The Great Roath Bake Off returned bigger and better this year with nearly 100 entries and a community fête in St Andrew’s Church Hall.

From 12 o’clock a stream of bakers queued to enter the competition and within an hour the tables were jam-packed with cakes, bakes and savouries. Entry fees were in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support and more than £500 was raised by event organiser Wayne Courtney and his team of volunteers.

Cakes and bakes were judged in four categories: general cakes; professional cakes; savouries/bakes; under 16s. Judges included two BBC Wales presenters, Sue Charles and Owain Wyn Evans, Real Radio’s Dave Brookes, Media Wales’ Dave Owens and bloggers/bakers Sharon Mills, Nikki Vivian, Matt Appleby, Mariclare Carey-Jones and Sarah Williams. Judges marked on presentation, taste, quality of bake and texture.

Keeping the bakers entertained, Wayne laid on a great mix of live music led by Calum Ross and the Magic Rootser Brothers.

The winners were:

• General cake: Lisa Watts with chocolate and salted caramel crunch cake
• Professional cake: Nata & Co with Pastel do Nata
• Savoury/bake: Bill Ward with pork pies
• Under 16: Molly Spivey with white chocolate cake

Lots of photos were taken – we’ve posted some to our Flickr account and here’s Wayne’s Instagram album. If you’d like to share your photos from the day, you can add them to our Flickr group here.

The winning cake – photo by Nic Rugman

Champion baker Lisa Watts

Roathcardiff’s Nic Rugman captured most of the cakes – thanks to her for the slideshow above.

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The new shop will sell handmade breads, cakes, sandwiches, savouries as well as favourites such as doorstep bacon sandwiches and panini. The bakery will also serve Italian cappuccinos and lattes from a coffee bar with high stools for customers to stop and grab a hot drink and a Danish.

The Parsons family has been running the bakery for over 100 years and now has 35 shops across the South West (and Monmouthshire) and has a strong focus on using local produce and working with local businesses. They bake everything themselves and have a central bakery in Bristol which makes about half of the goods they sell, with the other half made fresh at each bakery shop each morning.

Managing director, Nick Parsons, is the fourth generation of the family to run the business. He told roathcardiff.net:

“We’re really excited to be opening in Wellfield Road.  We’ve been watching the street for a while and feel there is a definite place for family artisan bakery such as Parsons in Roath.
“Both my father and my brother did their studies at the bakery school in Cardiff (and my sister lives there too!), so we have a strong connection to the city already. All being well, our Roath store will be the first of a series of stores across Cardiff and we’re spending lots of time walking and driving around the city to get to know it better.”

Initially the bakery will be open Monday to Saturday from 8.00am to 5.00pm and they may also look at Sunday opening if there’s a demand for it.

Nick told us:

“We’ll be putting on loads of opening special offers and we hope we can bring some fun – and of course lots of delicious cakes and savouries – to Roath.”

The shop is currently recruiting and if you’re interested in jobs at the bakery, visit their website to get in touch.

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Originally a restaurant in the city centre (opposite the Castle), the La Vita has now become a relaxed new cafe here in Roath serving a Sicilian-inspired menu.

Fran Power, who with partner Marco Branciamore, is behind the business told us:

“Although Marco relocated his town restaurant to his new one (the Sicilian Orange on Whitchurch Road), we both love quirky independent coffee shops and wanted to open our own. We both love the feel of Wellfield Road and we are very passionate about creating a place that is warm, friendly and relaxed.

“Our food is fresh and prepared daily by Marco. Although we will have the usual things on the blackboards like ciabattas and paninis, we will be experimenting with daily specials such as pizza slices and pastas as we want to keep it interesting.

“The food is Sicilian/Italian inspired as Marco is half sicilian. Our signature special will be arancini which are traditional Sicilian cuisine – fried risotto balls stuffed with either ham and mozzarella or spinach, pesto, pine nuts and mozzarella, although we will be experimenting with these also and adding to them. We stock a varied range of delicious range of cakes, such as our popular carrot, rum and pineapple traditional and will be adding traditional homemade Sicilian cannolis to the range,” she said.

The cafe has been open from 9am until 6pm Monday to Saturday and 10am until 5pm on Sunday. Opening hours are only a guide at the moment and may change subject to demand as they settle in.

Fran said:

“We have located to Roath because its a lovely area, it’s quite cosmopolitan with a lot going on. It has a nice eclectic art scene and quirky shops that you can spend your weekends browsing around. Although there are a lot coffee shops, independent ones are lacking and the feedback that we are getting from out customers is that they wanted somewhere independent with soul!

“We have taken a lot of care in designing a place that will appeal to all ages and is somewhere to relax. Artwork is from local artists as this is something we are also keen to promote,” she said.

Work is still ongoing to create even more seating for customers in the rear of the shop and Fran and Marco hope to obtain an evening license so that in the future they can transform the coffee shop into a little Italian pizzeria in the evenings.

