Cafe Hub – Afternoon Tea

We were invited along to try the newly launched Afternoon Tea menu at Cafe Hub, situated within the landmark venue The Hub on The Royal Mile.

We started with a traditional mix of sandwiches including smoked salmon, ham and cucumber and dill.  Tradition again maintained we moved on to freshly baked scones with strawberry jam and whipped cream.  Our final tier, the sweet treats included French macarons as well as homemade strawberry cream tarts.  Our favourite had to be the dainty mini lemon meringue pies.

The menu also offers a wide selection of artisan loose teas including earl grey, apple and cinnamon, Scottish rooibos, chocolate chilli explosion or freshly ground coffee. The afternoon tea can also be enjoyed with a glass of prosecco.

 

Vegetarian and gluten-free options are also be available if booked in advance.

Afternoon Tea for two: £25

Afternoon Tea for two with prosecco: £41 (this includes two mini bottles of prosecco)

For more information or to make a reservation please call 0131 473 2067 or email cafehub@eif.co.uk.

 

 

Belated 6th birthday gathering

67 Bread Street (beside the Kingfisher chippy)

We’re having a belated 6th birthday party gathering in one of Edinburgh’s newest cafes – Tasty Buns Bakery!

On Tuesday 28th June, we invite you to join us from 6.30-8.30pm for cake and a blether.

There are no rules in our cake club, so bring what you like. If tray bakes are you thing, then bring ’em along. If savoury is your thing, then bring it along. And if you like making MASSIVE cakes, well, we’re not going to say no to them either! No specific theme, just whatever you’re happy making.

Hot and cold drinks will be bought from the venue at your own expense.

There are 20 places for this informal social event, so email us now if you’d like to come along – edinburghbakers@gmail.com. Places will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

You can like Tasty Buns on Facebook and follow her on twitter @tastybunsbakery She’s also on instagram

Some of Louise’s Tasty Bun treats!

 

Tescos Queen’s 90th Birthday Shortbread

When we got an invite to see shortbread coming off the factory line inside Burton’s biscuit factory in Edinburgh, we cleared our diaries and skipped to Sighthill in excitement.

Tescos has released a beautiful commemorative tin full of delicious shortbread for the Queen’s 90th birthday in June. You can buy them now for a very reasonable price of £4 per tin in all Tesco stores (until stocks run out).

The commemorative tin

 

After strenuous hygiene procedures, we got a tour of the factory floor and were lucky enough to sample the shortbread coming out of the 100 metre long oven!

One of the extremely long ovens inside the Burton’s Biscuit factory

It was a hard job eating some of the freshly baked shortbread, but we managed to do it and can report that it is extremely delicious and tastes exactly as shortbread should.

Fresh off the line

 

Tesco & Burton’s information 

We highly recommend you get your hands on one of these tins! Not only is the tin reusable, but we can report that the shortbread is perfect with a good cuppa.

The tin is limited edition, so don’t delay in getting yours. We’ll be having another piece or two on the Queen’s birthday, that’s if we have any left ……..

 

A little bit about Burton’s

With a heritage dating back for generations, Burton’s Biscuit Company continues to thrive as one of the UK’s leading biscuit manufacturers.

Burton’s Biscuit Company has been baking quality biscuits for over 75 years, though our history can be traced back to George Burton (born 1829) who began producing biscuits in Leek, Staffordshire in the mid 1800’s.

Burton’s employs over 2,200 people around the UK, in three main manufacturing facilities, in Edinburgh, Llantarnam and Blackpool, a chocolate refinery in Moreton, and a central distribution hub in Liverpool. Our head office is based in St Albans.

We have been working together for many years developing Tesco biscuits from Rich Tea and Digestives through to Christmas Shortbread and Chunky Cookies (one will recently reached the final of the Grocer Own Label Awards – Tesco White Choc and Raspberry Cookie.

