A week has past and I feel like I’ve finally recovered and come back down to earth for a crazy weekend at the Foodies Festival in Edinburgh! It was the first time I had done anything like this before so I wanted to be sure to document it, as well as share some snap shots here.
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The opportunity to preform a demonstration at Foodies Festival is one that I have the lovely Kevin at Keep Calm & Fanny On to thank for. A fellow Edinburgh blogger, Kevin writes about the infamous Fanny Cradock, someone I wasn’t too familiar with before Foodies but now can’t seem to stop watching on Youtube! It was Kevin that put me in touch with the fabulous Charlotte of Restoration Cake who is the organiser and host of the Cake and Dessert Theatre at Foodies Festival.
A phone call with Charlotte later and it was official; I was going to making our Tiffin on stage in the Cake & Dessert Theatre! Initially it was only planned for Friday and Sunday but when the opportunity to be there on the Saturday also arose, I jumped at the chance too.
In the days running up to Foodies, I must have made about 5 trays of Tiffin, just to be sure I was happy with the recipe, to experiment with larger quantities and to check I could actually pull it off in the allocated time. I’m happy to say none went to waste either; with very happy nursery teachers, colleagues and of course, Papa! I also needed a batch at the ready for my first Blue Peter “here’s-one-I-made-earlier” moment on the Friday as samples.
Unfortunately in true Edinburgh fashion, the weather on the day was what us Scots would call, “dreich”. That didn’t stop the crowds from gathering! In fact, I had a moment of panic when we arrived and seen the massive queue waiting to get in to Inverleith Park for the Festival – partly because I hadn’t expected so many people, especially on the first day…mainly because I wasn’t sure we would get in on time for my first demo. Thankfully we were greeted by a lovely security guard who let us straight through.
When it came to actually doing my demo, I had an absolute ball! There was a good crowd on each day and I was so glad to have Charlotte – who is definitely the hostess with the mostess! – there to keep me talking and avoid any awkward silences. The best bit however was straight after the demo, when everyone could sample some Tiffin and so many people came to talk to me about what their Granny’s used to bake – we even got a few requests for recipes too (watch this space!). To me, that’s what Baking with Granny is all about; sharing the recipes and memories of what your Granny baked and bringing those recipes to you, whilst keeping them easy enough for anyone to try at home.
Knowing that a lot of people might have not made it along, I also managed to rope my sister into filming a Facebook Live on the Sunday. It really was a weekend of firsts as before then I had never done a Facebook Live either. Though Granny and I have been talking since and as it was such a success, we are hoping to try doing another one in the near future (suggestions welcome!). Missed it on the day? Don’t worry – the good news is you can still watch it back below or on our Facebook page.
Foodies Festival will be back in Edinburgh at Christmas and we’ll hopefully be back to join in at the Cake & Dessert Theatre once more!
Massive thanks to my brother-in-law Neil for the fab photos!
