A day of cakes and crafts

 Sunday afternoon....and I headed to Loughborough to meet my friend Becca (from the Make Do and Spend blog). The treat in store was a garden party and secret craft fair with the promise of cakes thrown in.
When I say cakes, I mean lots of them, and very tasty ones too. But more about the cakes later.....

Pete and Janet were the hosts

They run the Refectory Table....which offers secret creative courses  http://therefectorytable.com/
Pete is a business coach and a Business Editor at Craft and Design magazine...and Janet, as well as being a creative professional, runs the Loughborough branch of the Clandestine Cake Club.
See, I told you there was lots of cakes....exceedingly good ones...

This chocolate cake , a homage to the works of sculptor Anish Kapoor,  was made by Janet. An intense, rich, moist chocolate cake ....

And look at this impressive concoction......well, I did more than look at it...I had to try a piece of this too.....

But the afternoon wasn't just about cake......there were also some seriously talented artists there too.....
with beautiful, vibrant cards from Helen Rhodes...

More clever cards plus prints and textiles too from Sue Bulmer.I bought the perfect card for a friend from her...and would love to see more of her textile work.

Also there was  Maxine Greer  whose creations are very different....., she makes paper birds - lots of them,with quite different personalities I thought....

Fabulous aren't they?

And then it was back to the kitchen table for some more cake!

And more cake.....the Damien Hirst cake....

Trying to talk with a mouth stuffed full of cake proved surprisingly easy  for most of us...but there were lulls in the conversations where the odd "Oooooohh", "Mmnnn" and gasps of pleasure filled in the gaps.

I had a great chat about vegetables in cakes with a lovely, very knowledgeable lady while I devoured her luscious lemon drizzle cake...and then it was time to look and admire other crafts.....


I admired Kay van Bellen's quirky illustrations which remind me so much of 1920 and 1930's European childrens' books.....

And then it was time to go into the garden . After all it was a garden party and the sun was shining.....

there were more crafts on display outside....and there were lots of little nooks to sit and eat cake.....

 I also talked again to the lemon drizzle lady ....it turns out she's Lyn Hill, the actual founder of the Clandestine Cake Club, who organised her first cake club about eighteen months ago.

According to Lyn  "It was purely a need in getting more people together over Tea and Cake, without having to do all the baking myself. The people can do the baking and they can invite a guest. It was that simple”

 What a cracking idea......cake loving people getting together at secret venues only revealed to people attending. So full of admiration for how she's set it up..there's clubs all over the country and even across the Channel, and even better news,  there's a recipe book on the way.

But it was also time for Becca and I to be on our way....

By now I was waddling back to the car....replete, full, stuffed...whatever you like to call it....after tasting so many delicious cakes, and seeing so many visual treats.

A simply perfect way of spending a Sunday afternoon.....