Café and new premises 6-week countdown
With all the major structural work now finished by Balfour Beatty our builder Simon and his team from Primary Developments have started on the internal studs walls.
For the first time, we are able to see each room as individual spaces and can better imagine what our new home will look like. We have a café/deli space which will seat 24, more or less the same space for the cookery school kitchen, a prep kitchen, an office and a store room!
We say goodbye to our old kitchen!
We leave you with an image from one of our many happy events run over the past 5 years of teaching and running corporate events in our beloved kitchen in Unit 9 on the Homerton business centre.
The next 6 weeks will see us move the whole operation 50m down the road to our new home in School House, Harrison Gardens, Purbeck Road where we shall re-emerge with an equally stunning kitchen and our brand new café and bakery!
Duke of Edinburgh cooking for Uni
Breakfast time for our final group of Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award Residential students this summer. It is hugely rewarding to receive a group of 16-18 year olds who can barely boil an egg and in five days turn them into capable, health and budget conscious young cooks!
Huevos Rancheros and French Toast on the breakfast menu today...#loveleftovers
Café and new premises 7 week countdown
Final shot of new unit while it is still in the hands of Balfour Beatty. Tomorrow we sign on the dotted line and will be handed over our new home!
Cambridge Cookery School & Café will start to take shape after the weekend when our builder Simon goes in to create internal walls so we should see some real progress.
We are running our last two days of D of E summer courses and tomorrow will be our last ever day in the beautiful kitchen that has been our home for the past five years...
Swedish Fennel and caraway seed soda bread
One of the most popular breads we bake and a frequently requested recipe. This delicious bread takes 5 minutes to make and bakes in 90 minutes. We love it with smoked salmon mousse!
150g strong white organic bread flour
90g wholemeal, barleycorn or other flavoursome organic flour
60g organic rye flour
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon caraways seeds
1 teaspoon Maldon sea salt
60g sunflower seeds, or mixed seeds
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 large tub (500ml) Natural Greek style yoghurt
1 tablespoon treacle
2 tablespoons golden syrup
A little extra Maldon sea salt, fennel and caraway seeds for the tin
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C
Line a loaf tin.
Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
In a separate bowl, mix together the yoghurt, treacle and golden syrup.
Add the yoghurt mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well.
Pour into the loaf tin and bake in the lower third of the oven for 1 ½.
Leave to cool on a wire rack.
Café and new premises 8-week countdown
As of this morning we have a front door! All that is missing is glass panes and a handle and then we can experience entering our emerging new home for real.
The lovely team from Balfour Beatty will hand over to our builder Simon next week and then the work on creating our internal space will start and we should see some real signs of what the new café and cookery school will look like.
Meanwhile we are busy with two more weeks of cooking with youngsters doing their Duke of Edinburgh residential Gold Award.
Chocolate lovers don't miss out...
...on Master Chocolatier and Patissière Javier Cervantes' first appearance in Cambridge on Saturday 7th November. A day of chocolate based gateaux of the highest order and an experience not to be missed by any chocolate loving baker.
Two complex master pieces; Hazelnut and White Chocolate Mousse Torte and Mozart Cake will be used to teach techniques for flourless biscuit base, pâte à bombe and sabayon mousse to name but a few. Each guest will make anod bring home entire cakes under Javier's expert tuition. Limited places selling fast - we recommend early booking to secure a place on the journey to chocolate heaven...
Café and new premises 9 week countdown
Very exciting to dip into single digits for our weekly countdown.
We have an actual inside as opposed to a roof and two walls! Our fantastic team from Cambridge Kitchens and Bathrooms and builders Primary Development helping us to survey our new space ahead of starting internal build at the end of this month. After the bank holiday we should be seeing our internal walls go up and this rather vast space will be sectioned into Cookery School, Café and prep kitchen.
Baking in Sweden
In preparation for opening our new café and deli this autumn we are in Sweden this week baking with amazing artisan bakery Järna Stenugnsbageri south of Stockholm.
The word "passionate" tends to be over used but for this small team of bakers it really rings true. This is Alex, the rather magnificently heirsuit German who kicks off the morning bake-off at 5am, moving Levain, 100% rye, Ciabatta, seeded Spelt, cinnamon and cardamom buns from their cool night time cupboards into the massive stone baking oven.
New premises and café 10 week count down
From destruction to construction - 10 weeks to go to our intended opening. Our wall of windows is starting to appear. The new entrance to the cookery school will be through the double doors of the new café and through a set of double glass doors internally. Guests to the café will be able to follow the action of our cookery classes for a bit of silent cookery theatre while enjoying a Union coffee flat white and one of our legendary Swedish cinnamon rolls, or a fresh salad made from locally grown produce.