CCC No 18 - Back to School Sweetie Favourites - South Lancashire CCC - Tootsies, Botany Bay, Chorley

Not to be confused with an Australian penal colony, South Lancashire Clandestine Cake Club paid a visit to Botany Bay near Chorley. Our August meeting was kindly hosted by Tootsies an amazing ice cream parlour in this retail mill, who serve some amazing looking ice cream sundaes and desserts, we had planned to hold the event in the garden area but as the weather had turned chilly we decided to re-locate inside to the cosy ice cream parlour instead.

The Cake selection

We were also fortunate to be joined by Lynn Hill for our event, the founder of the Clandestine Cake Club movement. Lynn was having a very cakey day by visiting Bolton cake club earlier in the afternoon but joining us for our meeting.

Lynn Hill (Founder of CCC) and myself

Our theme was a celebration of Back to School recollections and your favourite sweetie treats from the tuck shop. Members old and new arrived with some fabulous interpretations of the theme and we were pleased to welcome back chief cake taster Theon as well !

Wonderful cakes !

• Liquorice Allsorts Cake
• Dolly mixture cake
• Parma Violet Cake
• Rhubarb and custard cake
• Sherbet Fountain Cake
• Lemony Lemonade cake
• Curly Wurly Cake
• Chocoholic cake
• Courgette and nut cake

Tootsies were great hosts catering to all our needs and the ice creams and the amazing array of cakes attracted lots of attention from the general public too.

We also had two members who got mixed up on the date but still baked some great cakes, a pick and mix cake and five centre bar cake.

Clandestine Cake Club Cook Book

I may be biased as I have a recipe in this cook book, but I think that this an absolutely beautiful book and set to be one of this years best sellers, I am so glad that the publishers haven't gone in for over egging the pictures and lots of fancy decoration, as this is a book of honest to goodness homestyle cakes. 

                                                         

All Clandestine cake clubbers are avid home bakers and the recipes in the book reflect that, relatively easy recipes with creative thoughtful twists, you just know they are going to be a success and so far all the one's I have baked have been. The book has a practical wipe clean cover which is essential in my kitchen and is helpfully divided into the following sections

• Classic Cakes
• Victorian Cakes
• Fruity Cakes
• Global Cakes
• Zesty Cakes
• Chocolatey cakes
• Celebration Cakes
• Creative Cakes

There are hints and tips on icing and frostings and what to do if you have a cake wreck, all regular cake clubbers have experienced these, myself included when I dropped a cake on the way to a meeting ! the book also has the history of the cake club movement and tells you about Lynn Hill the founder.

Clandestine Cake clubs are now a world wide phenomenum, so I suggest you get out a buy yourself a copy pronto !

My recipe is featured on page 68/69 and is a Magic Bean Cake which I originally baked for a theme of "Full of Beans", in celebration of the launch of the cookbook I baked this recipe for cake club again plus a Lemon, lime and yoghurt cake as contributed by Kate Dickens on page 131.