Summer in the Park is back! And this year, we’re offering you some inspiration to jazz up your picnic basket by approaching some of the leading chefs, restaurants and food services in Greenwich & Bexley.
This week’s picnic inspiration comes from Greenwich Cake Club.
As a cake club, we are mostly focused on making cakes! We tend to be the person in your group who brings the homemade cake or biscuits to a picnic, and all we are hoping for is some compliments and for you to love it! So our favourite thing about a picnic is a chance to show off our latest baking recipe….
We did have one picnic that was entirely cake based. It was not long after we came out of lockdown and we met outside in between our homes. It was also Sarah’s birthday so Helen made a mini double chocolate cake just for her and decorated it with her favourite rainbows. Sarah had also made brownies so we went home with extra chocolate on both sides!
The Perfect Picnic
We asked all our cake club members about their perfect picnic options! We had some very practical suggestions such as brownies or a flapjack as they are nice and easy to transport and easy to share out. Plus you can adapt and make a few variations to keep everyone happy. And who doesn’t like a brownie or a flapjack?
For the experimental we had one suggestion of taking all the ingredients for an Eton Mess, cream, meringue and strawberries, and then making it all up there in the park, with everyone making it their own way. You can even add some crushed up amaretti biscuits for an extra flavour. Unusually for our club, the recommendation was to buy the meringue and not make it yourself. I think I’m going to have to share my Nan’s recipe for the ones you can do in the microwave….
Or like Sarah, you could keep it traditional with scones with cream and jam. Though the only downside is the messiness of the toppings, not exactly something you can do in advance… And it’s obviously a bit of an ice breaker: do you go cream then jam as a devoted Devonian as Sarah would do, or do you go Cornish and jam first?
Just don’t forget to bring some napkins, save on an extra plate and you can go for a wild colour or pattern to make the inevitable social media posts look extra pretty.
Failsafe Recipes
Why not try these banana bread blondies from Sainsbury’s? They are very tasty and impressive!
For scones, who else could we recommend by Delia? And some tips from a WI mum: make them fresh the day you eat them and don’t handle the dough too much, just go for it.
