Hiya!
We are still here!
We’ve just been a little too busy to update the website.
Sorry.
We can assure you that we’ve still been baking cakes (in fact the requests are coming in thicker and faster than ever – yippeee). And you can always find us wittering away on Twitter and Facebook.
Now, prepare to be bombarded with updates …
Last month we put sieves on our heads hosted the second in our series of family baking workshops, this time at Ann Tayler Children’s Centre near London Fields.
It almost goes without saying that we had fun, a whole lot of fun! The staff were great; our bakers – who helped run the session – were great; the parents were great; and the kids? They weren’t too bad either!
We’re joking, of course – they were super great and it was fab seeing them really get stuck in, taking control of the mixing and measuring, getting creative, and yes, from time to time, sticking a sieve or two on their heads, but we won’t tell Environmental Health if you won’t!
All together now … “Ground control to Major Tom…”!
Sieves on heads weren’t the only funny occurrence mind you. One child added an egg to the mixture. As in, a whole egg, just popped in there with the flour, shell and all. We heart kids!
We got some amazing feedback from the families at the session, some of which we thought we’d share here because it made us feel warm and fuzzy and because hopefully it will give you a little glimpse of why we do what we do, and why we’re so glad that we’ve expanded our service to incorporate these local baking workshops. So, from the mouths of the mums:
“I really liked cooking with my children; it was nice seeing them smile.” (We love seeing them smile too!)
“Doing the workshop helped me interact with my children more. I would usually go home and let them watch television but the workshop gave us time together.” (Baking as a family instead of watching the gogglebox = good!)
“I love cooking but don’t have the equipment so thank you for giving me all the things I need to bake with my children at home.” (Our pleasure! We love knowing that families will go on to bake at home together.)
And finally, a comment that gave us a clue that the workshop went down well… “MORE BAKING WORKSHOPS PLEASE!” (If we can, we will!)
So everyone went home happy, clutching their FCFK Hackney goody bags. And some carefully packaged their precious homemade muffins up to take home, while others just couldn’t wait…!
If you’re an avid My Weekly reader then you may have spotted this week’s article about the Free Cakes for Kids UK network. If you’re not, it isn’t too late to get a copy from the shops. We picked ours up from a rather helpful woman in WH Smiths yesterday so we know they’re still about.
The keener eyes among you may spot a few FCFK Hackney faces (not to mention one of our stylish tote bags!) in one of the photos featured in the magazine. If you can identify us all then we’ll treat you to a muffin. Actually, we’ll push the boat out and get you a slice of carrot cake!
If this fails to make you smile and cheer up a rather chilly Monday morning then we don’t know what will!
It’s got it all … happy bakers (wearing stunning aprons we might add!), getting together to do a group bake, resulting in a simply schmazing six cake. Happy bakers, happy recipient, happy us.
Thank you to FCFK Hackney bakers Shelly, Gail and Kitty-May for sharing your fun group bake with us. We {heart} you and we hope to get an invite round yours next time the mixing bowls come out!
News just in (well, not exactly just in as this magazine came out before Christmas! But…):
we’re featured in LDN East magazine and we’re pretty chuffed about it.
Just because we made it to the hallowed pages of the Guardian’s awesome Cook section (saying that does not get old!) doesn’t mean we’re not happy to be written about in more local publications. In fact it’s often the more local publications that actually reach our target audience and get us the referrals, donations and bakers that we’re after.
So thank you LDN East. You made our rather soggy Wednesday!
Hello all you lovely people! Are you ready for Christmas? Are you hanging up your stocking on the wall … or are you leaving that to Slade? Whether you like it or not, the big day is nearly upon us and what better way to get involved in the festivities than to share the details of our Christmas social for our bakers with you. It actually took place in November, but hey, we’re busy people and we had mince pies to eat in December, so November worked better for us.
First things first – a bow of gratitude to Debora who once again let us borrow her gorgeous kitchen in which to host our little soiree. And, sorry, we’re first in the queue if Debora decides to adopt anyone. Idyllic is the word. Idyllic. When we grow up we want to have kitchens like Debora’s; houses like Debora’s; screw it, we want to be Debora.
Moving on …
We are indebted to Jess, who shall from now on be referred to as Super Jess, and who knows pretty much everything there is to know about buttercream. She works at Cakes 4 Fun in Putney, which is a little bit of a trek from Hackney, but it would totally be worth the journey to roll icing with Super Jess. She used to work in the kitchens of the Berkeley Hotel producing their incredible Pret-a-Porteas. Need we say more?
