Boroughbridge High School Fabulous Food Festival
Boroughbridge High School Fabulous Food Festival
I spent most of my time at food festivals and shows over this weekend. The first, on Saturday, was Boroughbridge High School’s Fabulous Food Festival. This was arranged as part of the Food for Life Partnership scheme of which Boroughbridge High is a Flagship School.
The Food for life Partnership (www.foodforlife.org.uk) is a network of schools and communities across England committed to transforming food culture. Their aim is to reach out through schools to give communities access to seasonal, local and organic food, and to the skills they need to cook and grow fresh food.
The festival was opened by famous chef and Yorskhireman, Brian Turner.
Brian Turner opening the festival
It was a great coup for the festival to get such a high profile personality to attend and you could tell by his opening speech that he was pleased to be supporting the festival and was happy to be back in Yorkshire. As part of the opening speech he presented the school with their Food for Life Partnership Silver award.
There was a great selection of stalls at the festival selling an array of produce including organic fruit and vegetables, spices, local beers and fresh cream and milk. There were also people selling cards, cookware and jewellery.
Having a sweet tooth, my favourite stalls are always the cake stalls and I certainly wasn’t disappointed.
First up – Emma’s Bakery (www.emmasbakery.co.uk).
Emma's Bakery
Emma is based in Harrogate and was selling handmade cupcakes, cakes and whoopees (for those that are wondering, a whoopee is a sort of flying saucer shaped sponge sandwich with a butter cream filling).
Cupcakes from Emma's Bakery
Her cupcakes look great – some people try to be too complicated with fancy colours and over the top decoration but Emma has the balance just right. She also has some fabulous varieties including caramel, lemon meringue carrot cake and raspberry. I had a try of one of her tiramisu whoopies which was more exciting than your standard coffee cake flavour.
Next was Kay’s cakes (www.kayscakeshop.co.uk).
Kay's Cakes
Cherry Bakewell Push Up Cakes
Kay was selling cake pops and push up cakes. The cake pops are cakes on sticks covered in chocolate which the kids (or adults who are big kids!) can decorate with chocolate chips, sprinkles and other goodies.
The push up cakes was an interesting idea that I hadn’t seen before, basically multi-layered cakes in a plastic container that you push up. The cherry bakewell ones looked especially good with all the different coloured layers and a cherry on top.
And last, but by no means least – Brown and Blond.
Brown and Blond
Brownies from Brown and Blond
George hand makes brownies (and blondies – hence the name). He is only 19 but is already making a name for himself by selling to several local delis’, hotels and cafes. He has some great flavours – Toblerone, Rocky Road and Stem Ginger. I had a triple chocolate one and it was gorgeous, crispy on top and soft and moist inside.
It was a great turnout for the festival, no doubt helped by the excellent weather. Speaking to the organisers, they were very pleased with the number of people who had come to support the festival and they told me that they are already starting to plan next year’s event.
