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The Farm Cookery School

By Emma Kirkup

If you’ve ever fancied improving your baking skills or practicing your competitive edge against friends or family then a visit to one of our cookery schools is calling.

I headed to the newly opened Farm Cookery School, near the small Wiltshire village of Bromham to try and hone my skills at making a three egg sponge in competition with a group of friends.

Before arriving, we’d decided to create a theme to our cakes (I must admit, I was a bit apprehensive about my creativity skills when it came to this) and seeing as I work for VisitWiltshire, we went for a Wiltshire theme. I was racking my brain the night before to think what I could come up with that didn’t involve too much stress on my part, and in the end I decided I’d opt for creating a Neolithic house, a bit like the ones that you can see at the visitor centre at Stonehenge!

Gretchen, from the cookery school was on hand to not only welcome us all but to show us where things were and in my case, to give me advice on the best techniques for creating the perfect sponge.

Baking

Very last minute (and possibly because I have a mild chocolate addiction) I decided to make my cake a chocolate sponge so Gretchen helped me work out the quantities of cocoa vs flour I needed.

I won’t go into the recipe as I’m sure many of you are more adept at cake creation than me, however there were handy notes that you could follow, or in the case of some of the party, they followed their instincts.

Anyway, suffice to say, I did manage to create (and not burn) a chocolate cake and was quite proud that mine didn’t sink in the middle unlike some of the others!

Whilst the cakes were baking, it was time to prepare the decorations including the butter icing. Again, I went for a chocolate version so I could pretend that this was the mud that would have been used on my Neolithic House. Once the cake had cooled I then added chocolate fingers to the top to create a thatched roof!

My cake

I didn’t win the prize for best design but on tasting my cake after, I was quite pleased with my achievement given that baking really isn’t my forte!

Doing one of these bake-off style cookery sessions was good fun and would work really nicely for a hen party or birthday celebration. The cookery school is also very geared up for children’s parties as well.

Roundway Down

What’s more is the school is set in some beautiful countryside, with views over to Roundway Down and Oliver’s Castle. There are other attractions nearby as well including the 11th Hour Escape Rooms and Bowood House and Gardens so you could easily combine your visits for a weekend break.

Find out more about the Farm Cookery School and our other Wiltshire cookery schools by clicking here

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  1. Sila1
    Octordle compared to Wordle and Quordle is somewhat different. With 13 guesses with eight different vertical lines, the player needs to solve all eight horizontal words at the same time https://octordlegame.io

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