A few months ago Clandestine Cake Club organisers were asked if they were interested in getting in contact with their local Hobbycraft store to hold a special event marking the publication of The Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook.  Although the book has been out since February, it has only recently been on sale in Hobbycraft stores up and down the country.

I am a regular customer at my local Hobbycraft which has been open since November 2012 on Monks Cross retail park just off the York Ring Road and near the A64 junction. It “fuels” my addiction for the hobbies in my life- cross stitch, knitting, sewing as well as being a great place to stock up on baking and cake decorating essentials!

So a couple of months back I contacted the Manager of the York Hobbycraft and asked if York CCC could come along and hold a book launch event in the store.  Several phone calls later we arranged a two hour event on a Saturday afternoon. Members of York CCC would choose a cake from the book, bring it along to Hobbycraft and we would let customers in the store sample the cakes, see copies of the book, buy the book or learn more about the club and sign up as a new member!

It got to a couple of days before and people began dropping out so there were only four of us in the end with two bakers!  I didn’t want the table to look unimpressive and I wanted a variety of cakes to attract the public so I went over the top in the kitchen the day before.  I didn’t mind though as I had lots of ingredients which needed using up, I wanted to try more recipes out of the book and it was a miserable depressing day outside.  What better than to be cocooned in a warm and cosy kitchen baking instead?

So here’s what I baked on Friday afternoon:

Apart from not reading the recipe right and putting the raspberry cakewell mixture into the tin wrongly everything seemed to be ok.  I put the sponge mixture in first in both tins then added the frangipane layer on top of both tins. What I should have done was put the sponge in one tin and the frangipane in the other tin.  I also ran out of raspberry jam and had to use a tablespoon of strawberry to make up the shortfall.  I bet someone noticed!

At the Hobbycraft event we were given two large tables upstairs and a small one downstairs in the entrance to the store.

Sadly we didn’t sell any copies of the book. This I think was down to the high retail price that Hobbycraft had set it at (£16). Each customer I spoke to who wanted the book said they loved it but were going straight on the Internet to buy it when they got home! Even though it was £4 lower than the RRP of £20 it is still far much more money than other book retailers would sell it for.  I have seen the book for sale for as low as £5.99 on the Book People website. I don’t blame people for going elsewhere in this current economic climate.  I would not pay £16 myself as I have a lot of other expenses in life, just like most people!

If you love baking, eating and talking about cake (and lots of other things too) then why not see what The Clandestine Cake Club is all about. We meet in secret locations around the UK and overseas and I have made lots of new friends over baking and cake.

To find out more visit : www.clandestinecakeclub.co.uk. and see if there is a club near you!

Happy Baking!

Love Sam xx