jamming!

The snow held off and it was a lovely crisp morning for coffee at the Geffrye Museum, one of the best cafes we've visited this year - views over the pretty herb garden, helpful staff and excellent cakes made on site, and of course the cosy Christmassy settings of the Geffrye's period interiors. (If you visit yourself, we recommend the carrot cake, which scored a unanimous nine out of ten and the mince pies nine and a half, pushing the Geffrye's average cake score up to 8.4.)

It wasn't all hard work. We also heard about the forthcoming Imperial War Museum "Ministry of Food" exhibition from our guests. This is a new exhibition, opening on 12th February, that will tell the story of how the British public adapted to food shortages during the Second World War, learning how to be both frugal and inventive on the Kitchen Front.

We are delighted that the IWM has asked us to make jam and preserves for display and we'll be documenting the process as part of our contribution to the exhibition. This is an exciting project for us to be involved in and we are very much looking forward to it. We've given some thought to what we'll make and we'll be setting a date for making jam in January. Several of you have already said you want to be involved and shared your recipes and books.

We'll be visiting the exhibition when it opens to take a look at the "Ministry of Food" - and our preserves on display. A little something to keep us busy in the New Year.

christmas crafted

Thanks to everyone for joining in with the mulled wine infused frenzy and making our Christmas Crafts event so good. The wealth of talent is source of wonder.

Special thanks to Jo for bringing along the flowers, greenery and floristry tackle and working so hard to help produce so many accomplished floral displays; to Elizabeth for sharing the secrets of origami box making; to Niki for wielding the needles; and Sorella for the fairtrade florentine goodness.

Congratulations to Annie for winning the Mince Pie Bake-off. The homemade mincemeat really hit the spot with our totally impartial and dedicated judges. As did a wee drop of mulled wine. (Hope I'm forgiven for contaminating the first batch!)

One of the best part of the evening was seeing people waltzing off with their handiwork. If you're still wondering "Did I make that?" ...

...the answer is yes you did. And very good it was too.

(PS Geffrye Museum 10.30am tomorrow for the coffee morning)

december meetings

Come and join us at our annual Christmas Crafts session on Tuesday 15th December, 7.30pm at Chisenhale Art Gallery, 64 Chisenhale Road, E3. This year crafts will include an origami gift box, a table flower arrangement for Christmas feasts and much, much more. There will also be the annual EEWI Mince Pie Bake Off so please do bring your mince pies - there will be great prizes for the winner. Also if you would like to be on the judging panel please do let us know. There will be tea, coffee and mulled wine but please do feel free to bring a bottle. All welcome, free for members £3 visitors.

For our Coffee Morning on 18th December we will be visiting the Geffrye Museum (136 Kingsland Road, free entry). Meet in the café at 10.30am with a view to having a cuppa then checking out the Christmas rooms, decorated as they would have been across the ages. We are also going to be joined by a representative from the Imperial War Museum to talk to us about the upcoming jam project. It will be a chance for us to find out exactly what is expected of us for the exhibition – The Real Ministry of Food – which should be happening at the IWM next year.

We are having a low key Christmas Drinks this year as we will be going out for a meal in January. So if you fancy meeting for a quiet Christmas drink we will me meeting at the Victoria Pub in Grove Road, E3 on Tuesday 22^nd December at 7.30pm. We may stay there for a while or move on later – however we all feel.

Look forward to seeing you at least once in December!

tackling climate change

EEWI was proud to be active in supporting the NFWI Climate Change lobby. Sorella Le Var accompanied Ruth Bond, the NFWI chair, along with 4 other WI members and 2 representatives from Head Office to lobby politicians. The aim was to highlight why women are particularly important in tackling climate change, ahead of the planned talks in Copenhagen. The WI group met with Joan Ruddock, Minister of State for DECC and then seperately with Climate Change representatives for the Conservatives (Greg Clark) and Liberal Democrats (Simon Hughes).

It was fascinating to get an inside view of Westminster and to meet with all three political parties, one after another. There was a clear difference between them all and their preparation for the meeting. Sorella said "It was invaluable for the politicians to meet with the WI and to hear the concerns and opinions of ordinary women. Women are most affected by climate change around the world and yet are also very powerful agents of change".

The WI's various projects to raise awareness have been very effective. These have included Eco Teams, Love Food and Women Reaching Women. The WI are also taking part in The Wave, a march to highlight the Copenhagen UN climate summit this weekend. Go along if you can!