We wish them every success

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Annie Hillman (Phoenix Cards) has organised an Oxfam Get Together Coffee Morning with other Roath mums Sheila Littleboy (Baby Massage and Shiatsu) and Judith Souter (Little Notes Cardiff), in Boulders on Friday 8th March – there will be Phoenix cards for sale, lots of stalls (including Carry Me Close baby carriers and Smallprints jewellery) – and an appearance from Peppa Pig!

Take your children along for the session between 10am and 12, and have a photograph taken with Peppa – part of the photography fee will be donated to Oxfam.

Get there early and be in with a chance of some free Fair Trade chocolate, donated by local Co-operative stores, and everyone will have a chance to win one of the prizes kindly donated by Roath businesses, including: Digits, Fingers and Toes, Tea&Cake, Cook, Pear Tree, Wellfield Bookshop and Central Pharmacy.

The £5 entrance fee will be donated to Oxfam, and includes a coffee, entry to the prize draw and free use of Boulders’ soft play area.

Annie told us, ‘As three mums running businesses to support our own families, we loved the idea of supporting a charity that helps women get out of poverty by training them and helping them to set up in business.  The Oxfam Get Together is the perfect way to help make a difference – please join us!’

Friday 8th March, 10am-12pm

Boulders, St Catherine’s Park, Pengam Road, 0845 521 1850

Local restaurant Mezza Luna has also organised an Oxfam Get Together Ladies Night on Thursday 7th March, to include a two course meal with a glass of champagne, belly dancing (that you can take part in!) and a raffle to win prizes such as a meal for two at Mezza Luna, bottles of wine and spirits, and much more.

Anna Brzezinska, General Manager of Mezza Luna said, ‘My Get Together is all about having fun and a bit of a laugh – there’s no need to worry if you’re not any good, it’s all about trying something new!’

Tickets are £14.50, with £1.50 from the ticket price and all proceeds from the raffle being donated to Oxfam.

The evening starts at 7pm, and you can take a look at the Get Together menu here.

Thursday 7th March, 7pm

Mezza Luna, 159 City Road, 029 20472772

Get Together is a campaign ran by Oxfam to celebrate International Women’s Day. This is an opportunity for women to host events to remember female achievements and raise money to support people in poverty. Your event can be as big or small as you can manage – every penny counts!

The Get Together season has only just begun: as long you register by the 8th of March, it doesn’t matter when in March you host the event. It’s an opportunity for women over Wales to get together and raise support for equality and brighter futures across the world.

Follow/like:

Oxfam Cymru on Twitter here and Facebook here

Get Together Wales on Twitter here

Annie Hillman on Twitter here and Facebook here

Sheila Littleboy on Twitter here

Judith Souter on Twitter here

Mezza Luna on Twitter here and Facebook here

Boulders on Twitter here

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One of Roath’s best-attended events last year (and one of our most-read posts!), with standing room only and people queuing to get into the venue, the Bake Off is the perfect opportunity for you to show off your baking skills.

This year, the categories will be:

Best Cake
Best Bake: Bread/Pie/Other
Best Bake/Cake Under 16′s

Local host and tireless charity fundraiser Wayne Courtney told us,

‘We had such a lot of fun last year, with some amazing cakes, biscuits and pies entered into the competition. So many people wanted to enter and couldn’t, due to space, that we’ve moved this year to St Andrew’s Church Hall, where there’ll be plenty of room for everyone.

It’ll be a much bigger event in 2013, with live music by Junior Johnson’s Midnight Moon (and others still to be confirmed), and also refreshments, craft stalls and charity raffles.  It’s going to be a fun-packed afternoon, and we’ll be raising money for St Andrew’s Charitable Funds.

We can’t wait to see what the good people of Roath can rustle up this year!’

Entrants should bring their cake or bake to the venue by 1pm on the day, and you won’t need to fill in an entry form in advance. Entry is £3 per bake. A panel of expert judges will decide the winners of The Great Roath Bake Off 2013.

RoathCardiff’s own food and drink expert Matt will be a judge at the event for the second time – read his review of last year’s event here.

What are you waiting for? Get out those recipe books and get baking!

Follow Wayne for more updates on twitter here.

Saturday 6th April, 1pm

St Andrews Church Hall
Wellfield Road

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Well here it is – it gives a fantastic flavour of the Market, including an interview with Deri Reed (The Ethical Chef, Cardiff Street Food), great footage of the wide variety of food being created, and plenty of crowd shots!  Are you in it?  Let us know!

We make cinematic promotional and documentary films. Make More Films is about community, local makers and sustainable living across the globe. Street Food is our first film under this umbrella!

Carolina Vasquez

Follow Make More Films on twitter here, and Carolina here.

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In categories voted for by the public (the Reader Competition attracted 16,000 votes), Milgi came runner-up in the categories of Best Ethical Eats, Best Cheap Eats, and Best Place to Drink in this year’s awards.

