We baked our way to £1,170 at Sheffield Food Festival!

Members at this year's Food Festival

We are celebrating after raising £1,170 for the Young Women’s Housing Project through our stall and competition at this year’s Sheffield Food Festival.

We raised the sum by selling cakes, biscuits and buns made by SHWI members on their traditional stall and through entry fees for their Best in Show competition at the Festival held last month. It is the fourth year running that SHWI has taken part in the event.

Seven Hills WI President, Lindsay Garfitt, said: “We’re thrilled to have raised such a lot of money for the Young Women’s Housing Project. Last year, we made just over £1,000 at the Food Festival and really wanted to beat that total this year so we are very happy to have done so. We’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who came along and bought cakes from us or entered our competition.”

Jo Meagher from YWHP added: "It really motivates the team knowing that people want to support the project, and the young women are really grateful that Seven Hills WI wants to raise money to help them get back on their feet.

“With the funds raised we are hoping to take the young women and children on a family day out to the seaside, something many of them will not have done for many years, if at all. We will also be able to provide some specialist parent and child sessions to support these young families to build strong, trusting relationships and develop their strengths for coping with difficulties. The support from Seven Hills WI will make a real difference for these young women; we can't thank the members enough."

The winners of the Seven Hills WI Best in Show competition were as follows:

Strawberry Jam – Clare Savage
Victoria Sponge – Neil Askew
Bread – Clare Savage
Children’s Cupcakes – Lia Touhey and Frances Williamson (joint winners)

SHWI Mad Skillz: Myth Busting Bread Making

Mad Skillz is one of our spin-off groups organised by Di and Anna T. They organise bespoke sessions where SHWI members can learn a new skill in a smaller-sized group. Last week, two groups of five members went along to Forge Bakehouse on consecutive evenings. Committee member Ruth tells us all about it....

A beautiful loaf of freshly baked bread is one of my all-time favourite things to eat, but alas my limited baking skills (and my dodgy oven) have put paid to any attempts at actually making it myself. I tell a lie, I made focaccia once in 2008. So anyway, I was in need of some bread-based education and I was thrilled to be one of the lucky few to secure a place on the oversubscribed SHWI Mad Skillz 'Myth Busting Bread Making' session at Forge Bakehouse.

It was a thoroughly damp day in Sheffield, but there was a warm glow from the oven in the shop and Martha, the young owner and all round baker extraordinaire, greeted us with freshly brewed tea and one of the most amazing brownies I have ever tasted. Having trained at the School of Artisan Food, she clearly knows her stuff. After the obligatory SHWI catch-up over said cuppa, it was time for the session to kick off.

Anna is amazed by the fermenting dough

It was a very hands-on lesson and we started off by mixing our own dough. I think we were all expecting a serious upper arm workout from all the kneading (we've clearly been watching too much Great British Bake Off), but Martha shared an absolutely revelatory tip with us: the ‘Ten Second Knead’ technique. Forget pummelling your dough for an age. Oh no. Kneading the dough in a circular motion for just ten seconds, then leaving it to prove for ten minutes and repeating a couple of times is just as effective and far less exhausting. Win! Whilst the dough was proving, we learnt lots of other interesting snippets about all of the different factors that can affect the success of your bake.

Plaiting the dough

We then went on to shaping and slashing a whole variety of loaves. Martha had kindly prepared lots of dough for us to practice on and I was disproportionately pleased with my baguette. My poor plaits left a lot to be desired though. Other members of the group were far more successful - there was some very impressive plait action going on - but my Great British Bake Off application will have to wait for another year (or four), me thinks.

Jen, Ruth, Di, Cat, Anna and Vicky

I know I speak for the rest of the group when I say what a great evening this was. Martha was knowledgeable, interesting, and thoroughly lovely. A great teacher. Some left with their own sour dough starter to bake for themselves at home. I left laden with some of Mr Potato Bread (it was delicious) and my very own scraper (essential baking kit apparently). I definitely won’t be leaving it another six years between bakes from now on.

