Cardiff and Cakestands!

Sometimes, the very item we search for is right under our nose!

Way back in May 2009, Vicky and I went to Cardiff for a couple of days.  She had arranged the trip with a friend to see a relatively unknown band but her friend was unable to go at the last minute, so rather than cancel or go alone, she took me along.

We never did go to see the band in the end – being quite tired after the long journey we didn’t fancy the further drive to Newport.  So we walked from Cardiff Youth Hostel (yes, I had my first experience of youth hostelling at age 45!) in to Cardiff City Centre, had a look around and enjoyed a lovely meal at Wagamama – another first for me.  The meal was great and we’ve since bought the Wagamama Cookbook.

We had a lovely time visiting Cardiff Castle.  The grounds are beautiful, there is a tall tower, plenty of scary staircases and then the actual Stately Home bit of it.  Wow – it would be a beautiful place for a wedding. 

The most memorable part for both of us was a room called “The Ladies Room”.  And no, not that ladies room!  It’s a room where the lady of the house would take afternoon tea with other ladies and they would chat and gossip out of earshot of the men.  It was very ornate and over the top!

At the time, we were starting some alterations to our house – building a kitchen extension and changing the ‘old’ kitchen into a living / dining room.  However, after our visit to Cardiff Castle, Vicky and I started referring to it at the Ladies Room and planned to take tea and cakes in there and have a good old gossip.

Since then, we’ve been looking for an old fashioned 2 tier cake stand and never found anything we liked enough.  The new kitchen and ‘Ladies Room’ are very modern, but somehow, we wanted an old fashioned cake stand.

Nearly two years on, and my husband Chris and I had occasion to do a bit of cleaning and tidying at my dad’s bungalow.  It used to be my grandma and granddads bungalow and now it’s my dad’s.  Whilst clearing out a cupboard, we came across the most exquisite, chintzy, retro, glass and gold two tier cake stand!  It’s amazing.  The edges of the plates are wavy, fluted and the central posts can be unscrewed so that it can all be cleaned!   

I’d forgotten about it but when I saw it, I could remember from childhood seeing it on the tea table on a Wednesday when I used to sleep at grandmas.  She would serve home-made scones and coconut tarts on it.

Chris brought the beautiful cake stand down from the high shelf very carefully and I immediately photographed it and sent the image to Vicky.  She fell straight in love with it.

My dad has kindly let me have it, and here it is on its first use- displaying pumpkin muffins made by Vicky. 

We just need some old fashioned tea cups and we’ll be able to gossip over tea and cakes.  We might even make cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off and sliced diagonally, no less!