Sustainable cakes with Sheffield Sustainable Kitchens

We had a lovely Sheffield Underground Cake Club hosted by Zoe & Rob of Sheffield Sustainable Kitchens . They gave a us a talk about the history of the business & the materials they use.  Recycled plastic worktops in a range of colours, recycled glass worktops & even leather style compressed paper surfaces …fabulous. Many thanks . We tried to be mindful of the carbon footprint of our cakes & baking processes. Really interesting ! Plus lots of tips shared .

Anne made a  Tender Blueberry Alpro recipe … cheesecake base … Mandarin and blueberry .Sponge with Alpro plain soya yoghurt , sunflower oil & egg yolks …then fold in whisked egg whites . It came out with a delicious baked cheesecake style top.

 

Dave  baked a Sheffield sustainable Gooseberry cake. He used local products Whirlow farm eggs & butter , Sheffield Honey Company honey. Sheffield grown wheat milled into flour in the Kenwood Food processor . Nothing has come further than 5 miles. Gooseberries from the back garden , frozen for use over winter. He used his grans cake tin.

Vicky made a light Chocolate & sour cream sponge cake with coconut & choclate frosting & raspberry jam filling.  She googled Low Energy use cakes & found this Ainsley Harriot low energy cake … 12p energy costs … to make !

Clare tried to use locally sourced ingredients & fridge leftovers plus some marzipan from Xmas . She bought no new ingredients except Beanies ( a local wholefood shop in Walkley) near her house, where she bought Suma glacé cherries and almonds. Flour from her existing  storecupboard. Cooked by solar panel , as they have solar panels on their house, which generate electricity.

Google how much it costs for different ovens to cook a cake. Most sites say Electric ovens and cookers use fewer units of energy than gas, however, gas models will still be cheaper to run, as they cost less per unit of energy than electric models. Cook other food at the same time as your cakes , make best use of the oven.

I made a vegan, gluten free Passion fruit & Chocolate cake .
All ingredients were from my home fridge or store cupboard. I replaced eggs with 300ml of unsweetened soya milk with a tablespoon of cider vinegar stirred in . The flour was Dove Farm GF …but next time I will add more moisture to the mix as GF flour tend to make a crumbly drier cake.

Zoe from Sheffield Sustainable Kitchens baked a Yorkshire Tea fruit cake using up cupboard items. To reduce the carbon footprint she used butter and eggs from her milkman , baked in her  grans cake tin.

Clare suggests dishes & cakes cooked at same time in 1 oven saves energy. Dave cooks breakfast in the oven, beans in the actual opened tin … . We talked about how difficult it is to work out the footprint …but being mindful when you start looking for a recipe , can help . If you want vegan foods … a good site is the Accidental vegan .

Join us for our next event Sat 22nd Feb Antipodean Cakes … venue & time to follow

Best wishes    Karen
Follow me on Twitter & Insta @fabcoach 

Follow Sheffield Underground Cake Club on our Facebook page & group.

Sweet Shop Favourites become delicious cakes in Sheffield

We had a festive meeting hosted by Poptastic Dave & Hilda the cat. Choc a block with festive decorations Dave made us very welcome. Our Sheffield Underground Cake Club theme for December was Sweet Shop favourites. Have a cakey Christmas .

Anne cooked a Chocolate Lime Cake. She used 10 limes between 4 in the cake sponge, 2 for the buttercream filling & 3 for the chocolate ganache topping, plus one for grating on top.  . It was deeply chocolatey and very limey !! The recipe is from the BBC Good Food website #recommended. To make the chocolate topping she heated cream gently with dark chocolate plus Lime juice & lime zest & 2.5 tablespoons of lime marmalade .

Dave made a Revels cake . It was a rich chocolate cake with hidden secrets . The chocolate cake was a BeRo recipe weigh 3 eggs and add the same weight of flour, sugar, cocoa & butter .

He made 4 holes in the sponge with a cutter. He hade a sultana muffin, an orange rind muffin, a strong coffee muffin & finally a cinder toffee muffin. He dropped them into the holes & covered the whole lot with chocolate ganache.