The Burtons team and Tesco team work very collaboratively and have a forward thinking, proactive relationship.

STV Edinburgh also paid the factory a visit.

CHARITY EVENT: An Evening of Cake at Virgin Money Lounge

Join us for a charity cake event at Virgin Money Lounge

Wednesday 25th November 2015 – 6-8pm

What a year it’s been for the Edinburgh Bakers! Not only have we eaten a lot of cake, we have raised thousands of pounds for our charity – It’s Good 2 Give through our charity events at various venues in Edinburgh and a team of us taking part in the Kiltwalk.

We would be delighted if you could join us for our last major event of 2015 and help us raise more money for children and their families affected by cancer.

We are heading back to the wonderful Virgin Money Lounge in St Andrew Square on Wednesday 25th November. The event will be held from 6pm – 8pm.

The Virgin Money Lounge will host our last event of 2015

Upon arrival, you will be given a glass of Prosecco and encouraged to sit back and relax in the gorgeous lounge.

Throughout the evening, you can choose your cakes, listen to real piano music and allow our magician, Elliot Bibby to amaze you with one of his tricks.

Tickets   – Sorry this event is now SOLD OUT and a waiting list in place.

The ticket price is £13 each or £25 for two and includes a glass of Prosecco, three large slices of cake and unlimited tea and coffee. If you don’t think you’ll eat three slices on the night, you can bring a box to take your cake home with you.

Why not treat your friends as an early Christmas present? We’re sure they’d be delighted to receive a ticket to eat cake!

Bakers required

We do need a few bakers for this event to help make it a success. In reward for bringing a cake, you will be entered into the prize draw automatically (normally £5 per entry).

You can bake what you want, sweet or savoury, but do let us know so we don’t have any ‘doubles’.

Dive into some cake

There will only be fellow cake lovers at this private event, so come and let your hair down and your waistband out!

Please email us at edinburghbakers@gmail.com to request your place and we will send you details of how to pay for your ticket and guarantee a spot. Please specify if you would like an eaters space, or a bakers one.

Don’t worry if you’re coming on your own, we’ll seat you with some chatty regulars. The cake club started with a few people, so everyone has been new at one stage.

The hashtag for this event will be #virgincake and you can also take advantage of the free wifi in the building to tweet and post pictures on the evening.

There is a Facebook event page

Prize draw

As ever, we’ll be having a prize draw and we’d like to thank the local businesses who have be kind enough to donate prizes to this worthwhile cause.

• A private photo or walking tour in Edinburgh with the lovely Will from Iconic Tours (camera phones welcome too)
• A decorated cake from the amazing Loulabelle Bakes
• A cocktail kit from The Printing Press, a new restaurant in George Street.
• A family ticket to the incredible Camera Obscura and World of Ilusions.
• A signed Nigella Lawson book
• Molton Brown goodies

And many more on the night.

Don’t delay in getting your spot. See you there!

The cake table at our previous Virgin Lounge event

We bake and eat cake and raise money for charity!

EVENT: Edinburgh New Town Cookery School

On Wednesday 28th October we will be heading to The Edinburgh New Town Cookery School on Queen Street for our Autumn event. With the nights drawing in this is the chance to bake something comforting, warming or even spooky since Halloween is only days away!

The evening will start at 6:30pm and last until 8:30pm. We have 20 places available for this event and you can request your place by emailing us at edinburghbakers@gmail.com by Wednesday 21st October. Don’t forget to include in the email what bake you would like to bring.

Feel free to bring any bake of your choice – sweet or savoury, cake, tart or traybake, we really don’t mind! So come along and have a good old chat over a cup of tea and a baked treat. As always please do not worry about the level of baking skill you have – we welcome (and encourage) all levels of bakers!. New Members are most very welcome.

If places are oversubscribed, names will be selected by random draw and a waiting list put in place.

The event is free to attend and tea/coffee/juice will be provided.

