The number of cake clubs has soared in the past year, as many have had their eyes opened to the delightfulness of eating cake and drinking tea in the company of other baking enthusiasts. Whether you are wanting to join a cake club franchise such as the extremely popular Clandestine Cake Club, or whether you want to pioneer your own club for friends and family you will need a smidge of organisation, a dollop of creativity and a splash of enthusiasm.
Format
The basic premise of a cake club is very straight forward. Usually you will have a dozen or so members who each bake a cake for the meeting. Each meeting will usually have a theme and each baker must loosely adhere to this be it through ingredient choice or cake decoration. The first thing to do is to decide on a location. This could be at your house, another members house or a local obliging café. Members should be asked to bake a good sized cake (as there must be enough to go round) which they bring on the day and give everyone a chance to try. Serve lots of lovely tea and have a good old chat as you down slices of sponge cake, chocolate cake and fruit cake. Obviously if you are starting your own club then you can format it how you like.
Guests & Cost
Something worth considering is whether or not it will be a member’s only club or if you will encourage people to bring guests. Also will you charge members to be part of the club or is it simply that they cover the cost of ingredients? Some clubs will charge a very small fee in order to cover the drinks costs if it is held at someone’s house. If you hold it in a café or bar members will have to pay for drinks as they normally would so this may be better. Do some research on the internet or in your local town to try and find out what format other clubs use as this may serve as good inspiration.
Promotion
If your vision if for an open cake club (not just for family and friends) then you will need to promote it in order to find members. Chat to the other mothers at the school gate when you drop your kids off and put some posters up in the local shops and community centres. Your friends could also help spread the word within their circles and you could also consider contacting your local community magazine to see if they will do a feature on you new and this new and exciting club.
Vicky loves to write about all things relating to cakes. She loves to bake and share this passion through writing tips and tutorials on the subject.