If you’re a Forge Bakehouse regular, don’t fear – our loaves were not made to be sold to the paying public. All of the waste products from the shop are given to the pigs at Heeley City Farm – such lucky piggies! That gesture reflects the overall ethos of Forge Bakehouse. They use locally sourced organic flour in all their loaves and provide lots of local cafes with their goodies. Best of all, everything is really reasonably priced. It's only been open for a couple of years but this place is going to become a Sheffield institution, I'm sure of it.

To find out more about what SHWI Mad Skillz have got coming up, speak to Di or Anna T at a meeting or search for the Facebook group 'SHWI Mad Skillz'. 

Ruth Kirkman
SHWI Committee member

Cake and Bake Show and a little bit of modelling...

A sneaky peek of one of our calendar pics...(photo by Laura Bainbridge)

On Saturday 6 April, some of our members had a busy day visiting the Cake and Bake Show in Manchester before hot-footing it back to the seven hills for our second SHWI photo shoot for our 2014 calendar. 

The Cake and Bake Show is one massive event over three days with talks, masterclasses and workshops from some of the biggest names in the baking industry, as well as featuring a whole host of companies giving demonstrations and samples of their baking goods and wares. 

Laura and a Fabulous Baker Brother

SHWI members Laura Bainbridge, Anna Pilson, Di Coupe, Jen Marsden and myself booked some half-price tickets, unsure what to expect. Would we get sufficient samples? Could we meet any Great British Bake Off contestants? Would we get Laura get a cuddle of a Fabulous Baker Brother?

The answer was yes. On entering the venue, we paid £5 for the Cake and Bake Show goody bag with an event programme, free copy of the Telegraph, vouchers, Green and Black's White Cooking Chocolate and some Silver Spoon cake decorations. 

Most stalls had some good tasters, from chunks of focaccia to dip in balsamic vinegar to homemade fudge. Stalls like the Lakeland section sold all the essentials (and more) for the potential baker and companies like Dr Oetker handed out even more goodie bags. Other stalls had some very interesting cake toppers (naked baby iced figure, anyone?).

Di and Edd

But some of us had our eyes on the celebs. The name at the show who drew the biggest crowds was Eric Lanlard but I confess that I'm not that aware of his programme or previous books. 

We'd missed Mr Paul Hollywood who had been there in person on the Friday but there was still plenty of GBBO contestants to spot. I'd spied Ruth Clemens (series one) entering the VIP area, Holly Bell (series two) handing out leaflets for Sainsbury's and Laura and Di spotted series one winner Edd Kimber.

One of the most popular events of the day was the Bake Off featuring previous GBBO contestants. We were there on the front row (well, sat on the floor in front of the front row) to watch John Waite (series three winner) and Natasha (series three) team up with a volunteer from the audience to make tweels. I was first with my hand up and a question for John, asking him what he's been up to since winning the show. As soon as the Bake Off finished, Jen and Anna rushed to meet James Morton (series three hottie) and Catherine Dresser. 

Jen (left) and Anna (right) with
GBBO's Catherine and James

Laura and I watched a soda bread demo by Fabulous Baker Brother, Tom Herbert, who MADE HIS OWN BUTTER. And we got to try it. 

Tom also got a picture with everyone who watched and tweeted it to his followers...and we got in on the pic!

Anna also managed to meet the fabulous Brendan Lynch outside the venue who was happy to pose for a photo and grab her arm. 

After nabbing all our freebies, we enjoyed lunch and a few beverages (ahem) in Manchester before heading back to Sheffield on the train. 

Brendan and Anna

We met more SHWI lovelies at the Showroom cinema before decamping to our first shoot location of the night: The Leadmill. The idea was to have everyone dressed to the nines and in the queue for the club. After a few variations, we got some great shots.

Next up was the 'Cutting Edge' at Sheffield station (random fact: our President Lindsay's Dad installed this sculpture!). 

I won't give the game away but the setup involved sparklers which were a devil to syncronise. After a few gos (and a crazy drunk guy harrassing us for a while) we got the shot before we got pneumonia. 

The results are amazing and I can't wait to see the finished calendar! All that modelling meant that we deserved a few drinks at the Sheffield Tap.

Kirsty Bowen
SHWI Events and Programme Officer