportunity this Monday evening. It was all in the
name of the Great British Bake Off Final and with Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry
planned to be in the BBC One Show studio on the Tuesday (the evening of the
Great British Bake Off Final), they wanted to film some Cake Club members
talking about how the show inspires them, etc.
With the next Cambridge Clandestine Cake Club being hosted
on the Tuesday night, hosted by myself, in a pub in the centre of Cambridge, we
had planned to be watching the final with our home baked cakes, all inspired by
the show and the contestants, so this is why we were picked up for said feature
on the BBC One Show, it was very exciting for all involved.
The small group of us that were going to be part of it used
the weekend to preen, clean our homes, bake a cake impressive enough to appear
on the goggle box and wow the judges in the studio... however, a small issue
arose on Monday afternoon... Paul Hollywood couldn’t make the studio on the
night of the Final, so he pulled out of the feature, which meant we weren’t
going to be filmed. A real shame, but, it didn’t dampen the Cake Club
spirits...
We still hadn’t heard from the show and we weren’t sure what
was happening, until an email at around 4pm told us they wouldn’t need to film...
gutted, both for Lynn at the CCC (as it would have helped drive more people to
her fabulous free cake club, get yourself on their now if you love cake!!) as
well as for the lovely ladies who had agreed to take part and who had baked and
cleaned as much as I had done so over the weekend in anticipation, with none of
us knowing who’s house they wanted to visit, it was unorganised and rushed to
say the very least.
Good old BBC haha.
After a quick chat with the lovely Lynn and some
encouragement to not let this fine cake display go to waste, it was only
natural that the hostess in me would kick in and invite these lovely ladies
over to my house after work for a mini tea party of our own to celebrate the
Great British Bake Off Final.. a warm up to the main event the next night,
helping us to limber up and get into the swing of cursing our least favourite
of the judges and moan about the Bake Off challenges and concoctions.
Queue Cambridges’ smallest Clandestine Cake Club so far, 3
guests with simply 2 cakes baked by our very own fair hands, with my 3 layer
Raspberry & Vanilla Cream cake with Plum Jam and the lovely Kelly’s Lemon
Drizzle Pound Cake which was an American recipe handed down to her by her
grandma, it was gorgeous. Rachel also came along and helped to tuck into the
cakes (it’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it ; ) and my two new American
friends (it was bizarre for all that they were both American as we didn’t know anything
about each other until we met!) told me the best places to go for Bagels in the
US and in the UK.. noted on all scores! Food was, of course, the conversation
from start to finish and I have loads of research to do for next time I’m in
Liverpool and need somewhere to eat, hurrah!
Another Rachel, who couldn’t make it in the end, but had
baked as well, enjoyed eating her cake from afar, whilst she revised for an
upcoming exam. She sent me a photo in honour of our little celebration and we
missed her dearly, she is a fab guest from our previous Cambridge Cake Club
meets and we missed her dearly - Good luck in your exams missy!
As well as some savouries chucked into the oven at short
notice to feed my hungry guests straight from work, I made sure there was some
chilled out music and “Amelie” on the gogglebox in the background for a little
ode to everything I love about coffee, tea and cake.
I love the fact that a TV programme, such as “The Great
British Bake Off” can bring a room full of cake bakers (and eaters) together in
a passionate evening of cake geekery. No, scrap that, TWO passionate evenings
of cake geekery.
The cake was BBC’s loss, our gain, as well as our office and
families afterwards ; )
Miss Sue Flay
x
See more on the Great British Bake Off Themed Event the following evening here:
I love the show. Great for mothers too.
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