Showing posts with label cake. Show all posts

Cake Me Out - June Workshop - Cupcake Decorating

Tuesday, 9 June 2015 § 0

This months workshop "Cake Me Out" took an ultra sociable turn when branch president Lucy Rider stepped in with her best girl guide leading skills at short notice to cover when the workshop host had to cancel on the day (Aaaaaaaaaargh) …but in the face of adversity we did indeed eat cake...and on the day of the WI AGM and celebrating 100 years, we could hardly cancel that wouldn't be in any sort of WI spirit!


A team effort of  butter ice mixing and a good helping of woofle dust (edible glitter) soon had the Muppet cupcake decorating class on the go and all of our lovely ladies were surprised at how simple it really is once you know how and have the right equipment (and remember, mistakes are edible!!!!! EDIBLE!!!! What's not to like?)
 



 Everyone had a jolly good time making our "Muppet baby" cakes and we even managed a bonus free styling session at the end which gave the participants a chance experiment  and compare with their new found skills and creativity.



No girlie party will be safe from our creations in the future and we heartily expect to see these adorable cupcake designs turning up at future general meets for team tasting!

 

Book Club - How to Build a Girl - Caitlin Moran

Monday, 18 May 2015 § 0




 
We've had a book club offshoot of Buns and Roses WI for a few years now and we've done all sorts of books over the last few years but the focus over the last 18 months has been either books by women or about inspirational female characters. We are a very free and easy book club in that we only have a couple of rules - namely you don't have to have finished the book (and not mind finding out what happens) and it has to be available from the library so that people don't have to buy it - though of course it is up to each attendee whether they purchase the book or not and some of the fun each meeting is looking at our various copies and seeing what kind of market the bookseller is trying to appeal to over the years - a book like Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell which we read (or in the majority of cases started and didn't finish) has had many different cover incarnations over the years, as had Charlotte Bronte's gothic masterpiece Jane Eyre.

We meet roughly every 6 weeks or so (exact date determined amongst those at the meeting) at 2.30pm on a Sunday afternoon in the Tiled Hall Cafe just inside the Art Gallery on the Headrow and the next one is Sunday June 28th when we'll be discussing Caitlin Moran's funny and frank latest How To Build A Girl. And it's also at the meeting that we decide what book we're going to read next - we all bring suggestions and sometime we reach a decision by consensus and sometimes by writing the titles on bits of paper and pulling them out of a bag.

So come along chat, eat cake, and meet other book loving ladies. Hope to see some of you there. 

October Bookclub - Frankenstein- Mary Shelley

Tuesday, 7 October 2014 § 0

Buns and Roses Book Club meets roughly every six weeks or on Sunday afternoons at 2.30pm admidst the victorian splendour of the Tiled Hall Cafe (just inside Leeds Art Gallery on the Headrow) We decide at each meeting what date we meet next and what book we're going to do. 




Book choice is determined by suggestion or by placing suggestions on paper and then pulling them out of a bag. There are no strict rules about having to have finished the book to attend a meeting. We don't mind if you've only seen a film adaptation (if there is one) or just read the Wikipedia entry about it - in return though you have to not mind when we talk about the ending.

After the start of the year we took a decision to read books by female authors and which ideally featured feisty female characters and it's a brief we've stuck to so far. I doubt you'll find anyone more feisty than Scarlett O'Hara. The other rule we have is that the books we pick have to have multiple copies available from Leeds Libraries though it's up to each person whether they buy their own copy, pay for a download or borrow a copy.

Sometimes our conversations stick very closely to the book and sometimes we wander down all sorts of conversational avenues from best nail varnishes to how to train partners but it's fair to say whatever we end up talking about there will be always be a laugh and tea involved too and of course cake as the cake on offer at the Tiled Hall Cafe is very scrummy indeed. 

So far this year we've read Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick, Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell, Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Armin, Miss Pettrigrew Lives For A Day by Winifred Watson and The Guernseay Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Burrows.

The last book we read was Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - the female characters in the book aren't especially feisty we all loved the fact that her nightmare tale was born out of a ghost story telling competition and that she beat the male writers she was with at their own game, we all hated Viktor and his self obsessed and selfish pursuance of his goals and his abandonment of the creature who we all agreed was more sinned against than sinning.

Next up is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - a dark brooding romance that has been variously described as page turner, a moving and heartwarming tale and a love story with an erotic sub text - so come along on Sunday November 23rd at 2.30pm and tell us what you think of it too :-) You can also help us decide what will be our first book choice for 2015.


April Book Club - Gone with The Wind

Wednesday, 9 April 2014 § 0


Once again we met amidst the Victorian splendour of the Tiled Hall Café – and once tea and cake and scones had been purchased we settled down to discuss Gone With The Wind. The Pullitzer prize winning novel by Margaret Mitchell that was first published in 1937 and the Oscar winning film version which was made in 1939 and remains the most successful film ever made in terms of box office.

It’s both a long book and a long film and although most of us had seen the film at some point and so knew the story none of us had finished the book itself – though one of us had got to 73% and was determined to finish it as she was at the point where Scarlett marries Frank and she just had to know how it turned out.

All of us struggled with the racism in the book, the opening pages which set the scene of late 19th century southern American society are extremely shocking to enlightened 21st century eyes and it’s part of the criticism which surrounds the book and the film as neither really comment on the dreadful inequalities but just describes them. But those issues aside we all agreed it was a rattling good albeit long tale and the descriptions of Tara the plantation are so vivid we could smell and see the red earth. None of us wanted to be close friends with Scarlett but we would love to watch her machinations from a distance and we all agreed she was a survivor, it’s been argued that rather than it being a love story it is in fact a tale of survival and Scarlett does exactly that.

One of the things we do at Book Club is to compare the different covers we all have – one was a tie in to the film version with Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable in a passionate clinch, a couple of others also had a bodice ripper look about them but one had a background of burning buildings. It’s interesting to see how the covers change over the years to attract different demographics.

Our next meeting is Sunday May 18th 2.30pm Tiled Hall Café (just inside the Art Gallery on the Headrow) and we’ll be discussing The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim – as always we don’t mind if you haven’t finished the book, just seen the film adaptation or read the Wikipedia entry about it – come along, chat and have some cake with us.

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