The return of light evenings added a Spring like feeling to the most recent meeting of the Glasgow Baking Club, even if it didn’t feel particularly Spring like outside….The venue this time was William Bakes on Queen Margaret Drive, where owner Sandy welcomed us with open arms. Sandy has moved from his previous venture at Felix and Oscar on Great Western Road to open a new cafe, and a lovely place it is too. During the day the window of this cosy cafe is filled with tempting looking bakes for sale, and we tried to recreate this with our own attempts, although unfortunately no one offered to give us any money in exchange for them….
Before we got our hands on the window full of cakes, Sandy was kind enough to entertain us with some tales about his time treading the boards and appearing in a variety of productions including a Rob Roy epic starring Wolf from Gladiators, and the now obligatory roles for Scottish actors, River City and Taggart. He also gave us some good tips and advice for anyone brave enough to think about starting their own cafe, basically be prepared for long hours and getting a bit fed up of baking the same cakes week after week!
The theme for this event started off as April Fools, or cakes which are not as they first appear, but was expanded to include spring or Easter bakes for those of us (me included!) who did not consider themselves creative enough for the original theme….
A great selection of bakes was presented on the night, with chocolate being a common theme. You would think we would have had enough of it over the Easter weekend but obviously not judging by the fantastic anti-gravity Easter cake overflowing with mini eggs! Other delights included Easter brownies, lemon curd pavlova, salted caramel brownies, mini egg cookies and hot cross buns. I tried to offset the sugar overload by providing an asparagus, pepper and olive loaf, although I don’t think it was enough to prevent a sugar coma….On the theme of April Fools there was an ingenious creation which looked like a plate of nachos but tasted very different from what you would expect, and an interesting take on fish and chips! At least we got one of our five a day with carrot cake cookies and cupcakes, so no need to feel guilty about all that chocolate.
Our next meeting is on Wednesday 11th May from 7-9pm at Patisserie Francoise on Byres Rd. The theme this time is bread and pastries, so get your Paul Hollywood hat on! There will be tea and coffee for sale and even wine, which might tempt some of you! Always happy to welcome new members so please come along for a chat and some lovely baking.
Big thanks to Kathryn Burt for writing up our April blog and supplying the photos, I could eat my computer screen just looking at them!!.
Glasgow Baking Club 