Karen Wright: A fabulous rhubarb celebration!

Well what a wonderful week that was! Our very own festival to celebrate our favourite protected status vegetable, yes, rhubarb is a vegetable.
Karen cooking on stage at the Rhubarb FestivalKaren cooking on stage at the Rhubarb Festival
Karen cooking on stage at the Rhubarb Festival

I have been lucky and both last year and this I have been asked to cook in the demonstration marquee. This year my slots were on Sunday, fortunately for me the wind had bated a bit and everything went according to plan. The stage kitchen was the best I have ever worked in and the marquee was warm and toasty, so our audience could sit, relax and enjoy a full and varied day of demos in comfort.

There is always a compere on hand at the demos to add an extra dimension to the event plus they are there to give a hand and make sure everything goes smoothly. This year George Akid hosted on Friday and on Saturday and Sunday the renowned and fabulous Stephanie Moon. First time I have met Steph and she was wonderful, down to earth and so talented. In addition to the compere we had a team of students from Wakefield College on hand to assist and I would like to mention Rosie who came up on stage to keep an eye on the stove while I chatted to the audience.

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I had two slots on Sunday, on the first I cooked a rhubarb soup and rhubarb frangipane tart. On the second I made a rhubarb curry and rhubarb syllabub. The recipe for the syllabub was featured in my column recently and it was great to discover from some of the audience that they had made it and confirmed that it was delicious. I was happy to be told by lots of people in the audience that they follow my comings and goings by reading my article each week. So, if you are reading this today then thank you so very much.

Last week started with a trip to the Caravan and Motorhome Show at the NEC in Birmingham. We are members of the club and love the lifestyle that this type of holiday offers. I was asked to make a campervan cake to be served on the first day of the show. I was also invited to host a forum with Matt Allwright, he is fabulous, I really enjoyed working with him and of course as with everything new, I learned lots from the experience. My cake was a huge success and went down a treat when we served it up in the afternoon. I did mention the cake last week and said that I would have a photo this week. I am very keen to show it to you but I am saving it for next week as I wanted to use a rhubarb picture this week as a final nod to the festival.

The campervan cake was in a beach setting and this will link up with next week's article as I am once again seaside bound. I am going on a coach holiday at the weekend to Brighton with my mum, so watch this space, next week’s column let’s do summer!

For more tips and recipes go to https://www.karenwrightbakes.co.uk/