We would like to thank Fiona Burrell and her team at The Edinburgh New Town Cookery School for hosting us. Fiona opened the Cookery School in December 2009 and offers many different types of courses from Cookery Diplomas to Evening Baking classes. She is also the co-author of Leiths Baking Bible and Baking, Patisserie and Bread – so she definitely knows what she is talking about! The cookery school runs Baking and Patisserie courses throughout the year, though this years class are full, there will be more in the New Year. They do however have Gluten Free Baking and Artisan Bread Courses coming up, along with Children’s baking courses over the Christmas holidays if you want to start your wee ones early! Details of all the courses are available here on their website. I’m sure Fiona and her team will be happy to answer any questions about the courses on the evening also.

We hope you will be able to join us!

Cake & Bake Show

Cake & Bake Show

In case you have missed it, The Cake & Bake Show will be in town at The Royal Highland Centre, Ingliston on the 30th October – 1st November.  This is the first time the show has come to Edinburgh and its one not to miss!

You can expect to find a great mix of live demonstrations, expert classes, market stands, live competitions and so much more to develop your home baking!

You will also get to see and meet renowned baking stars, patisserie experts and the industry’s best cake decorators.

Celeb Bakers

From demonstrations on the Super Cake & Bake Theatre in association with NEFF, to do-along classroom sessions and book signings – there will be lots of opportunities for you to learn from the best!

Rosemary Shrager

Cake Decorating

The Cake & Bake Show is thrilled to announce a new partnership with The Great British Bake Off.  You will be able to indulge your passion for baking at the Great British Bake Off Stage where you can expect to see some of the stars from the current GBBO series as well as former champions, John Whaite, Jo Wheatley, runner-up Brendan Lynch and plenty more.

Tickets are now on sale here: www.thecakeandbakeshow.co.uk.  Just quote BLOG20 when purchasing to get 2 tickets for £20*

Look out for the Edinburgh Bakers there,  as we are one of the official event bloggers of the Edinburgh show!

* Ticket Offer T&C’s:  Offer valid on Adult full price tickets only.  Offer ends 29.11.15.  Ticket terms and conditions apply.  Information correct at time of print.

 

 

 

The Aga Shop

The Aga Shop

Wednesday night seen us back after the summer break doing what we do best; eating cake for charity! Our venue for the evening was the beautiful Aga Shop on Drumsheugh Place.

Bakers and eaters started to arrive, we chatted, drank tea (and maybe the odd glass or two of wine!) and got ourselves settled for a baking demo from Verity who first of all showed us how to make a Raspberry Bundt Cake, which looked delicious. After a break to eat loads of cake, she then showed us how to make Gin & Tonic scones, which we were then able to tuck into and top with the Roddas Cream and Tippings Jam kindly donated to us by The Cream Tea Society.

Verity’s Baking Demo

It was a great evening in lovely surroundings, so a big thank you to Brian at The Aga Shop for the venue. Special thanks to Verity for the demonstration. Thanks also goes to Smashin Eggs who donated eggs for the demonstration and to some of our bakers, and to the Cream Tea Society for the Cream and Jam. As always we had a raffle and had some great prizes, so thanks goes to Pickering’s Gin, Cake & Bake Show, Foodies Festival and The Aga Shop for their prizes.

We also would like to thank everyone who baked cakes, helped organise and run the evening and of course a massive thanks to everyone who came. We are pleased to say we raised a fabulous £572.50 with every penny going to Its Good 2 Give.

If you would like to join us at one of our events keep an eye on the blog or social media for our next events coming up in October and November.

So finally, here are some cakes from the evening to make you drool over.

