Spot the cakes from the Eve Appeal Great Manx Bake-Off!

... such a yummy weekend at the isle of Man Food & Drink Festival 2009!

Fairy delicious news!

Today we have received a lovely cheque from Cupcakes to form their donation to the Eve appeal from the Cupcakes workshops of the Great Manx Bake Off!

We acknowledge receipt of £100-
Thank you, Bev & Dave!

















Cupcake's "Manx Tartan" Cupcake entry.

As well as running workshops to form part of the event, Cupcakes also entered the professional division of the competition!

Here, Hairy Biker Dave (not Cupcakes Dave) struggles with his balance to keep the Manx Tartan Cupcakes all in place...

It looks like traditional Manx dancing!




Cupcakes' wonderful workshops were a big hit at the Isle of Man Food & Drink festival! So much so, that the Ramsey based company are developing a DIY kit- and also provide "nudie" cupcakes and all ingredients for a fun corporate or kiddie event! You can contact them here on the Isle of Man on 07624 346466.

Thank you again, Cupcakes, for helping out the Eve Appeal!

Judge's Choices in Pictures

Here the Hairy Bikers carefully cut into Mrs Burton's Thie Veg- the out-house of her Manx Ginger cottage!
"You can't cut that!" said Si... but we were all insistent- they had to taste it to congratulate the winner of Mr Gawne, MHK & Minister for Agriculture's Judge's Choice award. Mrs Burton is an artist from Port Erin and received Mr Gawne's highest personal accolade.


Mrs Michele Moroney, semi-final judge & surgeon at Nobles, awarded her Judge's Choice to Kelly Smith, praising her use of home-grown carrots and calling it the healthy choice! Here's the Hairy Bikers showing it to the crowd! Kelly made rabbit poo out of sugar-craft for decoration. How creative!

Kate Dawe's Laxey Wheel attracted Mrs Hazel Warburton's, semi-final judge previously of Fortnum & Mason, and a cake judge of the WI, Judges Choice award, largely for her quality of craftsmanship. Guess what's under it's white frosting? Red velvet sponge cake- what a contrast! Well done Kate!

(Hi to Dave from Cupcakes in this pic! the naughty Manx tartan skirts kept falling off the cupcakes so here he is adjusting them. Cupcakes scored one of the highest on taste in the semi-final!)

Kate and Home-baker winner, Chloe, are sisters, and they were up til four in the morning the night before the semi-final completing their masterpieces. Baking talent must run in the family!

the Winners in Pictures

Here is the beautiful "Manx Fuschia Fairy" by Christine McCabe, winner of the Professional division. Christine spent at least 40 hours on "Fiona" the fairy, who was entirely created from sugar paste!










the Hairy Bikers taste Christine's gorgeous creation...















Here's Si the Hairy Biker holding Chloe Dawe's "Loughtan Sheep- a Manx character"
He looks as if he's in heaven, holding the winning cake of the Home-Baker division, yes?










Chloe explains the creation of her gorgeous sculpture cake to the Hairies...


Si himself bought the runner-up in the Professional division- The Peggy Smuggler's Cake- a 150 year old secret recipe, made by Karl Berrie, Chocolatier, of Aaron House, Port St Mary, presented in a wooden treasure box with edible gold running throughout! Here it is!





The Hairy Biker was lucky to nab it at £62!- semi-final judge Michele Moroney bid hotly for it, too!







And here are the Hairy Bikers talking to Emily, one of the Corlett Family of Lezayre's talented bakers of the "Highlights of the Isle of Man" cake. Runner-up in the Home-baker division, it was a delicious fruit cake, as green as our Island, that all the family helped with! Ovarian cancer is a cause close to their hearts. How wonderful that they "entered for fun, shared many laughs along the way" according to Mum Barbara... then won! :)

Eve Appeal's Great Manx Bake-off @ the 1st Isle of Man Food & Drink Festival!

The Hairy Bikers tasted and declared the winning cakes of the first ever "Great Manx Bake-Off” at the Isle of Man Food and Drink Festival on Saturday at 3pm.



Introducing the Winners of the Eve Appeal Great Manx Bake-Off!

Professional category:

Christine McCabe with “The Manx Fuschia Fairy”

Runner Up: Karl Berrie from Aaron House Guest House, Port St Mary, with “The Peggy” Smugglers Cake
Home-Baker category:

Chloe Dawe with the modern “Loughtan Sheep- A Manx character”



Runner-Up: The Corlett Family- Barbara, Emily, Brian and Simon, with “Highlights of the Isle of Man”



The winners received a £100 Shoprite voucher and Runners-up, a £50 Shoprite voucher.