Annual General Marvellousness

A little later than scheduled here is a massive thank you to those who contributed to the Bee Craft Competition at this year's EEWI AGM!! There were some inspired entries - including a number of people who could not resist coming along in character - and a fab poem about beehive hairdoos,

The star of the evening by common consent was Jo's quilt, a masterpiece of bee-loveliness. With just the right message for the night.

Thanks are due to everyone who has made this such a busy and active year - bakers, makers, helpers, dancers, prancers, poets, punners, runners, knitters, sew-ers, growers, theatre-goers, speakers, quizzers, scissorers, coffee tasters, toastie makers. The list will go on. We promise.

join the wave

The Wave is a climate change march taking place in Central London on 5 December to draw attention to the dangers of runaway climate change and provide decision-makers with the grassroots mandate to take strong action at the UN Climate Change talks in Copenhagen. The march is organised by the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition, of which the WI is a founder member, and is timed to coincide with the UN climate change talks in Copenhagen. If you are free on that date, it would be great if you could join the march which will start at Grosvenor Square and march around the Houses of Parliament. Dress code is to wear something blue!

WI members will gather in the events room of the Mayfair Library (25 South Audley Street , London , W1K 2PB). from 11am. This is an opportunity to meet members who have similar interests, catch up with people you haven’t seen for a while, enjoy some light lunch and to feel a little more at home if you’ve never been on a march before.

At midday,WI members will head over to Grosvenor Square for the start of the march, staying together as a WI group. There will be a rally in Grosvenor Square whilst people assemble, then move towards Westminster via Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square and 10 Downing Street before encircling Parliament. The climax will be as Big Ben chimes 3pm, when a wave of blue will flow through the people circling parliament. The Wave will then pass over Westminster Bridge and disperse.

See the WI website and the Stop Climate Change Coalition for more details.

november meetings

Our AGM is this Tuesday 17th November at Chisenhale Gallery, 7.30pm for an 8pm start. The AGM is for members only and you can join on the night if you wish. This is the meeting when we vote for our EEWI president and committee. The committee will be reporting back on our achievements throughout the year. It's a bee themed evening, so you are invited to bring along something you have made on a bee-related theme to have a chance of winning a prize.

Our coffee morning on Friday 20th November at 10.30pm will be at the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green. All are welcome, including children. We'll be cake testing as usual, so come along and share some chat and good company.

Looking forward to seeing you.

run!

It was wild and woolly weather after the worst storms of the year but that didn't stop EEWI members turning out for the Woman's trust fundraising run. I thought I'd be pushing my luck without any waterproofs to go beyond 4km but others were more noble.

There's still time to help Niki reach her fundraising target if you run along to her just giving page.

ladies with aprons

Jenny Edbrooke's hard work paid off. She made us do a lot of thinking, and dancing, and working together to pull together our short performance at Chisenhale Dance Space's"Homelands" Festival. Were we nervous? Only a little. Did we enjoy ourselves? I think the photos speak for themselves.

We were... ladies with aprons.

And we celebrated afterwards with some very special cakes, courtesy of the lovely Jenny.

homelands and hotcakes

Do come along and see our wee performance at Chisenhale Dance Space on Saturday November 7th at 6.30 pm at the Homelands Dance Festival. Our slot is fairly short - around 10 - 15 minutes - which is probably enough for us! We can promise you that it is strictly not come dancing, although it certainly took some of us into places we had not visited for a while. It's been fun trying out something new and Jenny Edbrooke who has been running the sessions has been an enthusiastic and supportive guide along the way.

You can also try some taster workshops during the day, but you must book in advance for these and the performance. Call 020 8981 6617 for your free tickets. They are going like hotcakes!

Hope to see you on Saturday.

who does what?

A new BBC programme is looking for couples, flatmates or friends to take part in a new show for BBC2 entitled Who Does What. The show will focus on who does what within your household and is a programme full of facts and statistics. It really is for anyone who has ever argued over who really does do the washing up, the shoppping, the cooking etc. If you would like more information email sarah.allen@talkbackthames.tv

in moderation...

Our coffee morning at the Museum of London n Docklands on Friday 23rd October was lively to say the least. Ruth, a member of Wanstead WI, joined us to talk about the work of the Woman's Trust, a charity providing counselling for victims of domestic violence. Ruth invited us join in the 4km/10km walk/run event to be held to raise funds for the Woman's Trust on 14th November in Victoria Park. You can find out more about the event on the Women's Trust website.

