Last weekend I went to The Cake & Bake Show at Event City in Manchester. The show has been running in Manchester now for 3 years and it spent it's first two years at Manchester Central. As well as moving to a different venue, it's also extended it's run time from 3 days to 4 days. I attended on both the Friday and Saturday, here's what I got up to...
Christmas and pink were big themes! The carpet of the venue was a bright pink, there was bunting hung all over the place and Christmas trees everywhere. It definitely felt fun and festive.
One of the first things I noticed when I walked in was this giant chair photo opportunity, of course I got straight in there! Now where can I get one of these for my living room...?
Next I headed straight to The Great British Bake Off theater where I spent a lot of my time at the show. Beside the theater was a stand selling all the Bake Off merchandise. I've not used any of the merchandise myself, but the pretty pastel colours and retro feel makes it look very attractive.
Sugar & Crumbs make flavoured icing sugar which is seriously yummy. I couldn't believe how much the apple crumble flavor actually tasted like apple crumble! I don't know how they do it. They've also started selling piping nozzles that make some pretty impressive flowers with buttercream.
The Big Bakes Bakery had giant versions of popular bakes on sale such as cookies, gingerbread men and jammy dodgers. I shared a jammy dodger with my friend Sophie and she also purchased one of the giant gingerbread men. I love the idea of over sized bakes!
I didn't buy much at the show, but I had to grab this amazing bargain of 1 liter of Nielsen Massey Vanilla Extract for only £22! That was a show only deal, but you can still get it for £25 from the One Stop Cookery website.
The other thing I bought at the show was some delicious fudge from The Kilted Fudge Company. Their fudge is so flavoursome and creamy!
I watched Chetna Makan from series 5 make a Cardamom & Coffee Swiss Roll, which looked so pretty. She is well known for fusing indian flavours with traditional baking. She talked about how the bakers from her series like to get together every few months and each of them bring a dish along. Chetna has a YouTube channel now where she releases a new recipe every week. She is also bringing out a book in April next year called The Cardamom Trail, but she explains that not all the recipes feature cardamom!
John Whaitemade some Fig, Walnut & Gruyere Bagels which also had Marmite in the dough. He has such a fantastic stage presence and was chatting away to the crowd and making jokes the whole way through. John talked about how food is a projection of who you are, and so it can feel really personal when people don't like your food - which I really relate to! He has a cookery school called John Whaite's Kitchen and also a new book out soon called Perfect Plates in 5 Ingredients.
Then it was time for this year's winner Nadiya to take the stage! She made her Peanut Salted Caramel Tart that earned her a Paul Hollywood handshake. Nadiya talked about her time on the Bake Off. She hated doing the technical challenges, her favorite creation was the chocolate peacock, and her final showstopper bake of a wedding cake was her hardest challenge. She is writing a weekly column for The Times at the moment, but would love to do a book.
One of my favorite bakers from this year's Bake Off, Tamal Ray, hit the stage to make his Apple, Pistachio & Rose Madeira Cake. Tamal revealed that he applied for the show in series 3, he got quite far but didn't make the final cut, and was encouraged to apply again. The final showstopper was Tamal's favorite bake during his time on The Great British Bake Off, and since being on the show Tamal has made two more wedding cakes. He also confirmed the answer to a questions he gets asked a lot - that he gets his syringes for injecting cakes off ebay and not from the hospital where he works!
Luis Troyano was up next and he made some absolutely delicious looking Spanish Empanadas filled with beef, chorizo and vegetables. He also added paprika to the dough and cooked them in the deep fryer. Luis has a book called Bake It Great which features recipes with a Spanish influence. He recommended shopping in Indian supermarkets for spices and exotic flavours as they are much more reasonably priced. He also said that he thinks if you can bake a great Bakewell Tart, you can bake anything, as the tart combines a great range of baking skills.
Sandy Docherty was so entertaining to watch, she is such a great character. She made Parmesan biscuits with a cream cheese filling. I couldn't believe that she was only in four episodes of The Great British Bake Off, it feels like she was in the show for longer! She did her creme brulee 'wobble' dance and also judged some bakes from a young boy in the audience who had brought in some profiteroles filled with creme patisserie - what a talent!
I was lucky enough to meet Mat Riley before he appeared on stage to make his refined sugar free carrot cake. He sweetened the cake with dates and a fruit syrup. I was surprised to hear that Mat only got into baking two years ago when he had some time off work and started going through his wife's recipe books and making things. He now has a YouTube channel where he makes something new every week, it's called Mat Riley Bakes.
There were some competition cakes on display for visitors to look at. My favorite was the Jungle Book cake above - such stunning detail!
There were also cakes made by professionals on display, which were jaw droppingly amazing. There is so much time and detail that goes into these beautiful cakes.
The Ideal Home Show was also on in the same venue and it had an amazing winter wonderlandarea full of Christmas trees. It made me feel so happy and festive!
I had such a great time at The Cake & Bake Show, and I got to meet Lisa Faulkner too! I was a bit disappointed that the show was smaller this year. As it had moved to a bigger venue and had two successful years in Manchester already, I was expecting a bigger show. I know that the show has been taken on by a new events company, so I hope that they give it more attention next year. The Great British Bake Off stage was certainly the highlight for me, and although there were some great exhibitors, I would've loved to see more. It was also great that you could access the Ideal Home Show for no extra charge.
You can watch my vlogs of the day below. And don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel!
NB. I received a press pass for the show, all opinions are my own.