Charity Cake Praise

Its so lovely to get these messages...

My sister just received her ‘charity cake’ as a house warming gift from me. That was quick I only ordered it yesterday. This was her text just now to me…

Wow the cake arrived! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I’ve just opened the box, wow! I can’t eat that! It’s beautiful! Come round after work for a slice. Love Jenny x

So going by that I think she loved it. Thank you. You have just made me favourite sis! :-)

Order your charity cake and tin here and be best sibling/friend/etc

Grumpy Old Man

As well as cracking on with Christmas baking we've been busy sending out this month's Cake Club cake. For September our members will be receiving an Almond Fruit cake, which most people will know as a Dundee cake. I was interested to discover ad that way) that the recipe has been around since 15th century and was said to have been developed to please Mary Queen of Scots who didn't care for the cherries found in rich fruit cakes of the time. Not sure if that is true or not but it's a nice story anyway. The name Dundee cake and the distinctive almond decoration didn't appear till 19th century when the famous Scottish marmalade making company based in that city, Keiller & Sons. began making them. It started as a way of keeping their workforce busy when the Seville oranges they used were unavailable and they soon discovered it was a handy way of keeping their workforce busy when the Seville oranges they used were unavailable and they soon discovered it was a handy way using up excess peel.

A hectic week included the usual last minute scramble to get the website updated to match with the mailout of our new autumn/winter brochure, which should be landing on customers' doormats this weekend. Why is it that every time you need one of these techy guys to sort something in a hurry they're away snowboarding or jumping out of airplanes or something similar? Whenever I've called in to see our tame geeks in person they seem to be so laid back as to be almost comatose, yet as soon as they they leave in the office they turn into action men. Just wish they'd show the same kind of energy at work occasionally!

Party.

This week has mostly been spent working our way through Celebration cake orders. With so many birthdays in August we are sending our deliscious birthday cakes out in growing numbers. Alices favourite Meg Rivers cake is the Celebration sponge and as a treat Liffy made her one of her own - which we all helped her to eat. Liffy has also been working on Celebration cakes for various family members, youngest sister Nancy was 19 this week and Liffy made her a stunning 'special edition' duck egg blue cake and my daughter Poppy, and husband Leo are having a joint birthday party in a weeks time for which Liffy has been commissioned once again. I'll put up some pics if the cakes last long enough! Don't forget us if you are celebrating this month and enjoy the sunshine between the showers. (ideally a weeks notice for celebration cakes, in sponge, fruit and chocolate £39.95 16 portions)

Christmas Cakes

The baking of our Christmas cakes has already started, so they have plenty of time to mature and be at their best for Christmas. Alice & I spent today taking the iced cakes from the kitchen and finishing the decoration with hand glittered stars, as well as tying ribbons and tinsel around them. Next we greaseproof and bubble wrap them for protection. I love this sort of work, as each is done by hand its a calming process if a little odd when its July and roasting outside - the Christmas smells come early here!

Cake Club June

Alice enjoyed writing last months Cake Club letter so much that I insisted it was my turn now. I’m Jess, the eldest and bossiest of the four daughters and I feel my skills are especially important within the Meg Rivers team. I would say essential on a Monday and Friday morning, as it’s my first job, after dropping my daughter Poppy off at nursery (run by my Auntie Penny – this family gets everywhere!) to make tea and coffee for the crew. This morning, whilst I was still eating breakfast, - I received a panic phone call from Dad, who’s voice was a little trembly, announcing that the staff canteen (a sink, a fridge, and a kettle) was out of ground coffee, and would I please collect some on my way in to work?

I’m sure it’s the same in work places across the country but it’s no easy job fulfilling the tea/coffee making role here. Liffy has to have Lady Grey, Alice and I Earl Grey, Dad has all caffeine products without milk and insists on his special mug special. Mike just has to have his quickly!

In our team meeting last week the tea/coffee/snack implementation took almost as long to organise as the meeting itself. Dad always gets grumpy around coffee time as we are surrounded by delicious cakes and traybakes and yet we end up eating M&Ms – didn’t stop him finishing off the pack of course.

If you want to find out more about cake club - click here http://www.megrivers.com/cakes_in_detail.php?product=47

Meg Rivers & Action Against Hunger

We got this fab email from Milo about our support of the Action Against Hunger campaign at Taste London.

For the second successive year, Meg Rivers has provided Action Against Hunger with tremendous support at Taste of London firstly by baking as well as delivering over 3,000 slices of their delicious cakes – all donated absolutely free of charge – for us to sell in benefit of the charity and secondly by supporting our high profile cake competition at the festival which saw top chefs such as Pascal Aussignac and Aldo Zilli fight it out with restaurant critics such as Charles Campion and Tom Parker Bowles. Aussignac ended up the victor but was nevertheless no match for Mike, Meg Rivers’ very own baker, whose extraordinary creation did most justice to the theme of the competition: the 10^th Anniversary of our Restaurants Against Hunger campaign.

As I said, Meg Rivers support for us has just been great, not only in terms of helping us publicise our work and thereby raising awareness of what we do but also in terms of generating funds for our life-saving programmes around the world. Indeed, fundraising-wise this was, without doubt, our best Taste of London ever. We raised an exceptional £6,700 all in all and approximately half of this can be accounted for by sales of Meg Rivers’ delectable brownies, flap jacks and sumptuous cherry and almond cake.

And just so you know, Action Against Hunger works in over 45 of the world’s poorest countries. Put simply, we provide for people’s immediate needs when food is scarce and just as importantly, provide families and small communities with the seeds, tools and support they need to build a sustainable future. The support Meg Rivers has given us at Taste will help us in these two areas. To find out more about us or to enquire about ways in which you can personally get involved, please visit www.aahuk.org or simply email me on m.douglas@aahuk.org

Thanks.
Milo Douglas
Community & Outreach Manager - Action Against Hunger

Liffys first iced cake leaves the premises

Liffys first hand iced celebration cake has left he premises and is on its way to another happy customer. Lets hope this is the first of many!