Of course, we all subscribe to the sensible adage of doing all things in moderation. A number of women are keen to join in - even if it means walking rather than running. However, if you are serious about running, you may have just enough time to get fit using the Couch to 5k programme. If anyone is interested in doing this, do let us know - it would be great to have an East End WI contingent!

More moderation followed with our cake testing - just a little bit of cake to make sure it comes up to our high standards. The general consensus was that this particular venue makes the most excellent Victoria Sponge.

And here's the evidence.

good hairspray

Our theatre outing on 22nd October to see Hairspray signalled the start of a new venture for us with our round of theatre outings. Great hair day!

Look out for more theatre outings coming up.

qWIzzical

There were lots of questions for Neil Walker of LOCOG at our 20th October meeting about the potential impact of the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, with people interested in transport plans, minimising disruption for local people, and opportunities for local businesses and volunteers to get involved. There was hardly enough time to answer them all, so lively was the chat. Our thanks go to Neil for making the trip to our neck of the woods - we hope to see more of this kind of discussion with local people over the coming year.

It was a good warm up for our Olympics quiz with one or two apple themed questions to celebrate National Apple Day and apple-related prizes for the winning team ( yes, that is cider in those bags). For the record, the founder of the national Olympic movement, Baron De Coubertin has an oak named after him, not an apple tree. And the oak will feature in the design for the Great British Garden in the Olympic Park - cast your vote before noon on the 30th October at the RHS site here.

Thanks to all for sharing the fun... especially all the home baked goodness!

PS Don't forget to get cracking on the bee-related crafting for our November AGM competition.

leaps and bounds

The dance workshops are coming on leaps and bounds - literally and it is not too late to get involved. It is great fun and Jenny is very lovely. If you want to get involved come along to Chisenhale Dance Space on Friday night at 6.30pm. Bring a piece of music if you would like to and an item of clothing you like - it may be silly, comfy, sexy or anything really but whatever you bring you are guaranteed a great session

apple day

Don't forget - Apple Day is on 21st October, an opportunity to celebrate all that is good about British apples. Spitalfields City Farm is celebrating this Sunday from 11-4.

Who knows, there may even be some apple cake at Tuesday night's meeting.

See you there.

october meetings

Our evening meeting this month is on the 20th October, 7.30pm for an 8pm start at Chisenhale Art Gallery. This month we will be joined by a speaker from LOCOG, The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games to hear about the Olympic and Paralympic Games and what it means to us. There will be a chance to ask questions so do have a think about what you would like to ask in advance of the evening. Guests are welcome to join us, as usual ( £3 entry). And do feel free to bring a bottle.

Coffee morning is Friday 23rd October 10.30am at the Museum in Docklands. We understand that you can access the cafe without paying to go into the museum. However if you do pay to go into the museum you then get entrance for a year.

Look forward to seeing you there.

conquered

This is how Richard Reynolds, Guerrilla Gardener, summarised our meeting last night: Friendly diverse conversation with East End WI: breast painting, marathon pelvic floor exercises, Burmese refugee mushroom houses and walnut cake.

I'm not sure tthat here is much more to add. Other than Morsbags. Lots more stunning Morsbags.

I am a completely conquered by Guerilla Gardening and loving the scent of from my South London grown and made Lavender bag. Also contemplating the dance project - still time to sign up if you email us. And giving some thought to the mushroom houses at Hsa Thoo Lei Learning Centre in Thailand. If you missed the talk, here is some more info on the Centre:

Hsa Thoo Lei Learning Centre provides a free education for 700 children, and is home to about 200: these are children whose parents are dead or who are still inside Burma. Whether the children live in Hsa Thoo Lei or with family or friends outside, they are all in desperate poverty. The school tries to provide two free lunches a week when funds permit (not at all this calendar year) because for some children that is the only proper meal they ever eat. The children learn all the usual subjects but additionally learn languages - Burmese and Karen, the tongues of their homeland, Thai which is the language of their country of residence, and English, which many hope will one day be a passport to a better life elsewhere.

The Burmese migrant children in these schools are vulnerable to malnutrition, especially since the schools’ income is very much below levels required to fund regular school lunches. The Thai children’s Trust with help from partner organisations aims to ameliorate this situation by promoting the introduction of mushroom houses.

