Cake and Bake Show 2018 and Bake with a Legend

This week I made bread with one of the finalists from the Great British Bake Off. It's not every day that you can say that!

I was lucky enough to get a free ticket to the Cake and Bake Show for the Friday, and lucky that my husband offered to take a day off work and look after our seven month old baby. I wasn't gone for the whole day but I did miss my little girl, though she was quite happy with daddy!

The show is a mixture of stalls selling everything from cakes and fudge to cake decorating equipment to kitchen knives, with three demonstration stages and a handful of other things to do - for instance one of the cake decorating stalls had a table where you could sit and be shown how to make a simple sugar flower, or you could get your nails done for free by students from a beauty college (the first time in seven months I've worn nail varnish I think!).



Jane Asher demonstrating at the Cake and Bake Show



Paul Jagger demonstration
 

Bake with a Legend had a stand with none other than Jane Beedle, GBBO 2016 finalist, where you could sign up for a free baking session, so I did. Bake with a Legend allows you to hold an event like a party, hen night or corporate event, where you bake with one of a selection of GBBO participants - or you can sign up to a public session and buy an individual place. It's not cheap - £99 for the public session or £895 for a group of up to 20 in your own home - less than £45 per person if you can get 20 people but I'm not sure how easy that would be, or a group event at £85 per person at one of their locations around the UK for a minimum of 12 people.

It's a great idea as many GBBO fans would love to have a go at baking with their favourite contestant - it's much more than just a meet and greet and doing any sort of baking class usually doesn't come cheap. The company doesn't have any of the actual GBBO winners on their books but there are contestants from different series and whether you were a fan of Howard Middleton or Paul Jagger (who made the amazing lion shaped bread in 2016) you are sure to find someone you like.

At the Cake and Bake Show, I made focaccia with Jane, topped with olives and tomatoes. It was a nice easy recipe - there was even a child taking part who had no trouble with it - but I picked up some useful tips like if your dough is too wet, don't add flour as that changes the ratio of ingredients, but instead add more oil.



Jane was lovely and happy to answer questions about her time on Bake Off, telling us about some of the things she made for her auditions, and that one of her favourite bakes on the show had been Jaffa cakes and the hardest the dampfnudel from one of the technical challenges.

We made the dough and put it in a tin foil tray to take home and bake in the oven. Focaccia only needs a single prove so it did that while I carried it home (it was quite a warm day!) and then I baked the bread later. It was delicious, particularly dipped in a little oil and balsamic vinegar.

I also got to meet Paul from the same series of GBBO who stopped by for a chat.

That was definitely the highlight of my day at the Cake and Bake Show. I realised from looking around the stalls just how much cake decorating equipment I already have! I really must find time to start using it again...

I did buy a few bits and pieces - a set of Lego style moulds that I think I will use for my husband's next birthday cake, some circular cutters (I couldn't remember if I already had any, and they were cheap), a textured mat to roll out icing to make it look like wood, a tiny bow mould and a '40 and fabulous' cake topper which I expect I will get some use out of as I and my school friends all turn 40 next year!

I also had a look at the competition cakes - this is a big part of the Cake and Bake Show. There was a cakes for children section, a wedding cake section, and the main section which had a theme of 'around the world in 80 cakes'. I took a few photos of some of my favourites which you can see below.

If you are interested in cakes and baking and can get to London I recommend the show - I also went to the Cake and Bake Show in 2014 and Cake International in 2012, which were really good as well. A nice day out and of course I couldn't come home without some cake for me and my husband as well!

Cake and Bake Show Masterclass: Eric Lanlard

I had high hopes for the Cake and Bake Show masterclass with Eric Lanlard, but my heart sank a little after I took another masterclass earlier that day (with Mike McCarey of Mike's Amazing Cakes) and realised that it wasn't actually  hands on and instead I would be watching a demonstration. I also wilted a little inside when I found out Eric was demonstrating how to make shortcrust pastry - I had expected something more fancy from the master patissiere. I also wasn't thrilled when I queued early enough (half an hour before it started) to make sure I would be in the front row this time, after not getting a very good view in the Mike McCarey masterclass, then three people pushed in at the last minute which meant I was relegated to the second row. Not off to the best start!

