KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 5 – It was a sugar-high morning at the first-ever Club Cake last Saturday.

Home bakers from all walks of life met up at Food Foundry in Section 17, Petaling Jaya with a simple mission – eat and talk about cake.

The event, organised by Food Bites, brought together a total of eight bakers and their plus ones who were of course fellow cake-lovers.

“It is for people who love to bake to meet up, make friends and eat cake,” said Karen Tan from TartArt who was the co-host of the event. Tan, who works as a change manager for a multinational company, loves to bake in her spare time. She set up TartArt with other baking enthusiasts to sell unusual gourmet tarts at last year's Food Bites events.

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Last Saturday, each baker's creation was proudly displayed on a cake “runway” or a long table decorated with fresh flowers. “We don't say grace before we start but we take photos,” explains Tan as mobile phones were whipped out to immortalise the confections before they were sliced and sampled.

Citrus flavours like lemon and lime were a popular choice among the bakers with at least four cakes featuring the zesty flavours in various forms, including a light and healthy Lemon Olive Oil cake contributed by Tan herself.

Not every contribution was baked... Liyana Madihad’s delicious No-Bake Cheesecake with Strawberry topping being a prime example. The avid baker who works in an IT company just started her hobby about one year ago.

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Club Cake co-host Karen Tan and Soefira Jaafar are big cake lovers
Club Cake co-host Karen Tan and Soefira Jaafar are big cake lovers

She decided to join the event to meet fellow bakers after she read about it on Time Out Kuala Lumpur's website.

Zahir Mazlan also brought a bright cheery no-bake confection he called Super Happy Rice Cake. It was made from crunchy rice bubbles mixed with melted marshmallows and topped with colourful sprinkles for a “cake” in a pretty rainbow hue.

The digital writer for VLT Kuala Lumpur dabbles in cakes as an online business, The Bearkery Co.

Set up about six months ago, Zahir bakes up sugar-free confections like his sticky date pudding that are diabetic friendly. But not all his cakes are guilt-free as he also makes boozy ones like the moist Guinness & Bailey cupcakes he shared for the event.

Liyana Madihah’s delicious No Bake Cheesecake with Strawberry Topping (left). Hayati Ismail’s magnificent Chocolate Butterscotch Cheesecake was inspired by her children’s favourite flavours (right)
Liyana Madihah’s delicious No Bake Cheesecake with Strawberry Topping (left). Hayati Ismail’s magnificent Chocolate Butterscotch Cheesecake was inspired by her children’s favourite flavours (right)

Another home baker Chris Chan joined in the fun with two creations that had a light moist crumb – Lime and Poppyseed and a boozy Banana Malibu.

The banker who likes to cook during his free time started baking about six years ago.

Then there was Hayati Ismail who first took part in Food Bites' previous event -- Food Swap.

She returned for Club Cake with her special creation: Chocolate Butterscotch Cheesecake.

The tall cake was a combination of chocolate brownie layers sandwiched with butterscotch cream cheese filling and topped with peanut butter icing plus chopped Kit Kat. “I first baked this about two weeks ago when I heard about the event and it was by trial and error,” explained Hayati.

She decided to tweak the recipe for the event making sure the brownies were softer with a fudgier texture to make it easier to cut. The interior designer credited her children as the inspiration for the cake since they love all those flavours.

Snap a shot before you eat cake like bakers Chris Chan and Hayati Ismail
Snap a shot before you eat cake like bakers Chris Chan and Hayati Ismail

The bakers also brought along their friends and relatives to support the event. Tan’s plus one was Soefira Jaafar who enthusiastically sampled each cake presented and talked to each baker about their cakes.

“They are good in different ways, ” she explained when asked which was her favourite. The self-confessed fan of the reality television show The Great British Bake Off said she preferred to watch people bake rather than actually baking herself.

The event was a relaxed one as the bakers could chat freely with each other.

“This is less serious maybe from the sugar high effect but already before you eat the cake there were laughs,” said Hayati's sister, Aishah.

The event ended with everyone walking away with different cakes to bring home.

In Hayati’s case, she may have even found a partner for the next event -- Foodie Fest -- in Loke Poh Lin who came to support her daughter Lee Jia Yee's baking efforts.

Club Cake is one of the satellite events leading up to Foodie Fest. The 2-day festival will be held from November 30 to December 1 at The Square, Publika from 12pm to 9pm.

For more information including how to be a vendor, email [email protected] or follow them on facebook.com/foodbitesPJ

This story was first published in Crave in the print edition of The Malay Mail on October 4, 2013.

A previous version of this story had an error which has since been corrected.