A mushroom house grows mushrooms in pre-prepared spore bags, placed on racks in a hot and humid hut. Regularly tended, the spore bags will produce mushrooms over a 3 month cycle. For most of the cycle there will be mushrooms available to supplement the diet of the children in the school. At the peak of the cycle there will be mushrooms for the school to sell.

Many thanks to all our speakers for such stimulating and thought provoking talks.

Comments welcome!

coffee crunch bars

If you had some of Veronika's Coffee Crunch Bars at our August meeting and fancy making them yourself, here is a link to the recipe - American measures, conversion chart here. The recipe comes from Molly Wizenburg, who also writes at the delightful Orangette site.

Richard Reynolds, Guerilla Gardener tomorrow. With cake, perhaps.

Fete Thanks

Just wanted to say thank you thank you thank you to everyone who helped in any way whatsoever on the St Barnabas Community Fete Tea Tend tea stall. The marquee looked stunning and seemed to be packed all day long. The toasties were selling like.... well, hot cakes, and I'm sure it was a great success for us.
Pictures and more feedback from the day to follow although do keep an eye on the blog and on the Fete website www.stbarnabascommunityfete.org as they will both be updated as and when photos of the day stream in.
Niki
President EEWI

september meetings

Our next meeting is on Tuesday 15th September when Richard Reynolds is coming to talk about Guerilla Gardening. Richard's passion is fighting the filth with flowers and forks and he'll show us just what is possible. Please have a think about an area in our community or anywhere really that you feel is neglected and could do with some gorgeous planting - we'll vote on which one we'll do and get Richard to help us to plan our very own bit of guerrilla gardening.

For more on Richard go to http://www.guerrillagardening.org/

Usual time and place: 7.30pm for an 8pm start. Chisenhale Art Gallery 64 Chisenhale Road

£3 for visitors free for members. Tea and coffee provided free courtesy of Cafe Direct. Please feel free to bring a bottle!

Our Coffee morning is on Friday 18th September - Gallery Café St Margaret’s House in Old Ford Road, E2.

http://www.stmargaretshouse.org.uk/gallery-cafe/gallery-cafe

hokey pokey and other deliciousness

Thanks to everyone who made and served biscuits and other deliciousness for the EEWI stall at St Barnabas Community Fete this weekend. We made toasties, sold fruit and made gallons of tea and coffee to ward off the early Autumn chill.

Put your right arm in, your right arm out....oops, that's something else altogether, isn't it?

Here is a link to our partenrs, Cafe Direct's blog post about our most recent evening

http://brewing.cafedirect.co.uk/2009/08/19/an-evening-with-the-east-end-wi-in-good-taste/

Howlovely that even though it was traditionally the holiday season we still had a great turn out and a fab evening - I may have drunk a little too much wine....

Niki

morsbag making

For some reason, we thought that our Morsbag Making August meeting would be fairly quiet. But take 20 women, coffee tasting, cake and cookie testing and wine drinking and it turned out to be rather busier than we expected.

We started off with a talk from Rachael from City and Hackney Mind. She reminded us that one in four people is likely to suffer from a mental health problem at some point and welcomed our support for their work. Look out from more info here on their October Awareness day.

Alex and Yasmin from Cafe Direct, who generously sponsor us with the provision of coffee and tea for our EEWI stalls throughout the year, showed a film describing the way they work with growers yes, it did make me a bit teary) before we moved on to a coffee tasting session. Who would have guessed at the power of the collective EEWI palate? Read more about it on the Cafe Direct blog, with thanks to Alex for his kind words.

The more prudent among us saved the goodies to have with coffee- Coffee Crunch Bars, Coffee Victoria Sponge and Blueberry Muffins. Thanks to Veronica, Elizabeth and the maker of the muffins ( sorry - did not catch your name!


So... 20 women, two sewing machines, an ironing board, lots of snipping and sipping (OK, yes, there was some wine) ...result ONE MORSBAG!

Well, it was a busy evening and for some of us this was a new experience. Happily, lots of you took home some cut fabric to finish off and make up. Looking forward to seeing them in September.

happy endings

We had a bit of a girls together outrage at the Essex WI Federation Show this weekend. Most of the outrage was that I was driving and didn't know where I was going. Niki came to the rescue with some modern technology otherwise we would still be wondering round Hatfield Peverell.