But I needn't have worried - I still had a good view, though I apologise for the quality of the photos, it was near-impossible to not have someone's head in the way from my *second row* position (I'm still annoyed about that!). While shortcrust pastry might sound simple, there are all sorts of tips and tricks you need to know, and it is such an important basic, forming the foundation of so many bakes, that it's imperative to get it just right.

Also, Eric Lanlard - who I knew very little about other than that he's French - turned out to be charming and very funny in person. He peppered his demonstration with anecdotes, including several about his cat - the moment that he declared his life revolved around baking and cats, I was hooked!

Eric described how when he started as a pastry chef - a fairly elevated profession who tend to look down on 'mere' bakers - he expected to be making things like croquembouche from the start, but instead was told to make basic pastry for the first six months. While Mary Berry would raise her eyebrows at using any shop bought pastry, Eric declared there are two kinds of pastry you are allowed to buy without shame - filo and puff. Both are really hard to make yourself and Eric confessed he has never made his own filo!

Eric prefers not to use a mixer when making pastry and said there is a "sexiness" about "getting your hands dirty" (swoon) - you do need to be able to feel the texture as you rub in the ingredients. And speaking of ingredients, "don't even think about using the M word" - margarine. For Eric, it has to be butter all the way.

I learnt some very useful tips like the fact that as baking powder is an active ingredient, and the only difference between plain flour and self-raising flour is added baking powder, if you leave self-raising in the cupboard for a long time the baking powder will die and your cake won't rise. Also, you shouldn't overwork your pastry dough as this will activate the gluten, which is what makes the pastry shrink.

Eric also had a lot to say about the merits of vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste - knowing how he feels about vanilla essence now, I wouldn't dare present him with anything using that or vanilla flavouring! He claims to be able to even smell the difference and compared vanilla flavouring to car air freshener (and worse).

When rolling out your pastry, make sure it is bigger than the dish you intend to line; if you stretch pastry to fit, it will shrink back as it cooks. You should place the pie tin straight on the oven shelf, not on a baking tray, to avoid the infamous soggy bottom.

Eric is a big fan of clingfilm and mentioned it several times; for instance lining a pastry case with greaseproof paper when you are baking blind can damage the pastry and he prefers to use food-grade clingfilm.

Eric spent an hour showing us exactly how to make shortcrust pastry dough and line a pie tin - the fact that it took a whole hour to cover that just goes to show how much is actually involved in making perfect pastry!

Cake and Bake Show 2014

I wasn't going to go to any of the cake shows this year, I really wasn't. We are still in the middle of decorating so I didn't really have the luxury of time, but the main thing was that I still haven't used half the stuff I bought at Cake International in 2012! However, I won two tickets to this year's Cake and Bake Show in London from Renshaw's Facebook, so it really would have been rude not to go!

The tickets were valid for any day and since I was off all week decorating, I decided to use one of my holiday days to do something fun and go on the Friday - I also hoped it would be a lot less busy that day and I was probably right.

I also managed to book myself in for two masterclasses, pastry with Eric Lanlard and cake sculpting with Mike McCarey of Mike's Amazing Cakes, who had come all the way over from Washington State, USA. I knew that there were also demonstrations you could watch on stage throughout the day so I assumed the masterclasses, which cost £8-£10 each, would involve actually doing something. So I was really disappointed when I found that in fact both masterclasses consisted of 50 people sitting in rows, watching a demonstration at the front. In one, I was half way back and couldn't see very well at all!

Having said that I still learnt a lot from both those masterclasses, which I will go into more detail about later (Eric Lanlard is absolutely lovely, did you know that? And Mike is really talented at making 3D cakes).

