The Cake and Bake Show Manchester Review
The Cake and Bake Show
Manchester Central
4-6 April 2014
Reviewed by Victoria Daubney
Wow, what a day!
This weekend I was lucky enough to visit the Cake and Bake show at Manchester Central, and lucky is the right word to use. Named the best new show at the media awards last year, it is clear to see why.
I visited the show on the last day, Sunday. The doors had been open since 10:00am and I arrived around 10:30am with my friend. There was no queue and we walked straight in. It is the first time I’ve been to Manchester Central and it is a very impressive building. Perfect for exhibitions, it is a wide open space with modern facilities. Nice and clean, and all the staff at the entrance seemed friendly and helpful. The location is also great as it’s in the centre of Manchester and so is easily accessible by public transport as well as having plenty of car parks around.
In the foyer there were ladies selling show goody bags, which boasted £30 worth of goods for £5. A bargain in anyone’s eyes! We carried on past these and entered into the main exhibition room which was bustling with people. As soon as you entered there was a Dr Oetker stand which had a demo going on. We found a spot and watched as Kathryn Hawkins showed us how to make chocolate truffles in to Easter chicks. When the demo was over we were given a free goody bag containing three Dr Oetker baking products, cupcake cases, caramel food flavouring and some chocolate chip chunks.
From here we decided the best plan of action would be to snake up and down each row of stalls so that we didn’t miss anything out. There was a stand for everything baking related that you can imagine. Decorating accessories, trays, ingredients, mixers, every kitchen utensil imaginable and even ovens! There were plenty of choices for food as well as cakes and sweet treats, such as sausage rolls, pies and pulled pork sandwiches. Amongst all these stalls though, there were quite a few random ones such as health and beauty stalls, massages and jewellery sellers.
The company Billington’s were there promoting their natural unrefined cane sugar. It was interesting to take part in their taste test, where you sampled each of their sugars ranging from golden caster sugar to dark muscovado. It was interesting to try each of them and be educated in the difference and what each is best used for in baking. There were also several free recipe cards that you could take away.
As well as the stalls there was The Cake Kitchen, and The Bakery where guest celebrate bakers were showing off their skills. We saw Mich Turner in The Cake Kitchen create a wonderful hazelnut and apricot meringue cake. Again, there was a recipe card to take away so you could recreate the cake at home.
The facilities, such as toilets, were dotted all around the venue and the ones we visited were all clean and well stocked. However, there was only one place to buy drinks, which was situated right at the front of the hall near the front door. This was a bit of an inconvenience as there were so many fabulous stalls where you could buy food from, but this was the only place to get a drink. There was a separate room with seating in where you could go to rest your feet while you ate, but there was only one bin in the whole room for about 100 seats.
There were cake displays around the room, and some of them were absolutely amazing. There was a jungle themed cake competition which included professional and non-professional bakers, and the entries were amazing. There were also professional displays around, my favourite of which had show-stopping designs based around the films ‘Cloudy with a chance of meatballs’, ‘Ratatouille’, and ‘How to train your Dragon’.
There was also a team called Cake Bomb there, who are a group of bakers from the UK and the USA who collaborate on projects for events, and for The Cake and Bake Show they had put together ‘Welcome to the Jungle’. This involved a room covered from top to bottom in edible features, from an almost life size baby elephant to monkeys and crocodiles.
We left the show at around 2:30pm, and I honestly think we managed to see every stall in there. You could have easily stayed there till closing at 5:00pm though, if you included in some more demos at The Bakery and The Cake Kitchen. There was also a Competition Theatre where stars from reality baking shows were taking on members of the public in a bid to win best dish.
I can honestly say I had an amazing day and will definitely be going again next year. I would rate the whole experience 5 out of 5 and would recommend this show to everyone, even those that aren’t keen bakers. You only need to enjoy food to be able to enjoy this show.
Rating: 5/5 
Tickets are now on sale for The Cake and Bake Show in Earls Court, London (3-5 October 2014). For more information or to buy Early Bird tickets and save some money visit www.thecakeandbakeshow.co.uk.
