Team Vanilla Pod have just got back from the glittering 12th annual Cotswold Life Food and Drink Awards. It was a brilliant evening which truly celebrated the amazing talents and delicious produce we have in the Cotswolds.



Compered by the wonderful Adam Henson, of BBC One's Countryfile fame and Cotswolds Farm Park, the awards ceremony saw over 500 guests applaud the fabulous winners and runners-up, with 2014 Cotswold Food Hero going to Emily Watkins,  Chef Proprietor of The Kingham Plough (congratulations Emily).
Before the awards had even started we were treated to a champagne reception and a scrumptious four-course meal, which saw a fish starter, a heavenly lamb main and yummy pavlova for dessert - all locally sourced of course.

                    




 At the end of the evening we got to take home the most amazing goodie bag, check out all the loot! Can you spot The Vanilla Pod Bakery cupcake? We were one of proud suppliers of the goodie bags, sharing our yummy little Victoria Sandwich Cupcakes and Fresh Strawberry Buttercream Cupcakes.

Just a few of the cupcakes we supplied!

Team Vanilla Pod all glam before the awards

xxx

 

Since encountering Pinterest last year we have set up our own Vanilla Pod Bakery page and even downloaded the app on to our bakery iPhone! We have boards set up for our Vanilla Pod cakes, as well as idea boards for weddings, parties and even Christmas.

It is so easy to use, all you need to do is set up an account and your ready to go. We have downloaded the "Pin It" button to our browser, so when we see an image we like we simply click on the button and "Pin" the image to one of our boards.

We definitely think it is a fabulous website to use and is especially handy if your a bride-to-be. We use Pinterest with our couples to build a virtual image of their individual wedding, so we can understand what they want their special day to look and feel like. It allows all parties involved to be inspired by a whole host of ideas from around the world. As a cake designer, it then is fantastic to take colours, patterns and other various elements to design a cake that is completely unique to the couple.

We are finding more and more of our brides and grooms-to-be are bringing tablets/ipads with them when they come for their tasting consultations and a lot have already embraced Pinterest.

I whole heartily recommend Pinterest as a wedding and party planning tool. Please fill free to follow us and/or re pin any of our images. If your not on the site already, why not sign up - we guarantee you will be hooked!

"Help! How do we choose a wedding cake?"

This is a question we often hear and we understand that if you are new to an area this can be a mind field as you won't know any of the word of month recommendations from the locals.  Well, it's time to relax, and dust all those scary thoughts away. The brilliant wedding ideas blog, Pip and JoJo researched exactly that question and a couple of months ago had a lovely evening with Pia at The Vanilla Pod Bakery delving into the world of choosing beautiful wedding cakes.

To read Pip and JoJo's blog and interview with The Vanilla Pod Bakery click here. All the wonderful images were snapped by Pip's fiancé James from Pictures&Pianos.

During the interview Pip asked Pia to share her 5 top tips to think about when choosing a wedding cake designer and designs for your cake. You can read all of tips on Pip and JoJo's blog but our ultimate one would be to think about the number of guests you would like to feed.

Top Tip - Think about the number of portions:
The number of portions to a cake can change the overall style dramatically. For example, you may want a 5 tier wow factor cake but you only have 80 guests, alternatively you may want a simple three tier wedding cake but have 200 guest, don't panic all this can be catered for. A good cake designer will suggest many options including dummy tiers to add hight to your cake (honestly your guests would never know!) or a "kitchen cake" to increase the portions, that would be exactly the same flavour as your wedding cake but with no thrills and would never leave the kitchen before being served.