The Meringue Girls' stand

If you haven't been to the show before, here's what to expect: rows and rows of stands where you can buy products, from small businesses to big brands like Dr. Oetker and Renshaw. Some of them have  mini demonstrations to watch and chatting to the stall holders is really interesting - I met some new people and some familiar faces. The layout is well organised in rows, and you can buy a programme but there are plenty of signs around telling you where the main areas - classrooms, stage etc - are and what time each session takes place. I took my own packed lunch as I knew the on-site cafe would be expensive (which it was), but unlike Cake International, which was almost entirely cake decorating supplies, this show covers baking so there were a lot of stalls selling food you could eat then and there- bread, sausage rolls, chocolate brownies, cupcakes etc. I took a rucksack for convenience and wore trainers for comfort as I knew I would be doing a lot of walking around!

I just want to do a shout-out to some of the people and stalls that I came across at the show:

Blossom SugarArt, where I bought some cookie cutters I'm really excited to use. I think they are also the maker of this brilliant flower mould I used to decorate some wedding cupcakes last year.

They had a few real bargains at the show; I bought this pack of three cookie cutters containing a teapot, teacup and cupcake shape for only £1.

I also bought this pretty cookie cutter and stamp - it includes a cutter in the shape of a dress, which could be decorated either as a party dress or wedding dress, but also comes with a matching silicon stamp which you use to emboss a pattern on the dress. And this was also just £1!


Talking Tables, who had some amazing party decorations and accessories. I was immediately grabbed by three cake stands which are all made of cardboard and fold flat for easy storage - a fish and chip stall, a sweet shop and this, which I couldn't resist buying - even though I probably won't be able to use it until next summer! I paid £15 for this at the show; they have them online for £16.50.

Talking Tables' stand

Culpitt, a cake decorating specialist, from whose stall I bough a pack of 54 Christmas-themed cupcake cases, a pack of 45 gold foil cupcake cases and a pot of edible glue all at £1 each.

 

Sugar and Crumbs, who make naturally flavoured icing sugars and cocoa powders. Some flavours are easy to add in to your baking - for instance, orange zest or a few drops of lemon juice or peppermint essence - but others are not so easy. For instance, if you mixed liquid caramel into buttercream, as I have done before, it ends up a bit runny. So I can't wait to try out this salted caramel flavoured icing sugar!

 I've heard of speculoos before but never tried it - it's a type of caramelised biscuit popular in Belgium and the Netherlands. Lotus makes those little individually wrapped biscuits you get with a cup of coffee, but also now make Biscoff Spread - like speculoos, or a biscuity-version of Nutella that you can spread on toast or use in baking. I got a free sample at the show.






For a long time now I've been looking for cupcake cases that look like little pots - I think they are called baking cups. I found them on the Baker & Maker stand which specialises in unusual and vintage-style baking accessories. I bought two packs, brown stripe and red stripe, each £2.50 for 20. I also spotted these mini chalkboards on wooden pegs which would be perfect to attach to a cake stand or platter of sandwiches, and they were only £1 each. Though I realised later I don't actually have any chalk!



Food Heaven magazine - I thought long and hard about their magazine subscription offer as I would have got a free copy of the new Great British Bake Off book, but I already subscribe to magazines I don't have time to read and didn't want to carry the cook book around all day. Instead, I paid £3 for one of their goody bags and got a canvas tote bag, a copy of Cake Decoration Heaven magazine (worth £4.99 by itself), some fabric-covered buttons and a pot of yellow and green sprinkles. There was also a Renshaw calendar in the bag with a great recipe for each month; I thought initially I might give the calendar to my mum but now I think I want to keep it!

I also spotted Luisa Zissman of The Apprentice fame manning her own Bakers Toolkit stand and signing copies of her book. She's very pretty and surprisingly petite in real life!


