You may have seen on my Instagram last week the long cake filled with fresh cream we made for the first night of this year’s Soho Food Feast. I’ve had so many questions since posting it online, including a few requests for the recipe, so I thought I’d share.
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Soho Food Feast, which is now in its fourteenth year(!!) is an annual event which supports Soho Parish Primary School. Founded by Margot Henderson, of Rochelle Canteen and St. John, and Anita Moir, then catering manager of the school, it’s an amazing weekend of food supported by some incredible bars and restaurants. Soho Parish Primary is limited by its size as a Victorian building so, with less government funding than a larger school could get, the support Margot and Anita bring in is increasingly vital.
When the Food Feast was started Margot’s children were students at the school; at the time she and her husband Fergus (of St. John) lived in Soho which to me back then as a new Londoner seemed like the coolest thing ever. This year the event coincided with their youngest, Francis’, birthday so there was an extra special element to the cake.
I wanted to make something really beautiful for the opening evening, and I was inspired by the incredible produce available at the moment. British Strawberries, which we get from a farm in Kent via Natoora, formed the base of a beautiful quick jam and I finished it all with mountains of whipped cream from Northiam Dairy and incredible fresh flowers from the London Flower Farmer. As the seasons change so do the best fruits, so to your local grocers or farmers’ market and work with the fruit that’s looking best where you are. The cake I made fed over forty, so I’ve adjusted the amounts for an 8” cake for the recipe below.
We built these at the bakery before loading them into my car and driving into Soho, my sales manager, Rory, and baker, Funa accompanying me. We got to enjoy some of the dinner before being called over to serve the cake; the gratification of unveiling these bakes to other chefs and getting to share slices with them on a summer evening, once all the diners had been served, was magical.
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