Clandestine Cake Club Bolton - England's Green and Pleasant Land

I met my lovely friend Chris through the Horwich WI. Back in March, Lucie, Jenny and I did a presentation to our group on the wonders of the Clandestine Cake Club, and why we love it so. We even brought cakes and a few of our members so they could really experience what it's like to attend one of our meetings. Chris was an instant fan, and offered us the use of her beautiful garden for a summer meet up. We snapped at the chance.

This weekend it finally came. Chris lives in one of the most stunning spots in our borough. Her home is a cottage which dates back to the 1600s, and has the most fantastic gardens. It's full of little hidey-holes and hidden treasures, like hippos protruding from lawns, babbling brooks, vibrant flowers and giant leaves... 

It seemed fitting for our theme to be 'England's Green and Pleasant Land', as this sums up our rural hideaways, and happens to be a line from the WI's hymn, Jerusalem. Our members brought a pretty display of cakes, worthy of any WI meeting. There were 14 cakes in total, and we even had a visit from baking royalty, the one and only Mrs Lynn Hill! 

Our cakes included: 

• Banana and Walnut Loaf with Green Sugar Crust
• Homegrown Carrot Cake
• Green Apple and Cinnamon Cake
• Marble Cake
• Courgette, Cinnamon and Nut Cake
• Hedgerow Bundt Cake
• English Carrot Cake
• White Cliffs of Dover Cake
• Rosewater and Rhubarb Jam Cake
• Rivington Pike Cake
• Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
• Rhubarb Crumble Cake
• Lemon and Elderberry Cake
• Hedgerow Lemon Mascarpone Cake

I'll let the photos do the rest of the talking. We managed to get some absolute stunners! I think most of us spent as much time walking round the garden as we did eating cake. Now there's a first!

All of the club members would like to thank Chris and her husband Ken for loaning us their idillic garden, and for being such gracious hosts. Thank you also to Lynn for making the trip across the Pennines in the most heinous of traffic on the M62...

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