New class for cakes made of cheese at County Show

The trend for wedding cakes made of cheese is being reflected in a new class at this year’s Devon County Show held on May 19-21 at Westpoint, Exeter.

Cheesemakers are being challenged to create and decorate a three or five tier cake.

Award-winning Devon cheesemaker Mary Quicke MBE, who is managing director of Quickes Traditional and Devon County Agricultural Association Chairman of Council, is very supportive of this new class.

“We want to add a new dimension to our dairy produce competitions and reflect changing tastes,” she said.

“A wedding cake has to be a spectacular centre-piece of the celebrations and the judges will be evaluating the decorations such as fruit and flowers.

“Also they will be looking at the balance of flavours and, of course, tasting each one.”

Mary’s starting point for a crowd-pleaser is to use one or more hard cheeses like mature and smoked Cheddar as a base. She tiers up with a semi hard cheese such as Yarg followed by a blue from Colston Bassett, then a soft cheese and tops off with ‘stinky’ Goddess.

The food and drink section, always one of its most popular attractions, is where visitors fill their larders with the county’s finest and freshest produce. Over the Show’s three days, the cookery theatre will present lots of demonstrations by local chefs.

Tickets are available online and from selected outlets www.devoncountyshow.co.uk