Good afternoon everyone,
Firstly, some housekeeping. It's now just a fortnight until our annual summer hiatus. This year our last day open on Iffley Road and at the Covered Market will be Sunday 3rd August, and we shall reopen Thursday 4th September. We've had a very enjoyable few months with the team going from strength to strength so we are looking forward to seeing what autumn brings at the bakery.
Now for more details of the event happening next Sunday at the Covered Market. As mentioned last week, our Summer Cake Salon is a bake sale showcasing Oxford's most exciting cake makers; Julia, Pet Gât; Auriol, Lost Tallulah; Caitlin, Cake On My Face; Karishma, Pipii. They'll all be using our stoneground flour, some for the very first time. As you can see from the menu attached we have a veritable cornucopia of cake lined up, the only issue will be deciding between the ten different options. At the bakery Valentina has been staying true to her Italian roots, delighting us with her tiramisu cake testing, and we've also persuaded her to make a personal favourite of ours, gâteau Basque, which shall be sold in sharable 5" rounds. We have developed an iced drinks menu for the occasion, with a choice of hazelnut cream coffee, Pump Street chocolate milk with whipped cream and cocoa husk syrup, Tiny Teahouse matcha latte or matcha yuzu tonic. Kick off is at 10am until we sell out. On behalf of all the bakers we'd love to see you there.
A very quick word on cheese before we leave you. Top picks this week are Corra Linn, a hard sheep's milk cheese from Errington Dairy, described as "savoury and brothy with a hint of toasted almonds", and the stone cold classic Appleby's Cheshire, "juicy and bright with mustardy acidity, best eaten at room temperature or on a picnic". Cheese intel from OG Lydia and Big Cheese Harriet.
This week Hugo drank very little, but with a rainy Sunday afternoon baked pasta in the offing, a bottle of red is being eyed up, possibly the new vintage of Lapierre Morgon, but we'll see...
Thanks for reading, as always, and see you soon,
Kate and Hugo