The 3 Judges Choice awards (all from the home-baker category, interesting!)
of a £25 Shoprite voucher went to:

Mrs Iris Burton’s “Manx Ginger Cottage”- given by Mr Phil Gawne, MHK & Minister for Agriculture

Kelly Smith’s “Manx Home-Grown Carrot Cake”- given by Mrs Michele Moroney, Consultant Ob & Gyn of Nobles Hospital

Kate Dawe’s Laxey Wheel- given by Mrs Hazel Warburton of the WI







Clockwise from left: The Corlett Family of Lezayre's "Highlights of the Isle of Man", Mrs Iris Burton's "Manx Ginger Cottage", and Christine McCabe's "Manx Fuschia Fairy" (front)

Special mention cake- Kev Ford of Three FM’s savoury “Full Manx Breakfast cake” using local ham, and farmers market onions, received a high-five from Hairy Biker Si and sold for the cheapest price (£14!).


The winner of the Cake Quiz was Carol Sansbury from Port Erin who receives a £30 Shoprite voucher. The "traditional manx biscuit eaten around the 12th of November" is Hollandtide Fairings as perhaps only a Manx Farmer would know- easier questions next year!





Wasn't it truly just the most spectacular event! The whole Great Manx Bake-Off was a beautiful display of Manx generosity, talent and creativity. It really exceeded my fantasies and according to all the comments received, any cake-lover was thrilled to bits with the originality of the ideas and the craftsmanship of the cakes. "Priceless", "Exquisite", "Amazing", "Such talent" "Where do they get their ideas?" were common. There was actually a kind of hush around the display tables and fridges the whole day (well, apart from the hilarious auction) as people stood in awe of the 25 best baking entries on the Isle of Man!


I am so grateful to everyone who helped make the day so special, whether by entering, providing equipment, volunteering, buying a slice or a whole cake, and am thankful to the government for allowing us to showcase delicious Manx produce and local talent in such a fun interactive way. Also the generosity of Shoprite for the excellent help they gave in prizes and printing- and the Hairy Bikers auction craic- just can’t be spoken highly enough about!

Bev from Cupcakes, who ran the Cupcake decorating workshops needed a second delivery of Cupcakes by lunchtime because of the demand! Check out their great photos here!



Also do go visit Isle of Man newspapers photos on Flickr - Christine's winning Manx Fuschia Fairy, Chloe's winning Loughtan Ram and the Judges Choice cakes are all in pictures!


What about the Moula (£) for the Eve Appeal?


Those fantabby Hairy Bikers raised £500 with their auctioning prowess! The total from the day so far collected stands at over £1500, including Jane Cleator's personal cheque for £300 (how wonderful) plus more donations from our friends Cupcakes from the Cupcake decorating workshops and Davisons from the sales of the “Eve’s Favourite ice-cream flavour” expected.

Thank you everyone! Special thanks to Kim & Audrey, as well as the Eve Appeal Angels: Jane, Joy & Derek, Vaughn & Eleanor, Kathryn, Christine, Alex & Amanda.



5 cakes the Bikers didn't get time to Auction are still available to purchase! All would make wonderful corporate or charity gifts. Please call me on 455666 if you'd like to make one yours!


"I Love Manx" by Angie Brook



"The Magic of the Isle of Man" by Sarah Joughin



"Tynwald Hill" by Karen Hawkins




"Fairy Bridge" by Abby Wynn




"Four Legs good, Three Legs better" by The Cake Lady, Sally Humphries.

A Beautiful Baker... and 5 days to go!

One evening a few weeks ago on the internet, I was overwhelmed by some beautiful cakes. Their creator was Mich Turner.

When I went to find out more about her, I discovered this:

"Mich Turner's celebrity clients including David Beckham, Pierce Brosnan, Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello and Diana Krall, and Madonna. Awarded Harpers Bazaar & Chanel Entrepreneur of the Year, author of three books with her first book - Spectacular Cakes - voted Best Dessert Book in the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. Mich is the leading creator of couture cakes and has also created celebration cakes for Her Majesty the Queen..."

oh, Mich, i thought, you'd be wonderful at the Great Manx Bake-off!

She agrees! But sadly, is too busy baking. Please read her lovely response:

"Dear Samantha

Thank you so much for your very kind invitation to attend your Isle of Man Food and Drink Festival on behalf of The Eve Appeal. I am both touched and honoured you have personally asked me to be involved with your Great Manx Bake-Off. Reading your letter I am encouraged by... how worthwhile your cause.

I am sending you very best wishes to you for a fabulous event, regrettably I am unable to attend due to prior commitments – we are still in full wedding season here in London with a new product launch also planned for later this month.

I should be very happy to donate signed copies of all 3 of my books... you may like to consider them as a prize for the competition or the raffle.

With very warm wishes

Mich Turner"







"Thank-you" hardly cuts the cake! But- thank-you, Mich. I think I speak for all involved with the Eve Appeal and the Isle of Man Food and Drink festival in wishing you every beautiful couture cake contract in Europe!


With only 5 days to go- we have Mich's 3 beautiful books availble to winners of a Raffle on the day...


And 25 lovely entries competing in the first Eve Appeal's Great Manx Bake-Off

15 Home Bakers
and
9 Professionals

will submit glorious lip smacking, manx-ingredients cakes to showcase the best of our beautiful island.

Come to the Villa Marina Arcade on Saturday from 11am to drool over and perhaps select yourself a slice!
The Hairy Bikers are in for a sweet surprise!