So there was Super Jess and there was mulled wine (of course!) …
… and as we slurped the hot spicy stuff and nibbled on a spread to put any Boxing Day buffet to shame, Super Jess taught us how to crumb coat and ice a cake like a professional; how to make the perfect bear with perfect little ears made from a small flattened round of icing halved (who knew?!); how to create a magnificently pleated bow from decorators paste; and how to buttercream with the best of them – piping it, freezing it, then transferring it onto cakes.
Some of us were better than others when it came to having a go ourselves (and by others we mean the committee!), but you couldn’t fault the enthusiasm and concentration in the room. Tongues poked out of mouths, lost in the moment, as shaky hands gripped piping bags. A+ for effort, and the mulled wine probably helped us to become pros!
We will be sharing a couple of the masterclasses on here in the new year as best as we can so do keep coming back. It’s been an incredible year for FCFK Hackney and the party really topped it off for us so thank you to the bakers who came and celebrated with us …
… and HAPPY CHRISTMAS, everyone. We can’t wait until 2014 already. xxx
If you’ve got zero will power (like us!) then I suggest you look away now.
STOP!
Click away from this page. Go and Google images of celery or something healthy instead. Just, whatever you do, don’t go on reading about the most amazingly chocolaty, gooey, moist, cake, adorned with ball after ball of Malteser goodness.
Too late? Oops. Ok, take a look at this and if you can then override the jungle drum call of a packet of Maltesers you are superhuman and we take our hats off to you. We’re already weighing out the cocoa powder (but may have to go and buy more Maltesers as they seem to have, um, disappeared!).
This recipe was taken from the December edition of Olive magazine. We ate almost a whole one of these cakes at a little gathering the FCFK Hackney committee had. We feel we are well placed therefore to say that it is gooorrrgeous. Forget the Christmas pudding – go and make yourself one of these instead!
Chocolate Chiffon Maltesers Cake
Ingredients:
For the cake –
6 eggs separated
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
60g cocoa
260g plain flour
360g caster sugar
1.5 tsp bicarbonate
1 tsp salt
125ml veg oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
For the buttercream –
500g slightly salted butter
200g icing sugar
50g drinking chocolate
2-3 tbsp milk
5x135g Maltesers
Method:
Line the bottom and sides of a 23cm (at least 10cm deep) cake tin with baking paper.
Heat oven to 180c/160fan/gas 4.
Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff.
Put the remaining cake ingredients into a separate bowl with 190ml of water and blend to a rich thick chocolate mix.
Fold in the egg whites – do not beat.
When the mixture has no more white streaks pour into tin. Bake for approx 1 hour. When it is ready it will feel spongy with a soft crust on top.
Cool in tin for 10mins then remove and peel off paper.
Put the cake on a cake board. Put the buttercream ingredients in a large bowl and beat until soft and creamy.
Ice cake in an even later starting at the bottom of the cake until all is covered.
Starting at the bottom again push the maltesers one by one into the icing – work your way up in circles until you have reached the middle of the cake.
DEVOUR!
Christmas, it’s a time for giving. If you’re feeling generous and are in the market for a little bit of festive shopping then we have got a humdinger of a present portfolio for you. So fasten your seat belts and let the goods unveil themselves before your eyes.
First up, the pinny, or A-mazing apron of awesomeness:
Made from the real deal black cotton twill, our generously-sized aprons feature our FCFK Hackney logo in hot pink in the bottom right corner (not too in-your-face but you’d still stand out in a crowd of Mary Berry wannabes). And if that wasn’t enough, the polka dot pocket, neck band and waist tie are sure to have you swooning. These ain’t no mass-produced pinnies, we’ll have you know. Each one was made lovingly by hand (by a member of our FCFK Hackney committee no less) and with a batch of just 20 in existence, they truly are limited edition. If you’re serious about keeping the icing sugar off your clothes, but always need to be a cut above the rest, then this is the apron for you.
A snip at just £15.
Thank you to baker Shelly for modeling our apron and for being an all-round good sport!
Bringing up the rear, but no less great, the t-t-t-totally top tote bag:
What can we say? Totes are everywhere. Every man and his dog has their logo on a tote and they’re all vying for space on your arm, but ours are different. Well, not so different really – they’re the same standard cream fabric tote, universal in their usefulness, but ours are emblazoned with our FCFK Hackney logo, again in hot pink, and that is most definitely different. Different enough to have Strictly’s Richard Arnold getting his mitts on one, anyway! If you want to turn heads when out buying your groceries* then you know what to do: buy, buy, buy! (*Our totes are in no way limited to carrying groceries. They have been known to be used for swimming kits and even a knitting bag. What do you use yours for?)
