Cookham Village Street Party for the Queens Diamond Jubilee

On Monday we celebrated the Queens Diamond Jubilee with a Street Party in the village where I live; the whole community joined together and our street turned  into a sea of red, white and blue! Wooden tables and chairs ran down the entire length of the street and lots of home cooked party food was shared bwetween families, friends and visitors. A brass band played throughout the afternoon, the pubs served Hog Roast, the Chinese and Indian restaurants set up street stalls and there was a village Bake Off competition ..... I had to enter of course!!

And guess what?! Out of 50+ entries my cake came first! I won the Cookham village Jubilee bake off and I was so proud!

My winning cake took all of the judges by surprise when they cut into it. I had divided and then tinted my Victoria sponge batter red, white and blue and baked the cake in 6 tins (two layers of each colour) and I then stacked and covered the cake in a white Italian meringue butter cream. From the outside the cake looked quite plain; just a white cake with some homemade paper bunting tied between two stripey straws ... but the crowd gasped when the cake was cut into and the colours of the Jubilee were revealed. Luckily it tasted good too!

My prize for winning the cake competition was dinner for 4 at the Bel & The Dragon restaurant in Cookham. This restaurant is one of my favourites; the food, setting and staff all score very highly! I go there quite a lot with my boyfriend and so for this winning occasion I decided to treat my best girlfriends instead and we had such a fun time enjoying my 'jubilee cake off' prize, tucking into a 5 course meal with champagne and wine. Yum!