Naomi Morgan, owner of the Rutland Cake Company, and Grainstore Brewery director, Peter Atkinson
Two Rutland producers have teamed up to create bakes using seasonal and local ingredients ahead of the county’s annual food and drink festival.
Grainstore Brewery and the Rutland Cake Company, which are both based in the smallest county in the country, are determined to prove the county’s motto, Multum in Parvo — ‘much in little’ — is true.
The businesses have teamed up to develop a number of cakes and bakes which will launch at the Food and Drink Festival on Sunday (October 29) with one ingredient in common — beer.
Using bottles of the Grainstore’s real ales and ciders, brewed in Oakham, Naomi Morgan, who opened the Rutland Cake Company Café earlier this year, has written recipes that will not only be baked and sold at both locations, but which can be recreated at home.
Among them is a beer meringue with rich chocolate sauce made using Rutland Panther, a three-ingredient fruit cake with Osprey, beer blondies incorporating TenFifty and soda bread infused with Rutland Cider.
Naomi said: “We’re trying to encourage bakers to use British produce as much as they can, so I have developed each recipe using a bottle of beer or a bottle of cider and making them as accessible for all as possible. We’ve also used local eggs and flour and they taste amazing.”
Grainstore director, Peter Atkinson, said: “Naomi made some amazing cupcakes using our Rutland Panther ale for the 20th anniversary of Rutland’s independence in April, and they were the best cakes I’ve ever eaten.
“Real ale is such a versatile product and we use many of the same ingredients as the baking industry in our product, so we thought, why stop there?”
The team behind the Great Beerish Bake Off, as they have jokingly dubbed it, will be at Oakham Castle all day on Sunday, distributing recipes, and visitors will also be able to pick up bottles of the associated beers and ciders so that they can have a go at baking the recipes themselves.
Naomi will also be doing family-friendly (and alcohol-free) demonstrations throughout the day, while the Grainstore will be serving its award-winning beers for the adults to enjoy.
Naomi said: “Using seasonal food is something both businesses are really passionate about, so we’re going to continue to develop more recipes which will be sold at the Rutland Cake Company and the Grainstore Brewery as the seasons (and the beers) change.”
Peter added: “We’ve already taste tested the bakes on some of our regulars in the brewery tap and they went down a storm.
“We’ll be adding the recipes to our website so that people can print them off and get busy baking, so keep an eye on www.grainstorebrewery.com.”
