Dollybakes: The first ever Bolton Clandestine Cake Club

What an amazing afternoon! I’m utterly exhausted, and coming down off a bit of a cake induced sugar high.

Today was the first meeting of the Bolton Clandestine Cake Club. I held it at one of my favourite spots, Thyme Deli in the centre of Horwich. I was really keen to hold it there, and thought I might have to bribe the owner Amanda into letting me take over half her venue. But, alas she was more than accommodating of a group of cake fanatics who like nothing more than a brew, a slice (or ten) of cake and a natter. It was perfect.

There had been quite a bit of interest in the club after the Bolton News and BBC Radio Manchester did pieces on the upcoming event. Bakers saw and heard. They came in droves. At one point I feared it would be standing room only! I don’t think we could have fit one more person in, but it didn’t matter. It was just lovely that so many people wanted to come. Including guests, we had about 30 people in total.

A few facts about the first event:

There were 22 massive cakes
There was a big tub of home-made lemon curd
We had two pregnant ladies - one due next week!
We had one gluten free cake
A monkey apron was purchased
Lots of Fentiman’s Dandelion & Burdock was consumed
We had a visit from the WI
One cake was from a total baking novice
One cake had a picture of gangsters on it
Twitter friends met in person for the first time
We had almost every flavour of cake; lemon, chocolate, carrot, banana, vanilla, spiced, coffee, coconut, red velvet, orange, ginger, fruit and guinness.
Cake-ache set in at about 4:45pm
We all took lots home with us…

I’d like to say a massive thank you to everyone who attended. I’ve already had lots of emails asking when the next one is and what the theme will be, so I had better get my thinking cap on! In the mean time, here are some pics from the day…