I made a Sherbet Fountain Cake. The fountains sadly no longer come in paper containers, but are sherbet & Liquorice in a plastic pot that looks like the old one.  I made a swiss roll from BBC Good food website . Follow the instructions carefully & it’s easy. When the roll had cooked, I removed the baking paper then put the sponge back on it, plus a sheet on the top. I rolled the warm roll up with a clean tea towel & left rolled up to cool ready for filling. The filling was lemon curd to give the sherbet taste … plus whipped cream. On the top I sprinkled a dusting of actual sherbet. The liquorice stick finished it off.

Here are the insides !!

Our next dates are

Sat 25th Jan       Sustainable Cakes   cakes with the lowest Carbon Footprint
Sat 22nd Feb
Sat 18th April
Sat 23rd May
Follow us on Facebook @undergroundcakeclub
For more info please contact me Karen Perkins via my website www.karenperkinslifecoach.co.uk 

Happy New Year & see you in 2020 !!

Cakes that make you go Oooooo (not ew)

Sheffield Underground Cake Club were hosted by the brilliant Cafe called Coffee Boo on Middlewood Road next to Hillsboro corner . Our theme was cakes that people have been yummily surprised by .

Anne made a  Sticky Toffee Banoffee cake. She’d made it a few times & everyone has always said how nice it is. We agree.  Even someone who didn’t usually any like cake said ” it was out of this world “. She made a sponge & added mashed banana and milk to it to moisten it. The filling & topping was caramel carnation milk mixed with whipped double cream. #delicious

Carolynn made a vanilla ice cream drop, piñata rainbow cake. The sponge removed to create the pinyatta allowed her to add the ice cream blob . Covered with a White Chocolate ganache, she added pink colouring to the ganache to make the drips. She practiced on a cup before icing the cake. She had been given a set of 5 small cake tins to specifically make a rainbow cake .. so you can cook all the layers at the same time. Lakeland sell them or maybe ask Carolyn for a sustainable lend !

Raheel made a flourless, salted Chocolate and Pretzel cake, from a Donna Haigh recipe. He explained that he whipped the egg whites to peaks. He mixed the yolks into hot melted Choc then added in the egg whites with a metal spoon ( essential to ensure no loss of aeration) The cake is flourless ! Top with pretzels. The texture was like a mousse/squishy brownie.

Dave made a  White Chocolate Coconut Fig and Almond cake . Invented when he created  a different cake each day for a school during their Ofsted inspection. They must have got #outstanding He added sugar lump sized cubes of marzipan, cloves ,cardamom & flaked almonds. The topping was cream cheese melted white chocolate and coconut milk. Topped with sliced figs ..a great healthy way to add a design touch to a cake.

I made a Cardamom Spice Cake . I soaked the raisins in boiling water & dark rum, but alcohol free would be just as delicious. I added ground ginger, cinnamon, mixed spice & light brown sugar to the sponge mix. Then added in the drained fruit, with a little flour to stop it sinking to the bottom of the cake. The topping was butter, icing sugar & ground cardamom powder , around 1 – 1.5 teaspoons. It makes a great frosting. Topped with roast hazelnuts. You could add crystallised or fresh ginger instead of ginger powder.

Here are the inside views of our cakes :

Thanks to Maria, Mo & MJ at Coffee Boo. They had a delicious menu & the lattes arrived in beautiful large cups !

Our next meeting dates :
Sat 14th Dec       Sweet Shop Favourites
Sat 25th Jan
Sat 22nd Feb
Sat 18th April
Sat 23rd May
Follow us on Facebook  @undergroundcakeclub  

For more info please contact me Karen Perkins via my website

 

Autumn Cakes : Feeling #Autumnish with Sheffield Underground Cake Club

We were beautifully hosted by Gerrys Bakery in Walkley, Sheffield today. Fabulous coffee, local produce & cheeses, breads & pastries baked on the premises, plus baking courses. 6 bakers & their cakes arrived & were introduced to all his customers !

Here are our cakes

Karens Hazlenut, Plum & Dark chocolate Cake. Has ground hazlenut & chopped plums in the sponge , plus vegan chocolate pieces. I used a pestle & mortar to grind the hazelnuts so they were rough chopped but it gave a great flavour. I kept back 4 plums & halved them to top the cake before baking , followed by 2 tablespoons of whole hazelnuts.  From the BBC Good Food website . It’s an all in one cake so very easy & tastes even better the next day. I will certainly make this again & also try other fruits.

