The Great Leeds Bake Off

This Saturday saw the Family Vino attend the inaugural Great Leeds Bake off to celebrate the Leeds Loves Food festival. Belts were loosened in anticipation and daughter M was ready to run a critical eye and mouth over the entries. Mary Berry has nothing on my 4 year old who will readily critique my efforts, happily telling me they’re too dry or tasteless – of course having already consumed 3 pieces.

The preview said to join us at The Arch Cafe for an afternoon of cake delights, to enjoy eating competition cakes and drinking lots of Yorkshire Tea – two slices or ten slices, eat as much as you like!

I viewed this more as a challenge than a tagline so skipped breakfast and lunch in readiness. In the interests of research I intended to sample as many entries as possible; it wasn’t just gluttony, though the fact I wore elasticated trousers may say differently.

Now I have to confess I didn’t enter, this may come as surprise to those who follow me on Twitter and Instagram and are bored senseless with my seemingly endless cake tweets and photos.

I’d like to be able to give a grand excuse as to my baking absence but I can’t. Plain and simple I bottled it.

Anyone who has read my blog will know my feelings on cake competitions. According to the local W I I’m annually the second best baker in the village, I could say that doesn’t rancor with me but I’m not going to lie to you.

The Arch Cafe is in the Grade 2 listed Bradbury Building, adjacent to St. Johns Church. The building also encompasses the newly refurbished head office of Age UK Leeds who own the cafe, and all the profits go directly to support their work with older people.

The competition itself comprised of 3 categories: -

Leeds Loves Food

Vintage / Retro

International

The criteria for the competition was that the cakes would be judged primarily on taste and interpretation of the category rather than the aesthetics.

The judges were Clandestine Cake Club founder and cake recipe book author, Lynn Hill, and Masterchef Vivek Singh Kashiwale of the 1875 Restaurant in Menston.

The support shown was fantastic and the organisers wanted me to give special mention to the sponsors who donated fabulous prizes for the winners and for the raffle, namely Clandestine Cake Club, 1875 Restaurant, Hobbycraft, Greggs, Tate and Lyle, and Yorkshire Tea.

In total there were 36 cakes entered across the 3 categories, which I have to say was a great effort and made me feel less guilty for not entering myself.

The entrants were as wide ranging as had been hoped, from 5 year old children upwards. One entrant, Jon Clarke, was even accompanied by a BBC3 camera crew documenting his journey from working at a doughnut shop in the Metro Centre to becoming a baker. This will be broadcast later in the year.

True to their word and the brief the judges sampled each and every entry, revealing they had to taste some twice, just to make sure. I think the phrase Lynn used was sugar rush after judging had finished. There may have been more eye-catching cakes but the winners were indeed chosen for their taste.

Once the winners had been announced we got to dive in and dive we did – headlong into Chocolate, Coffee, Saffron, Raspberry, Beetroot, Carrot ….you name the cake and I’m pretty sure it was there. To be honest I lost count of the number we tried and think N and M would still be there, faces awash with buttercream, had we not dragged them away.

Most of all it was a fun event, with a great spirit of community, for a good cause raising in excess of £500 for Age UK Leeds. Who needs to climb Kilimanjaro to raise money for charity? I’d rather eat cake all day long. As Mrs. Vino commented, there are definitely worse ways to spend a Saturday afternoon.

So well done to all concerned and here’s to next years Great Leeds Bake Off, who knows I may even put my reputation on the line next time.

The Full piece with photos can be found here The Culture Vulture