(below, 2 of Mich's beautiful, autographed books. For lovely inspiration, visit the Little Venice Cake Company or do seek her out on Youtube!)

Introducing.. the charming Alex Brindley

Manx Radio's own, and our MC for the Great Manx Bake-Off!

Very kindly donating his considerable showmanship to the Eve Appeal! thank you Alex... we are looking forward to watching you play with the Hairy Bikers!

Remember this? "we have cakes, we have ice-cream..." can this event get any sweeter? I think it just did!

i scream, you scream... it's Eve Appeal ice-cream!

As a child, besides dreaming of having your own pony, did you fantasise about having your very own sweet shop and ice-cream parlour to invite all your friends to? i know i did! Well, who says dreams from long ago don't come true? the Eve Appeal Great Manx Bake-Off is shaping up to be a delicious celebration of all things sweet and special, and as our lovely friend- please come share!

For the weekend of the Isle of Man Food & Drink Festival (that's 26th & 27th Sept), Davison’s Ice Cream are creating a bespoke flavour with an astonishingly generous 100% of all purchases across their three stores of the flavour to be donated to the Eve Appeal.

The flavour will be called Eve’s Favourite and taste like Pink Apple Pie. The Eve Appeal’s colours are pink and red, and the traditional British dessert, Eve’s Pudding, is based on Apples and Sponge cake, so it’s the perfect flavour!

So who's our real-life Willy Wonka, then? It's the man himself; 2nd generation Manx confectioner: Ian Davison. This is how great he is: when we thought Davison's Ice-cream parlour, being just downstairs from the cake competition, could maybe offer a special flavour on the day of the Bake-off to raise money for the Eve Appeal, I was going to ask for 10% of proceeds to be donated back if he liked the idea. But Ian immediately offered to donate 100% of any purchase of the flavour over the weekend from all of his ice-cream stores- that's 3 stores!- the Villa Marina Arcade, Peel's beachside parlour and The Cholcolate Box in Douglas! He hopped on the internet to research apple flavours and shared stories of some of the other charity events and spacial flavours he can create. Christmas Pudding, anyone?

It’s an incredibly generous gesture!

Yum. Pink Apple Pie. I've read somewhere that nothing heals a broken heart like Eve's Pudding. With the magic surrounding "Eve's Favourite" I wonder what power it's soothing coolness will hold? We'll have cake, we'll have ice-cream- can you think of a better way to spend a Saturday?

Our event and entry form to download is now up on the Eve Appeal website! And if you can't manage to get your entry in by tomorrow we will take them up til Wednesday. Here's the link.

Half-Baked ideas

there are some delicious sounding entries to the Eve Appeal Great Manx Bake-Off coming in!

If I were a baker, I've got to tell you, I'd make something like this:

Here's why. Ok- first and most obviously, my surname is Honey-Pollock (don't worry, I wouldn't put pollock/pollack/calig in it). But Manx honey is a wonderful local product here on the island, from St Marks' Lower Cordeman Farm. I'd use Laxey Glen Mills plain flour, Isle of man creamery butter and milk, and Staarvey Farm eggs. And I'd order one of these gorgeous beehive cake tins - click n see! now you know where the pictures are from too!

That's the Manx produce covered.

It goes deeper...

You see, in helping the Eve Appeal on the Isle of Man, I realise just how many worthwhile causes are here on the island. I care about our Hyperbaric chamber and our Helicopter fund. Hospice, Rebecca House, Oscars dreams... they are all wonderful causes.

But I see a gap.

I see Isle of Man men going for heart surgery across in Liverpool, and their wives and families being helped for accommodation and transport by Robert Owen house, a wonderful charity run by the Masons.

Together with helpers Jane and Joy, who have first-hand experience with ovarian cancer, for the Eve Appeal on the Isle of man, we're getting together a sheet of accommodation and transport recommendations for ladies and their companion travelling across to Liverpool Women's for surgery, or beyond, for treatment. Isle of Man Gov's Patient Services here on the island are fantastic: supplying transport between Liverpool airport and the hospitals, return travel costs, and up to £30 a night accommodation expenses for the patient's travel companion.

But once we're delivered to treatment or hospital- where does our companion go? As alone and scared as us, I want a house for them in Liverpool, like Robert Owen, for gynae patients from the Isle of Man. I'd like to see it called the Bee-hive. After all- we are the Queen Bees and we need somewhere for our menfolk and family to stay and keep safe while we're getting better.

going to stop now. i'm crying :)

Would you like to see this, too?

More cake angels!

Here's a lovely update: right now, we can help the Eve Appeal by buying a pin-badge from our local Shoprite!

a thousand thanks to our generous local supermarket chain who came up with the idea to support, in this added way, the many women here on the Isle of Man who suffer from gynae cancer.


And thanks in advance- to our new Cake Angels- King William's College Catering

and Davison's Ice-Cream

who have sourced us some cold cabinets to keep the delicious entries perfect!


Cake angels come in all shapes and sizes...