A bargainous bargain at a measly £5.
Email us at hello@freecakesforkidshackney.co.uk if you would like to purchase either an apron or tote bag.
All profits made from both products go back into extending the work we do at the heart of Free Cakes for Kids Hackney.
Read all about it! Read all about it!
We’ve only gone and got ourselves a double page spread in today’s Guardian! What are you doing still reading this? Why aren’t you rushing out to the shops to get your copy?
Impressed?! We are!
Naturally we are thrilled and delighted that Eve at the Guardian liked what we do enough to feature us (thank you, Eve) . And it was all the more special that the Guardian’s photographer, Michael, could join us for our first ever community baking workshop with kids (hi Michael! … have you recovered yet?!). And, of course, that the parents and staff at Morningside Children’s Centre were so accommodating.
We are funded completely by money we raise or that gets donated to us and run completely by volunteers, so budgets for publicity don’t exactly exist. It is therefore amazing that we’re able to spread the word about our organisation a little further than you, me and the next street post.
We are already lucky enough to have a fantastic brigade of bakers who respond to emails calling for cakes to be made faster than the speed of light, but it is important to us that more people who might need our service, or people working with those families, hear about us so that we can grow the work we do. And, even though it may not be the done thing to discuss money, donations are always, ALWAYS appreciated. If you go to our Local Giving site and give a tenner, not only do you make us very happy, but your money gets doubled, which is pretty cool. And the more money we get, the longer we can go on making sure that kids in Hackney who might not otherwise get them DO get cakes on their birthdays.
If you are only just hearing about us and have your heart set on becoming a baker then we don’t mind you joining our waiting list if you’re happy to, err, wait. Please be patient with us though. We have already been inundated with contacts since the Guardian went to press – and the twittersphere has gone a little crazy too. We will try to respond to everyone, but we are just five ordinary people with jobs and families and Christmas trees to put up, so we may not be as quick off the mark as you’d hope, but our cogs are definitely turning.
If you’re not a Hackney resident but are interested in what we do and would like to be involved, then why not check out the Free Cakes for Kids national site and see if there’s a group near you. If there isn’t, maybe you could set one up?
Right, we’re off to read the rest of our copy of the Guardian. We see that “grumpy” Ruby from Great British Bake Off is featured and we’re dying to know what she’s up to now!
Thanks for stopping by and being interested in little old us. We promise we’re not going to turn all diva-ish now we’re famous!
So… you know that saying, “Never work with children or animals”? Um, yeah, we kind of ignored it. There were no lions or tigers or bears, oh no, but there most certainly were children and lots and lots of them!
What are we talking about? Our baking workshop of course!
The Friday before the Friday before last, Morningside Children’s Centre – specifically, the lovely Marie – let us loose in one of their rooms to spill flour and break eggs set up a baking station that even the mighty Delia would be proud of. We zested lemons, melted butter and lined up ten sets of mixing bowls, spoons, and measuring cups in anticipation. We were then joined by ten local mums who had signed up to learn how to bake muffins with us and their children. And as the end of school approached, said children joined us too, and that’s when the fun began!
Clad in plastic pinnies and with name badges on, the kids set about measuring out flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, salt … then yoghurt, sugar, egg, melted butter … and the all important blueberries, or pear and lemon, or raisins. There was so much concentration in the air that we’d like to say you could hear a pin drop, but the reality was that you probably wouldn’t have heard a grand piano drop! Yes, it was noisy, but the children and their mums were having fun and each family managed to produce a tray of six muffin cases filled with their own unique muffin mix in no time at all.
We were up against it slightly on the cooking front. We had an oven the size of a microwave to cook 60 muffins in before the kids’ attention spans waned, but we pretty much did it and every family got to take home their buns (if they made it as far as their front doors without being consumed, that is!). And not only that, they also received a small goody bag from us including a copy of the recipe and all the equipment they needed to recreate the muffins at home, all packaged up in one of our FCFK Hackney tote bags (so expect to see a flurry of them about town!).
It was a crazy whirlwind of an afternoon but it was great fun. There are things we have learnt, of course, but we would definitely do it again, and we could quite get used to being called “Miss”! And, most importantly of all, Marie reported back that around half of the families who came told her they tried the muffins at home with their children that very weekend. We are over the moon that the workshop had the desired effect. Cooking with kids is messy and hard work, but so rewarding. We think we’ll skip cooking with animals though!
Oh, and did we mention that a photographer from the Guardian came along? No?! Ah ha! Keep checking in and all will be revealed…! Here he is in action – a photo of a photographer taking a photo.
Free Cakes for Kids Hackney 