Clares Mincemeat & Almond Streusel . Good for New Year as it uses up left over mincemeat, orange juice & brandy.

Sians Honey cake is from James Martins French Trip programme. All in one cake, which you ice with honey icing whilst still warm, to give a sort of mirror glaze.

Carolynns Toffee Apple Crumble cake with custard buttercream . This cake had 2 different sponge layers. The base cake has apple & brown sugar topping, the top cake has apples chopped in & topped with crumble topping. Tip ..cool the cake..including the centre before putting the filling in !! Delicious filling tho.

Raheels Sticky Toffee cake was from the Thermomix Cookbook. This is a gadget for all in one cooking. He mixed butter, dark muscovado sugar eggs etc for the toffee sponge. The toffee butter cream was for the coating & 4 layers of filling. The toffee sauce was made from double cream, muscovado & butter. It made a delicious toffee puddle round the cake.

Dave made a Toffee Apple Hazelnut Cake . It had some mystery ingredients ..Duck eggs & smoked sea salt. He used buttermilk to raise the cake … but doesn’t advise that as it overrose from the trays !! It took 2.5 hours to cook but tasted savoury, sticky & delicious.

Here are the insides & cakey evidence

 

Join us for our next events
Sat Nov 23rd         Cakes that Make you go OOOOh !!
Sat Dec 14th          Sweetshop Favourites   for our festive Underground cake Club.
Like our Facebook page The Underground Cake Club

Any questions contact me Karen Perkins at Karen Perkins Life Coach
See you soon !!

Deliciously Decorated by Sheffield Underground Cake club

At the weekend we met up for our cake club at Drew Décor Store on Ecclesall Road at Banner Cross . We were hosted by interiors expert & cake lover Suzanne Drew. Our cakes were inspired by the beautiful wallpapers . We believe this is the worlds first cake & wallpaper pairing event. We ate most of the evidence. Many thanks to Suzanne who was a marvellous host providing lashings of tea & lemonade.

Here are our pairings:

Karen made a sugarfree Lemon, matcha & cardomom cake with poached lemon slices to match the citrus wallpaper , plus sharp lemon syrup to drizzle over the top.

Dave designed a bespoke tin of paint cake called  Drewlux in hommage to the paint displays & R Drew Decorator. A rich fruit cake from his  BeRo cookbook, a family heirloom. It had sultanas, ginger& glace cherries. 2 cakes sandwiched together with lemon curd. With fondant icing & ready to use writing icing paint drips. The letters were cut with toyshop letters.

 

Anne made a delicious fresh raspberry cake. It’s a Raspberry Velvet cake, made with American measurements . She added buttermilk, and fresh raspberries . The icing had fresh raspberries in it with icing sugar & butter.

Vicky made a delicious Flower themed Victoria sponge with 3 layers sandwiched with jam, and covered with lemon butter cream under fondant icing. On the fondant icing she drizzled candy melts to show the petals as drips. Candy melts are coloured buttons melted in the microwave. She made the petals on greaseproof paper & rolled them around a rolling pin to shape them.

 

Here are the cakey interiors and a photo of my new patented Sheffield Cake knife which I found at the Nether Edge Yard Sale trail in Sheffield.

Next we have some of the lovely wallpaper on show …

Once again thanks to Suzanne …. if you like the cakes join us

Sat 19th Oct
Sat 23rd Nov
Sat 14th Dec       Follow us on Facebook   https://www.facebook.com/Undergroundcakeclub/

Suzanne is holding a talk with Cole & Sons from London follow the link

Check out “An evening with Cole & Son about their history & their latest collection” https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/an-evening-with-cole-son-about-their-history-their-latest-collection-tickets-72766286923?utm-medium=discovery&utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&aff=estw&utm-source=tw&utm-term=listing @EventbriteUK

Karen Perkins is a Life , Business & Career coach who runs Sheffield Underground Cake club. www.karenperkinslifecoach.co.uk

The Sheffield Underground Cake club visit Stannington Carnival

We were invited by Stannington Carnival committee to judge the annual Cake competition. We combined it with our regular Underground Cake Club meeting on a theme of Tasty Carnival cakes.

