WOW. What a brilliant time I had at the Cake & Bake Show in Manchester!
I had been invited to a VIP press show courtesy of Neff that was presented by the gorgeous John Whaite who won Great British Bake Off in 2012. Now, I’ve wanted a Neff oven for as long as I can remember, they have the sexy Slide and Hide feature. That was enough for me but I learnt they have a ton of other features that make them fantastic. They have a technology called CircoTherm. Now this means;
- Cook a three course meal at the same time with multi-level cooking and, better still, have no flavour transfer across dishes.
- Get cooking faster with little or no pre-heating of the oven.
- Better cooking results because of even heat transference through the oven cavity AND no loss of heat when opening the oven door.
- Moist, succulent roast dinners are achieved easily thanks to the speed at which the heat is delivered throughout the oven.
- No need to turn food on the grill, the air circulates to give perfect results EVERYTIME.
John gave a great demo of the ovens in action and I must admit. I’m sold!
Here is me, John and my wonderful PA Colin at the Neff stand snacking on the Bake It Yourself with Neff logos! Ha!
The show was everything I expected and more. There were imaginative creations, baking demonstrations from industry experts and a plethora of samples to tease you.
It wasn’t just sweet treats on show at Manchester Central, with pies and breads available to buy and TV chef Simon Rimmer teaching a masterclass on baking pie at The Bakery Stage.
Next to The Bakery Stage was The Cake Kitchen Stage – with demonstrations from ITV’s Britain’s Best Bakery judges cake queen Mich Turner and baker Peter Sidwell chocolate expert Paul A Young, Master Patissier Eric Lanlard and TV cook Rosemary Shrager (who was wearing some fabulous pink shoes!)
This year, a talking point of the show was the Welcome to the Jungle display by CakeBomb.
The installation is created solely out of cakes and treats and stepping inside an edible jungle is a unique experience smelling sweetly of chocolate!
The detail is intricate and shows realistic crocodiles, bugs and scenes straight out of the Jungle Book including a working waterfall and smoking pipe!
Me on the Competition Theatre Stage with Mich Turner. Peter Sidwell, Wendi Peters and the winners of ITV’s Britain’s Best Bakery. I had to judge a rhubarb inspired bake off between David and Lindsay. (Lindsay won!)
This is one of my favourite selfies of all time. Me, Colin, John Whaite and Cat Dresser.
Here are some more photos from the day including selfies and me judging the bake off.
Above are some photos from the ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ exhibit. I am always amazed by the sheer talent of cake decorators. It’s art.
Above are pictures from the Neff demo with John Whaite, a few selfies, some more jungle pictures and a bake off between John and Cat Dresser. John dragged his lovely mum up on stage!
One amazing feature at the show was the Cupcake Dress made by Cake Masters. It was made up of 800 cupcakes and over 5000 sugar flowers!! You could get into it for a photo and of course, I had to have a go!
It was completely brilliant. I can’t recommend the show highly enough. Get your tickets for the London Cake & Bake Show in October here.
Below photos courtesy of Elisabeth Kurtis at elisabethkurtis.co.uk
Did you go to the show? I’d love to hear from you if you did! Contact me as always on Facebook or Twitter.
Happy baking!
Britt xo