Vanilla Earl Grey Layer Cake

Jamaican Ginger Cake

Caramel Apple Cake

Tablet

Tiffin

Bramble Cheesecake

Guinness Cake

Maple Pecan Layer Cake

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Raspberry Bundt

CHARITY EVENT: The Aga Shop

Wednesday 30^th September  2015 6pm – 8 pm
The Aga Shop, Drumsheugh Place

ALL MONIES TO IT’S GOOD 2 GIVE

The Aga Shop

Summer is almost behind us and what better way to break into Autumn than eating cake for charity! Join us for another cake filled evening to support the fantastic Its Good 2 Give. This time we will be hosting the event in the Aga Shop, where we will be treated to a baking demonstration and have plenty of opportunity to chat and enjoy cake while raising money for a great local charity

HOW IT WORKS

There are 25 places available for this event, which is smaller than our usual sell out events, so don’t delay in booking your place.

As this is a charity event, we would like to ask for lovely volunteers to pledge a cake for the evening. Please let us know at the earliest what type of cake you’d like to pledge (minimum size = 8 slices). We need 10 cakes to make this evening a success.

There will be two types of tickets available for the event, an eater and a baker/eater. Each ticket will entitle you to 3 slices of cake to eat (or takeaway) from our cake menu, plus tea or filter coffee.

Baker / Eater Ticket – £10 includes entry into our raffle
Eater Ticket –  £10

Every penny goes to It’s Good 2 Give and to help out families affected by cancer.

AND THERE’S MORE…….

• Opportunity to purchase cake – all remaining cake will be on sale near to the end of the evening. Why not buy some for your family, or treat your office colleagues the next morning? Bring a box with you to carry your cake purchases home…or in the unlikely event that you cannot eat all your three slices of cake!
• Some great raffle prizes will be up for grabs on the evening!

HOW TO APPLY FOR A PLACE

Tickets are on sale now with ladies, gentlemen and well-behaved children welcome. Remember places are limited to 25. If the number of people requesting a place exceeds 25, a waiting list will be created.

CAKE PLEDGERS: For those who wish to pledge a cake. Email us now at – edinburghbakers (at) gmail (dot) com with the name of the cake you wish to pledge. We will then send you details on how to make payment for your ticket. Tickets must be paid for within 4 working days, otherwise we may not continue with your ticket request.

EATERS: Email us now at – edinburghbakers (at) gmail (dot) com with your full name and the number of tickets you would like. We will then send you details on how to make payment for your £10 ticket. Tickets must be paid for within 4 working days, otherwise we will let your space go.

HASHTAG

The hashtag on twitter for this event will be #agacake

Its Good to Eat Cake!

DISCLAIMER

If you attend our event, it is your responsibility to ensure you read the label of the cake and ensure that you’re not allergic to any ingredients i.e. nuts etc. If in any doubt, please choose another cake. We have had no incidents of illness in the hundreds of cakes we’ve eaten so far.

It’s always good to eat cake, but even better when it’s for charity.

Edinburgh Bakers at the Edinburgh Food Festival, Sunday 2nd August

Summer social and charity event at the Edinburgh Food Festival.

Sunday 2nd August, from 12 noon until we sell out!

For one day only, the Edinburgh Bakers are running a stall at the inaugural Edinburgh Food Festival in George Square (Assembly Festival venue).

The festival runs from Wednesday 29th July – Sunday 2nd August, but they’re saving the best for last as we ‘pop-up’ on the Sunday.

Entry to the Festival is FREE for everyone.

Popping up on Sunday 2nd August

This is going to be a charity event (with all monies going to It’s Good 2 Give) and we would love your help to make it happen.

It will also be our summer social, so come along, meet and chat with other Bakers and of course, have some cake!

Other stalls taking part include: Well Hung and Tender, Khushi’s, Pisa Pizza and Pad BKK.

The Festival opens at 12 noon each day until the wee hours in the morning. There is also a great selection of talks to attend (free, but ticketed).

At 2pm, we will have local magician and Fringe performer, Elliot Bibby performing at our stall and he’s promised us amazing tricks with cake! We can’t wait to see what he does.