The show was a revelation. Traditional crafts were on display - baking, flower arranging, embroidery with a smattering of stalls, cakes and jams for sale. The cross stitch work from WIs across the counties was especially charming, I thought - selection pictured here. The Federation had also asked all of the WIs to send in unfinished craft projects and there was a selection of nearly finished embroidery and tapestry for sale with a view to giving them a "happy ending".

We had our own happy ending too. Cakes and jams in our EEWI bags, we headed off to the seaside, my hopeless planning redeemed by my knowledge of where to buy a decent cup of tea and seaside ice cream.

More happy outings this weekend at our Annual Picnic. Sunday 16th, 3pm, Victoria Park on the green by the Pavilion Cafe. See you there.

august meetings

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday18th August (7.30 for 8) at Chisenhale Gallery (follow link for details of how to find us).

We'll be making Morsbags at this meeting, so please bring along unwanted fabric/ pillow cases/ duvet covers that we can recycle. We are building up our stock of give-away Morsbags to distribute in the future at a local supermarket to encourage people to abandon plastic bags and replace them with more sustainable bags which don't degrade the environment.

Evening meetings are free for members and cost only £3 for guests and Chisenhale is an accessible venue with easy access for everyone.

Our next coffee morning will be on Friday 21st August at 10.30am. We will be meeting at the Pavilion Cafe in Victoria Park , corner of Old Ford Road and Grove Road, just inside the park. Please join us.

Stop Press! Forgot to mention our Summer Picnic at 3pm on 16th August in Victoria Park. Meet at the open space near the Pavilion Cafe. Fingers crossed for some sunshine.

blueberry boy bait

You can find the recipe for Veronika's Blueberry Boy Bait cake on the enticing Smitten Kitchen blog - a virtual visit to a New York kitchen .

Delicious.

I speak from experience. And thanks to Veronika for sharing.

Homeopathy with Tracy Karkut-Law

Last night we were joined by Tracy Karkut-Law of Limehouse Homeopathy for an evening of remedies focused on summertime illnesses. Tracy looked at stomach upsets and sun-related issues and talked to us about the benefits of some natural poisons in homeopathic treatment.
The room was stiflingly hot for some reason even though it was very cool and breezy outside but the EEWI are made of strong stuff and once again we had a great turn out and a really great evening.
We were also joined by Oliver King from Campaign Against Climate Change who talked to us about the work they do and invited us to join them on a march in the future.
At the moment we are supporting U-Turn by selling copies of their book 'i don't sing', an anthology of photography and poetry by the women who rely so heavily on the project. Copies are £7.99 cheques made payable to the U-Turn Project. If you would like to help please contact us in the usual way

Thanks goes to Veronika and Elizabeth for bringing some gorgeous home made cakes!!!!

art for everyone

Sarah Blanks

If you have time, pop in to the Arts Pavilion in Mile End Park this week and see the Art for Everyone exhibition of work by people from Tower Hamlets classes. There's a real variety of work, including some great work from young people with learning difficulties and disabilities. It's open until Friday 24th. And it's free.

PS Don't forget we'll be at Park Life this coming Sunday selling teas and cakes.

good old rock cakes

These are easy and quick to make. I use a modified Delia Smith recipe, taken from her Book of Cakes - I add more fruit than she suggests. I often find her recipes too sweet for my taste, but I've found that with rock cakes the sugar is needed to give a nice glossy finish. Some people put cherries in their rock cakes, but if you like something with a bit more bite, try dried cranberries.

Measure: 6ozs of plain flour, 6oz wholemeal flour, 6oz butter/ margarine, 6oz soft brown sugar, and 6oz a mixture of dried fruit (currants, raisins, sultanas , mixed peel, cranberries, glace cherries - I usually use 4oz of raisins or sultanas then make up the balance with cranberries. Have ready 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1 large egg, a couple of tablespoons of milk, a quarter teaspoon nutmeg, a quarter teaspoon of mixed spice, and a quarter teaspoon of salt ( I often leave reduce the amount of salt).

Get mixing: Sift flours, baking powder, spices and salt. Rub in butter/ margarine until the mix resembles fine breadcrumbs. Mix in whisked egg and one/ two tablespoons of milk until you have a stiffish dough.

