Winter Warmers at The Cowshed, Buckshaw Village for South Lancashire Clandestine Cake Club

 

Yeah, cake club for our 25th meeting (wow that's a lot of cake !) of the South Lancashire Clandestine Cake club we paid a visit to COWSHED on Buckshaw Village, we had a supper turnout of bakers having 13 cakes in total all to our seasonal Winter Warmers theme.

Quite a few of the bakes featured interesting spice combinations and the bakers excelled themselves with their fantastic decorations. Travelling from far and wide we enjoyed ourselves on a wintry blustery afternoon in this funky coffee shop in the heart of the newly created village.

You can find the Cowshed on Barnes Wallis Way (of Bouncing Bomb fame) just behind the Tesco, there is parking just outside the door and lots more in the area. The coffee shop is open 7 days a week and late on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The coffee is amazing and the decor is great and suitably cow themed.

On to the cakes, what a wonderful selection including several which where gluten free and two amazing "Bonfire cakes".

Spice Raisin bundt cake by Helen F

Chili chocolate olive oil cake by Katherine

Lemsip cake by Caroline (Honey & Lemon)

Sticky Toffee cake by Carla

Bonfire cake by Helen B

Spice Coconut cake by Kate

Apple and Cinnamon loaf by Ange

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Date Bundt Cake by Kate G

Plum cake with warm mulled wine syrup by Sarah

Bonfire Cake by Amanda

Also not photographed individually was a Ginger and Coconut cake (sorry Helen R) this is the large white cake with the Christmas Trees in the large picture and also my Ginger Zinger Cake which you can see here.

Internal shot of the Bonfire Cake by Amanda showing layers

If you are in the area the Cowshed is definitely worth a visit.

CCC No 12 - We Heart Cake - Joint Clandestine Cake Club and WI Meeting

South Lancashire latest cake club meeting was a first (as far as we know) for the Clandestine Cake club movement, we held our Valentine's Day meeting as a joint meeting with Buckshaw Village Womens Institute, despite only 4 bakers from the cake club attending the meeting, it was a great success with the WI members rising to baking challenge and doing us proud by baking lots of lovely cakes.

The meeting started in the traditional manner with WI business and the traditional song of Jerusalem, we were then entertained by Sue from Heaven on a Plate and fellow cake club organiser to her talk on her "one women's battle with marmalade" and making marmalade to competition standards.

We then got on with the business of the cake club meeting, after a brief introduction on what Clandestine Cake clubs are all about and the social etiquette of such meetings, we also celebrated the publication of the Clandestine Cake club cookbook and two members who have recipes in the book, each signed each others copies.

Now on to the cakes, which included from a golden syrup heart, lemon curd cake, chocolate,rum and cola cake, double chocolate cake, lemon lime yoghurt bundt and magic bean cake  and many many others. All of which were very delicious, necessitating  lots of tea and coffee to be drunk to offset the inevitable sugar high. Baking secrets were swapped and much perusal went on of the cookery book.

Buckshaw Village WI is a relatively young group both in terms of formation, being only just over 1 year old but also in its membership and fortunate enough to meet in a state of the art school in the centre of a newly built village. Everyone had a great evening and lots of cake aways were taken home to share a great cakey evening with family and friends. If you are interested in joining the WI please contact your local federation.

                                                           

My bakes for the evening are both featured in the Clandestine Cake Club cook book, one is my "Magic Bean Cake" recipe and the other a recipe from another cake clubber. I will be making a seperate post as a review of the book, so check this out for the magic bean cake recipe and details of this great publication.