How to help

You can help in a number of ways:

1. Amateur bakers – pledge a cake. You donate a cake to us and we sell it. All monies go to It’s Good 2 Give. We are open to what you bake but we need to control how many full size cakes we have for serving up. We welcome traybakes, brownies and cupcakes too. These are easy to stack for selling. Also items like tablet and macarons.

Unless organised direct with us, we would like you to drop your baked goods at the venue at some stage between 12 noon – 4pm(ish). It means we will have a rolling cake selection to sell.

2. Professional bakers – pledge a cake. We are looking for local cafes to donate cakes to us too! You’ll get a warm and fuzzy glow knowing you’ve helped raise money for children with cancer and we’ll give you a special mention in our hall of fame. We understand you may be ‘open’ that day, but we can arrange a cake pick up in the morning.

We will be happy to display your business cards beside your bake so people know where to head for some more!

There will be two tables of cakes at the event, one clearly marked amateur and the other marked it’s been made in a certified kitchen.

3. Volunteer on the day! – We need people to help man the stall throughout the day and help give our main volunteers breaks.

4. Come and eat cake! – This is a very important role. We need people to come with their friends and family and buy some cake! Perhaps you’ve been an eater at one of our past events and aren’t so fond of baking. This role is perfect for you!

Whatever role you choose, we would love to see you at our first public event to support us and It’s Good 2 Give.

Email us

If you are choosing to pledge a cake or volunteer, please email us on edinburghbakers (at) gmail.com so we can keep an eye on how many cakes are headed our way.

If you are choosing to volunteer, please state what times you are available so we can create a rota.

Items like brownies are ideal

Please note

In the event that we do not sell out of cake by the end of the evening, you are welcome to collect anything that is left of yours, or we will hand out on your behalf. We are hoping that the event is a success and the weather plays ball!

If it is a complete wash out with torrential rain, you can text us on the morning of the event to see if it’s still going ahead.  A contact number will be given in an email.

If you have any other questions about the event, please drop us a line and we’ll be happy to help!

There is a Facebook event page.

The famous Malteser tray bake will be making an appearance

RECIPE – Lemon Meringue Cake by Barbara Crawford

Lemon Meringue Cake

This recipe for a Lemon Meringue Cake was submitted by Barbara Crawford, who made one for our Edinburgh Larder event.  We can confirm it is very tasty and we hope she makes it again!

Lemon Meringue Cake (Cuts into 12 slices- Prep 25mins cook, 35-40 mins)

Ingredients

For the Cake
grated zest and juice of 2 unwaxed lemons
200g/ 8oz softened butter
200g/ 8oz caster sugar
4 eggs
250g /8 oz. self- raising flour
1 heaped tsp. baking powder
3tbsp milk

For the Meringue
2 egg whites
100g/4oz caster sugar

For the Filling
250g mascarpone
2tbsp sifted icing sugar plus a little extra for dusting
half a jar of good quality lemon curd

Method

1. Heat oven to 160C/fan 140C/gas 3
2. Line the bases of two 20cm sandwich tins with non  – stick paper
3. Put all the cake ingredients into a bowl, then beat for 2-3 mins until light and fluffy.   Spoon evenly into the tins, level the tops.
4. Whisk the egg whites until stiff then gradually add the sugar, whisking until the meringue is stiff.
5. Spoon half over each cake and spread to within 2 cms of the edges, swirl the meringue  with the tip of the knife.
6. Bake the cakes for 35-40 mins until the meringue is crisp and golden and the cake is firm.
7. Test by inserting a skewer through the meringue – if just a few crumbs stick to the skewer, the cake is ready.
8. Cool in the tins for 10 mins, then invert each cake onto a folded tea towel, and invert again onto a wire rack so the meringue is uppermost.
9. Leave to cool completely.
10. Beat together the mascarpone and icing sugar then swirl in spoonfuls of lemon curd.
11. Set one cake on a plate and spread with the filling. Top with the other cake and dust lightly with icing sugar