The Fleece Fest at The Golden Fleece in Birkenshaw returned for its second year this bank holiday weekend and it was even bigger and better! Over the three days, we have seen beer and champagne pong, the ‘golden games’ competition and the coveted Great Birkenshaw Bake Off.
After last year’s failed attempt I was keen to show off what I could do and so decided to take a classic recipe for a spin…or something like that.
It was to be my mother’s birthday that weekend as well for which I was making a carrot cake so as I had a multitude of carrots in the house already I decided to base my recipe on these vegetables.
My carrot and cardamom recipe is based on this one and I was very pleased with how it came out (I made extra cupcakes with the same mixture so that I could taste it) yet I was at a bit of a loss how to decorate it.
As the cake itself is full of flavour I decided to go for simple decoration - obviously, this was my reason, not the fact that I am totally useless at cake decorating. I made a lemon buttercream and topped it with a mixture of lemon and orange peel.
The bake off judging was to be at 2 pm so I arrived in good time with my cake and my entry form and proceeded to wait….and wait….and wait some more.
It was with a heavy heart that I placed my humble offering on the table with the other entries including a Pina Colada cake and even the ‘Pig - feast which involved little pigs wallowing in (chocolate) mud.
There were two categories this year: the junior bake off and the adult Bake Off and some of the kids' entries were very impressive. Congratulations to Bethy for her winning creation.
The competition was due to be held in a tent next to the gin bar yet because there was such a large turn out at the event the decision was made to move proceedings to the stage. A flaw in this plan was the kids’ entries and all the rest of them got a bit mixed up.
First up on the judging table was the Pina Colada cake -without the rum, many people sad about this fact.
The Rhubarb and Custard cake was next up: this cake was undecorated and relied purely on taste. Unfortunately, I thought that the flavour could have done with being a bit stronger. (I tried some of this afterwards.)
The Pig-Feast cake was chocolatey as it looked; perfect for little piggies.
Next up was the Celebration cake. this was a celebration of all things chocolatey although in the baking hot sun it was looking a bit sad- still tasted good though.
Last but not least was my carrot and cardamom cake. I guess that there must have liked the strong flavour and moist texture from the carrot because....
The judges faced a hard decision and it proved to be just a little bit too hard as there was a joint winner. The Celebration cake…..and me.
Yes really ME!!!