We gathered in a shady gazebo, next to the park pavilion, with teas & coffee.
Here are the competition cakes and results :

1   1st in the Taste over 18’s Category was Rod’s Rhubarb & Custard cake
Fresh, tasty, moist rhubarb sponge with custard topping.

Mention too, to Zoe Hewitts delicious dark chocolate mud cake !

2      1st in the Taste under 18’s Category Rebecca Naylor
Fab work, beautiful moist with deep flavour of pistachio and chocolate topping. ” A future baking star ”

 

3      1st in the Once Upon a Time category  was Rebecca Naylor , deservedly claiming her 2nd award of the day.
Coffee and hazelnut deliciousness, fondant icing perfectly flat with handmade rose in sugarwork. ” A beauty of a cake ”

The cakes made by Underground Cake club members were also non competitively super delicious. Cake club member Raheel & his daughter also helped judge.  After the judging we had tea and cake & shared our offerings ! Lots of people came to the stand to look at the cakes & made donations to the Carnival fund. They helped us demolish all the cake, except the winning ones that were kindly donated to a local nominated homelessness support organisation.

Here are the individual cakes :
Clares Victoria Sponge with fresh cream & homemade raspberry jam, made on the day, & still warm, from raspberries from her garden. She said that as she was baking other treats at the same time , opening and shutting the oven made her sponge rise slightly less than usual. We didn’t notice #yummy .

Karens Cranberry, Lemon & White Chocolate Gluten free, Dairy free sponge , with fresh raspberries & lemon zest topping.

Daves Carnival cake with a secret surprise . It weighed 7lbs … and was made with vegetarian stork margarine, 12 eggs . The icing is from a 1983 recipe of his nans. He sandwiched the layers with apricot jam , as in previous versions, using the icing meant the layers slid off at an alarming un predictable rate !! It was very popular with the carnival volunteers too.

Vicky made a delicious Lemon & Poppyseed cake ,with buttermilk in the sponge . The light delicate icing was 1/2 mascarpone, 1/2 cream cheese  so a slightly less sweet foil to the lemony cake . The rest of the topping went on a tiramisu #multitasking .

Thanks to Stannington for hosting us …we all went away with cakey tips & lots of interesting books from the bookstall .

Join us at out next meeting Sept  21st 2.30 to 4.30   Deliciously decorated ! Then Oct 19th 2-4 .

Baking GF cakes as part of Walkley Victorian Festival

We met on a hot sunny day, in the cool calm bookish sereneness that is Walkley Community Library , our hosts. We had chosen Gluten free cakes as our theme as quite a few members had requested this . The Victorian bit was part of the Walkley Festival.

Here are our cakes

 

My Caraway, White chocolate & lemon cake was moist , with a crunchy exterior from the chocolate & the GF flour. I added the juice & zest of a lemon as GF flour can sometimes be dry. The white chocolate was GF and dairy free too.

Daves Victorian caraway cake , with angelica topping, had a tablespoon of caraway seeds to give it that traditional taste. Angelica is a typical Victorian decoration. With buttercream fillin & icing topping..this cake was made with GF Quinoa flour ( from Atkinsons in Sheffield) which tasted just like flour !! He recommends a tablespoon of ground almonds to perk up a sponge . We all agreed !

Annes Victorian, Gluten Free Dorset Apple cake using GF flour plus 25g of ground almonds , mixed spice, apples, sultanas, ginger & butter. Topped with crunchy demerara sugar.

Sians delicious Pear & Ginger cake almonds sugar & eggs … no flour … with a crispy caramel topping that emerges through the bake.

Clare made Gluten Free Chocolate Brownie cake. Vegan chocolate, butter & ground almonds … so no flour. V moist & chocolatey. Topped with homegrown Raspberries & Strawberries.

Join our future non competitive Bake offs at Sheffield Underground Cake Club

July 13th we are judging Stannington Carnivals Cake competition .
August we take a break.

Sat 21st Sept the theme is Deliciously Decorated cakes somewhere near Banner Cross.

Sat 19th Oct Theme to follow   2 til 4 approx.

See you all there … do send me venues & theme suggestions .We have a FB page & group too

Best wishes
Karen     www.karenperkinslifecoach.co.uk