The Sprightly Spud

Tis the season for post exam vacations to the sun soaked, vodka saturated shores of the med, but my best friend and I decided to swap clubs and cocktails, for competitive cake baking, in the tropical destination of Digbeth.

For numerous young women across the UK, the June 23rd signalled the end of two years of hard academic graft, and the brutal exam period that followed it, meaning only one thing; time for a girl’s holiday. Most would choose to indulge in 5 to 7 night breaks in slightly questionable all inclusive resorts scattered throughout the med. We opted for a night in Birmingham.

The plan began to form on a cold March evening, after enjoying a meal out to celebrate surviving a week of A Level studies, and making it all the way to Friday. When seeking a break from the joys of revision a few days before, I had spotted a ‘mock bake off’ activity on Instagram, so obviously contacted Katie immediately;

“What date do your exams finish – I’m booking this”

That night we picked our dates, booked our tickets for ‘Big-Bakes Birmingham’, and let the excitement of our trip begin to carry us towards June.

I knew I’d want to do something to celebrate finishing my exams, no matter the results, its a momentous occasion that needs to be marked. Despite this, the fact that I am completely sobre means that nights spent in sweaty spanish bars don’t really appeal to me, so I didn’t fancy the classic boozy girls trip that many of my friends were planning.

When the weekend following June 23rd finally rolled round, Katie and I boarded a train at Wrexham station, and proceeded on our journey to Birmingham. A minor delay when we changed at Crewe did nothing to dispel our good mood: we were free from academia for the next three months, and due to arrive at our destination within two hours.

In terms of a travel experience, we had definitely taken the stress free option. No need to arrive at the airport hours before departure, no security queues, no delays, and definitely no pre flight 6 am pints in the airport Wetherspoons. We left my house at 11, and had checked into the hotel by 2 – dreamy.

After ditching our bags in our (surprisingly spacious) twin room in the Hilton, which we snatched for just £60 for the night. We took the 20 minute stroll back to the city. Regardless of the cloud spattered sky, and humid British air, we felt like we were on our holidays. A quick wander round the shops, and it was time to head for Digbeth, where we were due to indulge our sugary dreams.

A straightforward walk from the city’s main shopping district took us to a more ‘earthy’ area, with cool graffiti spattering the walls, and a selection of quirky independent shops and cafes. ‘Big Bakes’ was easy to spot thanks to the cake themed mural that framed a classic ‘bake-off style’ tent.

Hearts fluttering with excitement and competitive energy, we got chatting to the other ‘competitors’, who were making the most of refreshments from the boujee outdoor bar, where a selection of soft drinks and alcoholic tipples were available for our purchase. Our tent mates turned out to be 18 members of the same family who were, quite frankly, hilarious. The duos they formed were also fiercely competitive with each other – something that proved particularly hilarious when combined with the fact that one pair of lads had never in their lives cooked anything more complex than toast.

We donned our aprons, and were introduced to our baking stations by a stern yet friendly lady, who had all of us reminiscing of a young Mary Berry. She sounded a foghorn, signalling the start of 80 minutes of furious mixing, melting, and moulding, in the hope of producing an illusive ‘ice cream sprinkle cake’.

Katie and I naturally fell into step, working well as a team, as I took the majority of responsibility for our bubblegum blue sponges, whilst she lovingly produced an exemplar pink meringue buttercream. We followed our recipe (provided by the event) to the letter, and finished the elaborate decoration of our three tiered bake just as the klaxon sounded.

There was a collective sigh of relief from all teams in the tent, as we stepped back from our benches, hair dishevelled and hands sticky, to admire our produce. Despite all being provided with an identical recipe and equipment, each partnership had creative license on colours and flavourings used, meaning that each vibrant cake was unique.

Personally, we had opted for a butterscotch flavoured sponge, with pastel pink icing (that I had painstakingly plastered around the cake’s edges), and a blue chocolate drip over our ice cream cone. We had topped our creation with ample blue sprinkles – obviously.

Our Mary Berry idol proceeded to judge all our bakes, and rank her top three. Her main feedback for all of us was ‘a lack of buttercream between layers’, which seemed a fair criticism. Although our gorgeous cake didn’t score us the titles of ‘star bakers’, we were overwhelmingly proud, and had had a fantastic afternoon. The best part was that we could take our bake home with us.

That evening, clutching our precious box of sugary delight, we ambled back up to the city centre, for a meal in Franco Manca. It is no secret to those who know me that I view Franco Manca’s ‘Pizza 1’ as the world’s greatest foodstuff. As per usual it did not disappoint.

We finished off the night with snacks, cake, and tv in our room, until we both drifted off into a peaceful cake coma, tired after a long day, but utterly content.

A chronic early bird, I was up at 7 the next day, and took myself for a quick sweep of the breakfast buffet (it was included in the price, so I couldn’t not) before heading to the gym for a workout. The Hilton’s breakfast spread was perfectly adequate, featuring a selection of pastries, fruit, hot breakfast items, and even a waffle station. They also catered for my inconvenient dietary requirements, providing gluten free bread and soya milk on request.

Fully caffeinated and fuelled, I spent the next hour in the hotel’s airy and spacious gym. The equipment was basic but perfectly satisfactory, allowing me to get a decent sweat on before tackling the rest of my day.

I roused Katie at our agreed time of 10am, and we checked out of the room, leaving our rucksacks and cake (which even with our best efforts we had not managed to ingest completely) with reception. After this we headed towards Birmingham’s well stocked shopping district, before collecting the bags and boarding our train at 1.20.

Luckily, we had bagged a group of seats with a table, in order to give our prize possession (the cake) enough space to breathe. The train journey wasn’t quite as smooth this time, however, due to being stuck behind a particularly slow moving locomotive. Two and a half hours later, we arrived back at Wrexham General, grateful for the foresight to purchase our ‘M and S picnic’ so we didn’t starve on the journey.

Glowing from a beautiful weekend, where we didn’t think about exams or results once, we returned to our respective homes. Travelling light has its benefits – I was unpacked in 5 minutes.

So, what did this trip give us over an all-inclusive, alcohol fuelled, week in the Med with all our best girlies? The answer: many things;

1. Money – the trip came to around £150 each, plus spends, which although pricey for less than 24 hours, seemed a reasonable cost for the amount of fun we had. Even booking.com’s lowest price offering for 7 nights in Magaluf came to £900 half board – so we had inevitably made a saving here. What’s more, thanks to travelling on a Sunday, our room was more affordable, and (had we been awake) the shops would have been open early the next morning, giving us plenty of time to splash the cash we saved on accommodation.
2. Relaxation – fresh from 2 hard years of intense studying, neither Katie or I had much brainpower remaining. For this reason, having to board a 6am flight and tackle a language barrier on arrival may have been beyond our intellectual capacity at this point in time.
3. Our friendship – any group of girls who return from a boozy holiday with all their relationships in tact deserve medals. Night 1 may have been the best night of their lives, but by night 6 Stacey was probably considering stabbing Beth. Katie and I are officially still besties.
4. Cake.

In summary, when planning your next girly holiday, don’t disregard the midlands. The temperature may not be soaring into the 30s, but deep down, we all dream of competing in Bake Off, and this could be your chance. At £42.50 each, it’s not a cheap activity, but totally worth it, especially considering the cake shaped souvenir it provides. What’s more, there is nothing stopping you from extending your break beyond a one night stay – Birmingham has you spoilt for choice of activities, restaurants and bars, all of which are a stress free train ride away from home, and could easily fill a few celebratory days with your best mate.