I’ve mentioned The Clandestine Cake Club (CCC) on here many a time but I’m quite bad for remembering to share the write-ups of our events.

For any of you that are new to this blog or have never heard of CCC before (where have you been?) the basic jist of it is a group of home bakers meet at a secret venue once a month armed with a cake and we meet to chat, share cake and make new friends. I’ve been a member of CCC for almost 4 years now and running Wharfedale for 2 or 3 of those years.

Through CCC I have made some amazing friends and now I cannot imagine life without it. If it wasn’t for Lynn, CCC wouldn’t exist, I wouldn’t have a published recipe in a book and I probably wouldn’t have had the confidence to set up this blog.

Anyway…. back to some of recent events at Wharfedale….

Back in November we returned to the Hermit Inn in Burley-in-Wharfedale for our Autumnal Delights event. The weekend previously had seen some nasty flooding so a few of us were quite apprehensive as to whether the event would go ahead. Thankfully fate was on our side and even though only 5 of us attended (including 2 new members) it was a great evening. I still think about that delicious apple cake with caramel sauce that one of our newbies made. Honestly that cake was divine, I really need to make it myself!

As for the Hermit Inn they were wonderful hosts. Providing us with a cosy corner of the pub to tuck into our cakes, we could ignore the cold and dreary night outside. It’s the second time we have been there for an event and I really need to go back with Mr T for a meal. The owners are so friendly and welcoming and in return for their hospitality we left them a selection of our cakes to enjoy.


Fast forward to after Christmas and we held our first event of 2016 at The Yard in Ilkley. This is another venue we have been to before and I also went there for lunch at my Hen Party. They recently changed their menu and I’ve already said to Mr T we have to go and try it out.

Once again The Yard reserved their private bar upstairs for us to enjoy our Anything Goes event. Once a year the cake only rule is relaxed and members can bake whatever they want. We had a delicious Amaretto Cake from Dianne, Sam made some yummy cupcakes with Sugar and Crumbs Strawberry Milkshake Icing, I made my Mars Bar brownies and Amy balanced out all the sweet stuff with her yummy Cornbread.

Even though only four of us were there it was lovely to get some proper one on one time with members and have a good old natter. Sometimes when it’s too busy I find myself rushing around making sure everyone is ok but this time we all got to chat with each other and enjoy or bakes without hitting the dreaded cake wall.

Living where I do I feel so fortunate that we have so many different venues to visit for CCC but there is also something comforting about returning to a place we have been to before.

My next mission is to book another event in before baby arrives at the end of February. Just a small matter of choosing where to have it…