Bake for Victory

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This Clandestine Cake Club was trailed in a short film to participants, and the venue, the NAAFI Tea Room on Quorn & Woodhouse station kept as a closely guarded secret.  The station is on the Great Central Railway, previously the main line between Sheffield and London and now the  UK’s only double track main line heritage railway.  Steam and diesel locomotives are run from Loughborough to Leicester, stopping at  4 stations – each restored to reflect a different era of the lines 109 year history – and with an impressive list of credits as film and TV sets.  Quorn & Woodhouse station is 1940’s era and restored with an LNER guise.  The cosy NAAFI cafe with its open fire and arched ceiling is situated under the road bridge at the end of the station and is open at weekends.

We had sole use of the tea rooms for the early evening.  People baked cakes in response to the theme ‘Bake for Victory’, there were a few ‘austerity’ cakes such as Vinegar cake and a delicious Apple cake. Other bakers chose to work with less rationed ingredients adding the wartime flair in their presentation. One of the taste revelations of the event was the Three Milk Cake baked from the book ‘Saved by Cake’ by Marian Keyes.

Here is a little film that  Martin Currie and I made during the event.

With thanks to Leila for the cake photos.

For more information about the Clandestine Cake Club go to www.clandestinecakeclub.co.uk