I've written before about the time I met Ms Cupcake aka Mellissa Morgan, at a potluck event where I brought some cakes I had made from her book. She said it was the first time she had eaten cakes someone else had made from her recipe (other than the staff in her shop) and so I was quite nervous but she really liked them! Mellissa was at the Ms Cupcake stand at the Cake and Bake Show and recognised me; when I reminded her that I'd made the cakes from her book she actually remembered they were the mint choc chip ones which was really cool. I bought a salted caramel pecan cookie sandwich from her stall - which I forgot to photograph- and it tasted heavenly.


One of the first stands I saw as I came in was Cake Decorating magazine's. They had a section showcasing their partwork magazine and the various freebies that come with each issue, had a man and a woman doing a live cake sculpture (which they said would take all three days of the show - when I visited you couldn't tell what it was going to be yet!) and best of all they were running a competition where you could be filmed making something to decorate a cake. I'd arrived right at the beginning of the show so was the very first person to take part!

I went up onto a podium and shown the cupboard of coloured fondant, plus some tools on the table in front of me. I wasn't filmed myself, as the camera was trained directly on the worktop, and projected live onto a big screen so passers by could see what I was making. I asked if the camera was recording sound as well and was told it was, so I decided to explain what I was doing as I went along.

I could make anything I wanted but the obvious choice was something I had made before; I also didn't know how much time I would have so didn't want to make anything that would take ages, so I chose a sheep. I've explained in a previous post how to make a fondant sheep so I was able to do it from memory, though I was doing it quickly and also got very sticky from the fondant - I asked if they had any icing sugar to sprinkle on the worktop or my hands but they didn't. So my sheep wasn't exactly perfect - but he looked OK-ish. It's definitely harder to work when there is a camera filming you!

It was really fun though and I enjoyed explaining what I was doing as I went along. Quite a few people stood and watched for a few minutes at a time and a couple came up to ask what I was doing, and how I was making it - I think they thought I actually worked for the company whose stand this was! I think I did a pretty good job selling the benefits of edible glue so perhaps I should have asked for a commission! 

All the entries were being displayed on a table and at the end of the three days a winner would be chosen who I think wins a subscription to the magazine. As I was the first person to take part I didn't know how good the standard would be; when I came past towards the end of the day there were only a dozen or so entries (I'm sure some people took half an hour or more over their creations!). The second entry was a pig, I assume inspired by my sheep, and someone else had made a unicorn and someone else a butterfly. I thought mine looked OK in comparison until I noticed someone had made a minion - I'm sure they are going to win! If this is your creation please let me know...

 Cake Boss had a large and busy stand - they were one of the main sponsors of the show. Buddy Valastro of Carlo's Bakery in New Jersey is the "Cake Boss" featured on a TV show of the same name. I've never actually seen it - but now we've moved into our new house we have Sky so I have more channels and there do seem to be a lot of baking shows out there! I didn't buy anything but my boyfriend's mum went to America recently and brought me back a Cake Boss-branded item.

Dr. Oetker and Renshaw each had large stands; Dr. Oetker's had demonstrations and I think goody bags but by the time I got there they had run out. Renshaw was doing mini classes which I think were free but were obviously very popular with long queues so I didn't take part.

The competition section is a big part of cake shows though I felt that this time there were fewer cakes on display than there had been at Cake International in 2012. I had been very tempted to enter the amateur category but I only found out about it the day before the deadline and the theme was quite difficult - exotic adventures. Maybe next time!

There were some amazing interpretations of the theme from some very talented cake decorators.

This one is from the junior under 16 category!

This one is from the amateur category - wow!

Part of the display - I wasn't sure if this was actually cake or not?!

There was a separate display of cakes which were very impressive; here are some of the ones I particularly liked.

It's Paul and Mary!

I had a really enjoyable but tiring day at the Cake and Bake Show - thanks again to Renshaw for the tickets. I didn't buy anywhere near as much as when I went to Cake International which is probably a good thing!

As this post is long enough already I will write about the two masterclasses I took in more detail in another post.