Milgi famously – and successfully – ran an open poll by a number of methods in 2011, to find out whether customers would prefer them to continue to be an ethically sourced restaurant including meat, or whether they should become a vegetarian restaurant.  The poll was overwhelmingly in favour of it becoming solely vegetarian, which they have become.  Not only sourcing their food from local farmers’ markets, but also foraging for local produce, Milgi has become an inspiration for those seeking ethical and locally sourced ingredients.

Branching out this year into running pop up Hedgerow Bars at National Theatre Wales events and at the Made in Roath Festival 2012, Milgi’s menus are consistently inspiring and interesting, and demonstrate the enjoyment and variety to be had from eating a meat-free diet.

Combined with their continuous commitment to art in the community, their regular Northcote Lane markets, and a huge number of arty events in their yurt, what’s not to like?

Milgi, 213 City Road

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Independent film maker Carolina Vasquez has teamed up with Cardiff Street Food to make a video of the event – and we’ll be featuring it on RoathCardiff when it’s ready to go.

Here, Carolina explains how she got involved, and how you can be in the film:

I love tasting new food and sharing cooking ideas with friends. I also love events happening on the street, from festivals to games to marathons and live music. So when I first heard of the Cardiff Street Food Festival I got very excited – it was something I did not want to miss.

I went along with my friend Chris Young, and we navigated our way through the crowds, listened to the bands, chatted, and of course ate great food! Chris is a musician and I’m a film maker and as we were sat eating, we couldn’t help but notice the big white building next to the vendors and we chatted about the possibility of creating video projection to live music for a future Cardiff Street Food event.  Whenever there is an event happening on the street, people are out and about and there is lovely sense of community, so we wanted to add a little something for others to enjoy.

Through twitter, I noticed the organisers were asking for feedback about the event as there were plans to do another. Well this next one has come much quicker than I thought – which is great! We aren’t quite ready to perform yet, so I offered to film the event and create a video mashup with highlights of the day. They came back to me and said yes! I asked Chris if he wanted to make the music and he’s agreed, so we’ll be there on Saturday filming the fun. Come chat to us on December 15th and share your thoughts about the food, the vibe, and your experience at the Cardiff Street Food Christmas Market.

Here’s my showreel so you can see the kind of things I’ve done and am interested in filming.

Carolina Vasquez Showreel from Carolina Vasquez on Vimeo.

Brand new showreel
I’m a self -shooter – Director, DoP and Editor

Showreel music by Chris Young.

Follow Carolina on twitter here.

Cardiff Street Food Christmas Market, The Mackintosh Centre, Saturday 15th December, 3pm-9pm

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For those of you who haven’t yet stumbled upon me selling my wares around Cardiff, a brief history: I have always made jams and chutneys but have only been doing it on this scale for just over a year. I try to use seasonal, local produce and wherever possible I use local recycled jars. I love what I do and get very excited by the raw ingredients that I find and am lucky enough to be given.

I decided to enter one of the products that I am able to make all year round as it uses dried fruits – Mostarda di Frutta (dried fruits in mustard). I found out in June that I was a finalist for the competition in the condiment section. That in itself was a huge achievement for me.

It wasn’t until 25th October that I discovered how I had done, when my partner and I went to the Royal Welsh Show Ground for the awards ceremony. I was sure I had won bronze, being a newbie to the competition and not having a very Welsh sounding product. Well I can’t tell you how shocked I was when they announced bronze and it wasn’t me, and then silver … at which point the penny dropped and I realised that I had won gold!

I received a rather lovely award which has been out and about on my stall at some of the markets I attend in the Cardiff area.

The response that I have had from people has been fantastic with lots of good wishes and kind words. I think I found the answer to my question.

Eira Ellis-Evans

Inner City Pickle will be at the Roath Farmers’ Market on Saturday 1st and Saturday 15th December.

For full details of Inner City Pickle’s festive products and the pre-Christmas markets where you can find them, click here.

Read more about Inner City Pickle on RoathCardiff here.

Inner City Pickle is also on facebook and twitter.

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Building on the success of the first Cardiff Street Food Festival in Roath, the organisers have announced a date for a Christmas Street Food Festival.

Eleven traders worked flat out to feed demand from hundreds of hungry visitors to the first festival in the Mackintosh Centre car park on 17 November – serving up a range of street food from wood-oven baked pizzas and Caribbean barbecue to Thai stir frys and some of the best burgers we’ve ever eaten.

The festival is organised by Deri Reed of the Ethical Chef who is building up quite a following for a range of new ventures at the Mackintosh Sports and Social Club. In response to feedback from the first festival, the next event will start earlier in the afternoon and Deri told Roath Cardiff it would be bigger and better than the first.

The Cardiff Street Food Christmas market is on December 15 at the Mackintosh car park, Keppoch Street from 3pm until 9pm.

Check out cardiffstreetfood.co.uk for more information. Your Cardiff has a great gallery of pics from the first event here.

If you enjoyed Cardiff Street Food Festival then please support the Roath Farmers Market – every Saturday morning at the Mackintosh until 1pm.

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