Clandestine Cake Club loves Dundee

Ooh, it was that time again - another meeting of the Dundee branch of Clandestine Cake Club.  Yippee, a chance to chat, eat cake and talk about cake - for no reason at all other than that we all love cake.  A perfect Sunday night out, no?

The theme this time was simply 'I love cake', chosen because it was near to Valentine's Day and was quite a loose theme in that people could bake a recipe they loved, a recipe they really wanted to try out or even a heart-shaped or decorated cake.  Allowed a lot of room for manoeuvre, right?

I hadn't thought I'd be able to attend as a baker this time, as we were due to move house a few days later, but that all changed.  So I baked.  I couldn't decide between a chocolate and salted caramel cake, a maple and pecan cake or a seriously chocolately cake.  Mr Becca was no help at all, as he didn't particularly fancy the sound of any of them, so I asked a friend.  And she liked them all.  No help whatsoever, ha ha.  In the end I chose maple and pecan as it felt kind of wintery and North American to me, and I love true Canadian Maple Syrup - what a taste!!

I'm really pleased to say that it went down a storm, and there was barely an inch wide slice left at the end for me to take home, woo hoo!  

Here's the full array of deliciousness on offer.  We have a coffee cake, shaped like a cup of coffee, a white chocolate and orange cake with handmade flowers on top, a chocolate chip and vanilla bundt cake, a monster-sized strawberry cheesecake cake, a chocolate guiness cake, a cherry bakewell cake, my maple and pecan cake, a black forest swiss roll, a red velvet and vanilla heart-enclosed cake, an apple streusel cake and a greek yoghurt cake.  Hungry yet?

 A closer view of the left hand end of the table.

 The middle section of the table.

The heart inside the red velvet bavarian creme vanilla cake.  The baker here had never tried this technique before, and was really pleased with how well it turned out.  Yey Louise!

 The cakes from the other end of the table.

A selection of our guests, happily munching away on slivers of each cake.  You have to take slivers you see, otherwise you simply can't manage to try each cake.  And that would be a shame for you, and would seem downright disrespectful to the bakers, wouldn't it?  If you think you'd like to join in on a meeting as a baker, please do get in touch on cccdundee@gmail.com  And be sure to let them know where you heard about the group please.

Dundee loves Clandestine Cake Club, Autumn style

It was time for another meeting of our branch of The Clandestine Cake Club and this time the theme was Fall Fancies, the colours and flavours of Autumn.

I really fancied making a pumpkin cake, especially after doing the pumpkin cupcakes a week ago.  I had specially bagged up the pumpkin puree in 200g and 440g (approx 1.5 cups) bags in preparation.  One of my American cake friends, C,  set up a board on Pinterest called Cakes to bake-Pumpkin and directed me to the Brown Butter Pumpkin Layer Cake.  She had tried one or two of the recipes, and this one looked like something I could manage.

After converting all the measurements to metric, I got started.  Once again, the pumpkin seemed to make the cake very moist and dense, even though I baked it for longer than the specified time and the inserted skewer came out clean.  And it felt kind of wrong to burn butter on purpose, but I had to do it 3 times for the brown butter components of each section.  Mmm, what a difference it made to the taste though.  Spiced pumpkin sponge, cream cheese icing and caramelised pecan nuts - yummy.

That beauty is my contribution.  Below are the cakes brought by all the bakers - from L to R we have Jackie's Cinnamon Apple cake, Jac's version of a Halloween Victoria Sponge - complete with choc fondant eyeballs, Ellen's Apple and Bramble bundt cake, Catriona's Pumpkin Maple bundt, my cake, Gary's Beetroot Choc cake and Carolyn's Sticky Pear and Ginger Cake.  Sadly Kelly was unwell though, so we missed her cake.

To each event a baker is invited to bring a guest, called an eater, to help taste and eat the cakes.  So in this case we had a couple more eaters than bakers - because there is always So Much Cake.  You really do need the help, I promise.

And here is the lovely little cafe chosen for this event, on the Perth Road if you are local to Dundee...  Although I think next time we'll need to chose a larger venue - this event had a long waiting list, so exciting!!

Just a query - for those of you who bake with pumpkin regularly, does this slice of cake look good to you?  No, honestly I'm not fishing for compliments (though they will always be gratefully and graciously accepted) but it seems dense to me and my Mr...