Cake and Bake Show 2014

So, Happy Hooky Mates! Just to show I have other interests that are not attached to a ball of yarn I'm going to share with you my recent visit, with my very lovely Almost Daughter-in-Law, to The Cake and Bake Show in Manchester.

We set off bright and early, 8am train. Luckily I had pre-booked our seats 'cos the train was HEAVING! People literally right up to the doors! When we finally squeezed our way to our allocated seats (to find them occupied of course!) we realised it was Grand National Day and the trains were full of suitably attired punters heading for the races!

We arrived in a dull & drizzly Manchester (sorry, but isn't it always?) in plenty of time, so had to queue a bit, waiting for the doors to open. But, when they finally did, we eagerly went inside to a complete cornucopia of cakey creations! Look!

Some, like the one above, were taller than me! And SO detailed! The photo really doesn't do it justice. They must have taken hours and hours to decorate, not to mention the skill involved!


And I just love these two.......




BUT the most delicious, delightful, totally deloverly decorating designs EVER were to be found within the central Jungle display! NEVER have I seen anything so wonderful ALL made out of cake! An entire jungle! Animals, birds, butterflies, insects and all the plants and flowers entirely made out of cake. Magic! Feast your eyes on some of these......

How incredible is this? I am just in awe of anyone with this amount of talent! Not to mention the perseverance and dedication it takes to produce something like this.

Or these!!

Even the flowers, leaves, rocks, everything is CAKE!!




But the piece de resistance was THIS!!

Yep! A life-size baby elephant! They were decorating it, during the course of the two day show, with traditional Indian designs and, once complete, it would include a howdah or houdah, the seat that goes on the top to carry passengers.

We were there on the Saturday so unfortunately we didn't get to see it when completed with the houdah - but it's still totally amazing!

Even more amazingly, when surrounded by all this cakey deliciousness, apart from little nibbles of samples as we walked around, the lovely E and I did not eat ANY cake! Not surprisingly however we did have to buy some to take home, and very delicious it was too!

It really was a FAB day out, lots of stalls, freebies, samples etc and so much inspiration! And I haven't even mentioned any celebrities like John Waite and Francis Burn from The Great British Bake Off! I was going to post some pics of them here but am not sure I can do that without their permission so.......
suffice it to say that they had a 'Cake Off', well a 'pancake off' actually, where they competed against each other to make the best filled pancakes. All very entertaining...........