Clandestine Cake Club - August

After the success of Newcastle's first Clandestine Cake Club in July, the logical step was to hold a second club in August. At last month's club there were four cakes. This month, word must have got out as there were a whopping 13 cakes. 


The theme was "the cake you've dreamed about". It seems that the ladies of the north east dream mostly about alcohol and chocolate, while some dream about fruit (the freaks).

DRINK! Pina Colada; Gin and Tonic; Zuccotto; Cherry Cola 

CHOCLIT! Sachertorte; Sweet & Salty Chocolate; Gateau Diane; Orange & Almond with Chocolate

FRUIT! Lemon & Lime with Ginger; Strawberries & Cream; Rhubarb, Raspberry & Custard; Sugar Plum Fairy

There was also a lovely carrot cake, which doesn't fit into my neat drink/chocolate/fruit dream classification system. If Ros wants to claim she dreams of carrots, that's fine by me. I often find it's a toss up between Daniel Craig and a root vegetable.

I'd had a busy day making six dozen wedding cupcakes in a warm kitchen on a warm day  and I was pleased at how peckish I was feeling at 6pm. 

I made a beeline for the sweet and salty chocolate cake, then the sugar plum fairy and the strawberries & cream cakes, hoping that the fruit would help me pace myself. Then something awful happened - three slices in and I hit the wall. I had a rest, a chat and a cup of tea and wondered aloud what gateau Diane was: "meringue, cream and chocolate". Meringue! My favourite. I scarcely had time to recite the obligatory meringue joke in my head (Geordie goes for tea with the Queen. She says, "Geordie, would you like a cake or a meringue?" Geordie says, "Nae yah not rang hinny, ah'll hev a cake"). My second wind also carried me on to a slice of the zuccotto, lemon & lime and pina colada cakes. I admitted defeat at seven slices, far short of the 11 slice CCC record set in Leeds.


One of the good things about CCC, apart from all the cake and tea and chatting, is that you get to take home the leftovers, so I took a slice of all the cakes I hadn't managed to try, including my orange and almond cake. It was a new recipe for me from Leith's Baking Bible.

To make it extra almondy, I made use of my new found macaroon skills and baked some green and pink macaroons to decorate the side and top, In my mind's eye, it was going to look beautiful. In reality, it looked shit. For a start the macaroons were, as my sister pointed out, "a bit nipply" thanks to my sloppy piping. More like on full beam. I took the macaroons off, paired them with a mint chocolate and a raspberry chocolate ganache, and gave one to my dad to try. "Nice", he said "I'd like more". Handy, because he had 16 to take home. The ladies at cake club were none the wiser.

CCC was held at the Central Bar at the Gateshead end of the Tyne Bridge. It's a lovely friendly place where all the cool kids hang out, or rather, where Han and I fail to win the Wednesday pub quiz each week. Huge thanks to Dave for hosting the cake club tonight in the  Blue Room, so smart it has its own outdoor roof terrace. I'd certainly recommend the Central to anyone who likes live music, real ale and sausage sandwiches. I'd also recommend the quiz to anyone with an in-depth knowledge of AC/DC. 

Huge thanks also to Lisa for organising the cake club so well. This event was fully booked, so if you want to scoff a load of cake and meet some new people at a secret location in September, you'd better get booking!