Oh! You Pretty Things – Cakes, A Yorkshire Brew & Beads

I returned home yesterday full of cake, and with potentially an equally addictive interest – beading.

Bojangle Beads in Church Gate, Loughborough, opened up just for the Clandestine Cake Club on Sunday afternoon letting us gather around the large workshop table in their colourful and sparkly bead emporium.

Katy and her mum Chris were very generous and entertaining hosts for the afternoon, the theme Oh! You Pretty Things – a tribute to Bowie and the Glam Rock era resulted in cakes that were both delicious in the range of flavours and imaginative in their interpretation of the theme – although arachnophobes would have had a problem with the three Spiders From Mars themed cakes!  Two cakes were decorated with beads and many had 3 layers. Yorkshire Tea sponsored this event, we all enjoyed the brew – and as we all know ‘nothing goes with cake quite like a cuppa’.

Bojangle Beads is a family run business, Chris develops the in-house workshop programme and the table is usually occupied by people learning how to make beaded jewellery, and like cake club – it’s not just for girls, Katy told us about the Hairy Beaders workshop they did so blokes could make gifts for Valentines Day.

Katy has a degree in Textiles and runs workshops in chain-maille and Steampunk jewellery. Chris is very accomplished in stitched beadwork and was wearing some stunning jewellery she’d made herself using different techniques, a netted bracelet and a twisted tubular necklace.  During the afternoon Chris taught us how to make some simple but very pretty earrings. The shop is full of examples of simple and more complex beading project ideas, and I spotted a beaded Facebook logo, the Twitter one’s apparently in progress!

We all had a great time and were most definitely full of cake by the end of the afternoon. We took slices of each others cake and logo emblazoned cups full of Yorkshire Tea teabags home to try over the next few days, after all, as Emma so eloquently put it – “You WILL be hungry again, that’s for certain!”

Thank you to the bakers. Their cakes are as follows (top RHS photo, front to back) Katy – Beaded Spider from Mars cake, Amy – Pina Colada cake, Emma – Glam Rock Cake with beaded tiara, Anne – Psychadelic Rhubarb cake, Julia – Spiders from Mars Layer Cake, Janet – Coconut, Rum & Lime Spiders from Mars, June – Golden Jeans Pomegranate and Kiwi Cheesecake, out of picture – Helen – Chocolate Ziggy Cake.

The next Loughborough Clandestine Cake Club is on the 18th May, 2-5pm ‘Mind, Body & Cake’.  Follow us on Twitter @secretcakes

Find out about workshops, purchase beading materials & more at Bojangle Beads www.bojanglebeads.co.uk

Read my Quick Guide for Businesses about the benefits of hosting a Clandestine Cake Club event.