Get cooking: Pre heat the oven to 180 deg C. Using a couple of forks, place craggy blobs of the dough onto a lined baking sheet - you will have between 9 and 12 . Bake for 15 - 20 mins until firm and golden, depending on size. Don't overcook or they will be too dry. Leave on the baking sheet for a few minutes then remove to a wire rack to cool.

Make a cup of tea while you are waiting. Relax and enjoy before anyone notices.

Edited to clarify easures in response to comment

recipes for success

At the risk of caking you out, it would be great if you would be willing to share some recipes for the magnificent cakey goodness that you have been baking for our WI stalls this summer. If you can send them to the EEWI email address - or give them to me when we meet - I'll post them here over the summer.

PS This is Ellen's apricot cake that I bought at the MS bake-in. A very delicious cake it was too.

NFWI AGM

If you are interested in reading more about the National Federation of Women's Institutes AGM, you can find more info on the NFWI website. No prizes for spotting Sorella ( lovely pics!). And apologies for the acronyms

july meetings

Our next evening meeting is on 21st July. This month we will joined once again by Tracy Karkut-Law. Tracy is an EEWI member and local homeopath and this will be her second workshop with us.

We all look forward to summertime and deserve every minute of our well earned holidays! Whether camping with the family or sunning ourselves on the med, pop a little homeopathic remedy kit into your bag and you'll be ready for anything! Find out how non-toxic homeopathic remedies derived from known poisons such as arsenic, stinging nettle and deadly nightshade can be used to relieve the effects of bites and stings, too much sun, unfamiliar food or too much of everything!

You will make and take home your very own remedy kit, complete with instructions, ready for you to take on holiday, or to keep in the medicine cabinet for use all year round. If you weren't at the previous homeopathy talk, you can also find out about first aid remedies to add to your kit.

Tracy presents information about homeopathy in a lively and accessible way, so whether you and homeopathy are strangers or old friends, come along. 7.30pm for an 8pm start Chisenhale Gallery 64 Chisenhale Road, E3 5QZ. Free for members, £3 visitors.

Our July coffee event will be taking place on Friday 24th at La Bouche café, no 49 Broadway Market, E8 4PH (020 7923 0600). The market will not be open that day. La Bouche is located close to London Fields and the London Fields Lido. Meet in the café at 10.30am and let the cake testing commence!


Transport details: Broadway Market, E8 can be found just South of London Fields, and North of Regents Canal, West of Mare Street and East of Kingsland Road.
By bus: The 394 bus route runs from Islington (Todpuddle Street) to HomertonHospital directly past the South end of the Market, the 236 runs from FinsburyPark to Hackney Wick (Eastway) across the North end of the Market. Buses: 394, 388, 263, 55 253, 106, 48, 26, 277, D6
By tube: Central line to Bethnal Green Station. Take the exit to the right, and walk up Cambridge Heath Road until you come to RegentsCanal, then take a left after the canal and follow Andrews Road over to the market.
By train: London Fields BR station is a 5 minute walk, with Hackney Central and Cambridge Heath both 10 minutes.

Hackney City Farm

Prior to Paradise, EEWI visited Hackney City Farm on Friday 19th June for a cuppa and a slice of cake. Sadly the choice of cakes was pretty poor. We contacted the farm in advance and they replied saying they were excited about our taste testing which was why it was surprising that all we found were 5 slices of almond cake from the day before. So although the almond cake that was available achieved a unanimous 7 out of 10 we docked a couple of points for lack of choices. This means the Tower of London is still out in front in terms of cakes!

Creating Paradise

Here are a few pics of us setting up on Saturday morning. The cakestands looked gorgeous, the cakes even more so. It was a fantastic weekend and we met loads of amazing people. As Colleen said, so much thanks to the whole EEWI team for making it a fantastic success.

come into the parlure

If you missed Paradise Gardens, all I can say is make sure you put it into your diary for next year as soon as possible. The Spiegel Tent was the perfect backdrop for our exceptional cakes (notwithstanding my problems with the iced fairy cakes, but that's another story) and the perfectly honed customer service shown by all of our helpers. Eat your heart out Mary Portas.

Thanks are due to everyone involved. To the London Swing Dance Society who kept us company. To Let Them Eat Cake whose beautiful cake stands we borrowed. To everyone in East End WI who baked the wonderful cakes we sold . To all those who spent time setting up and working on our stall. And to Niki and Sorella for whipping us into order all over the weekend and getting the day sorted. Fanbloomontastic.