Through the entrance of beautiful, North Yorkshire stately home, Castle Howard, the room is bright and filled with chatting groups of people, sipping Prosecco whilst admiring the beautiful, extensive grounds. From bakers to bloggers, we are the lucky few who get to exclusively try the products of a brand new partnership between Castle Howard and Yorkshire-born Great British Bake Off Star, Freya Cox ahead of the launch. After sampling two delicious cakes from the seasonal range, we manage to quickly grab the bubbly Freya for a chat about her exciting new venture.
E: I’m here with the very talented Freya Cox and we’re here at Castle Howard to celebrate the launch of a very exciting partnership. Freya, can you tell us how this opportunity came about?
F: Hi, yeah definitely. I mean I’ve been to Castle Howard way before Bake Off, I love it, its such a beautiful place, I’m really Yorkshire, so it was perfect. And then, we’d spoke about an Afternoon Tea and then we decided we’d do three seasonal bakes throughout the year, stretch it out a little bit. So we started off in January with the Black Forest Gateaux which was amazing and I heard it sold really well which was amazing and now, for summer we’ve got a Vanilla and Raspberry Kiss, which is really cute, its full of sprinkles and its pink, I’m in for a bit of colour…
E: I’ve tried it today, it’s delicious!
F: It’s the best and it’s huge, so if anyone’s in for a bargain definitely get down here.
E: *Giggles*
Two for the price of one technically then, ey?
F: Yeah, exactly!
E: Do you want to talk us through the other cake that’s here on display today? I hear it’s a bit of an exclusive preview?
F: So, for the autumn cake, we’re doing a Chocolate Muffin, that’s topped with White Chocolate Marshmallows that have been toasted as well, which I mean who’s not in for chocolate and marshmallows?
E: That’s very true! You’re a Yorkshire lass, aren’t you? What’s your favourite thing about this county?
F: I do love everyone’s accent. I don’t think I appreciated how slow we all talk until I moved to Liverpool! I think everyone’s really lovely and everybody’s proud to be Yorkshire, aren’t they? And I love that all the food is huge that’s a great bonus.
E: It’s a great community and you can’t beat a big slab of pie, can you?
F: No!
E: Speaking of food, you’ve obviously released a vegan baking book as well. Can you tell us about it a little bit?
F: Yeah, so it’s my first book Simply Vegan Baking which I’m so proud of, it’s filled with 70 recipes. Basically, any recipe you could ever need, but vegan, but you’d never know they were vegan and that’s the point. It’s got cakes and biscuits, just so many recipes I’m really proud of. Things that I did quite similar to Bake Off, I’ve had the best response and people absolutely love it, so definitely check it out if you want to see some really colourful recipes.
Want to try one of Freya’s delicious cakes yourself? For more information, tickets and opening times, please visit www.castlehoward.co.uk.
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