North East Tea Party

A few months ago I was nosing into a conversation that two of my fellow North East bloggers were having on Twitter.   Danni and Kloe both live in Middlesbrough and were eagerly discussing somewhere they had recently been for cake.  As we all know I love cake and was instantly jealous that they were going to places that I hadn't heard of.  So before they could stop me I'd enthusiastically invited myself to Middlesbrough for a cake date.

I'm not sure what happened after that initial conversation because suddenly said cake date had turned into a bloggers event that required the girls to find a venue and source goodie bags.   I obviously made myself scarce very quickly as soon as I realised some hard work was required.  Sorry girls ... I created a monster and left you to it!  I'm sure they'll get me back at some point but for now let me tell you about the wonderful afternoon I had at the North East Tea Party.

Me with Kloe from Skulls and Kisses

The event focussed around our love of cake.  It's a well known fact that many bloggers love cake and here in the North East we're no different. 

Each blogger was encouraged to make cakes to bring along so we could put on a huge spread of sweet treats and have ourselves a giant tea party.

It was such a fantastic idea and something that we hadn't done before. Everyone put in so much effort and really threw themselves into the baking.  I must confess that I bought my cakes from Tesco as I'm rubbish in the kitchen!

Every time we thought the tables couldn't get any fuller another blogger turned up with yet more cake.  The selection really was something - brownies, cakes, cookies, cupcakes, biscuits .. you name it, we had it!  

with Danni from Gingerbread Smiles

I honestly didn't even know where to begin, there were so many things that I wanted to try.

I shouldn't really single any particular cake out but I really do have to give a huge shout out to Cate who made After Eight Cookies that were out of this world.  I've never tasted anything like them.   The recipe is on her blog here if anyone fancies a go themselves.

picture pinched from Caroline

I would also say how delicious Lisa's Brownies were but I'm not sure I should really shower her with too much praise as she'd convinced a guy at her office to make them for her .... pretty sure that's cheating?

 

 

with Kayleigh from I Dream of Coco and Lisa from Is it Just Meme

Kayleigh made a marble cake which unfortunately I could only manage a tiny corner of because by the time I got to it I'd already stuffed myself with too much other cake. 

I caught up with Steph who I met for the first time at an event last month.  She gave me a quick history of Hartlepool which was really interesting.  I really love learning more about the area so if anyone ever has a North East story for me I'm always eager to listen!   Steph had made a retro Cornflake Cake and even bought some custard to serve with it, but unfortunately we were all feeling a little too lazy to go and fetch bowls.

I finally got to meet Caroline who I'd been chatting to on Twitter for a while, I'd been promising to take her for a look round Primark for ages (I somehow seem to have earned myself some kind of "Queen of Primark" title amongst the  North East Bloggers) so we had a quick shop before the event.   Being a Yummy Mummy Caroline has herself a collection of pretty amazing cookie cutters so made some really cute Disney biscuits, I couldn't resist getting myself a Nemo.

The girls had organised a raffle for Macmillan Cancer Support and I was really lucky and won myself a gorgeous ring from Psyche.  Most the rings I own are pretty bright and whacky so I'm really happy to now own one that I can wear more frequently.

We also got lovely goodie bags which were stuffed full of the most amazing products, we were truly spoilt.

The event was over far too quickly and even a room full of cake eating experts couldn't manage to polish off all of the cakes so the last few minutes were spent with everyone eagerly filling their tupperware and cake tins with the leftovers.  I'm sure there were some very hungry boyfriends and husbands who got a nice amount of cake that evening!

 

Caroline from Notes From Caroline

Steph from Jellybean Adventures

I had a really lovely time and got to catch up with friends as well as meet some new people. I have to say a huge thank you to Danni and Kloe for putting on such a great event.

I'm already plotting a way to sneakily convince someone else to put on a bloggers event!