Stroud Shambles WI

PRESIDENT Joan thanked all ladies for attending the AGM and welcomed one new lady visitor.

Minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday, October 14, were read out and signed as being correct.

Various notices were put on display.

Margaret and Val were presented with Birthday posies and Happy Birthday was then sung.

The lunch club is ongoing, the next lunch meeting is on Wednesday, November 18, at Stroud.

Helen reported that there were no names listed for the theatre group.

Maureen urged members to visit the Christmas trees at St Laurence Church Festival commencing on November 29, 2015.

Unfortunately, Wynne Evans has also cancelled appearing at the WI Christmas concert owing to other commitments.

The organisers have been very disappointed with the two cancellations as they rely on the concert for their main fund raising.

Laura Wright, a soprano has agreed to appear.

The business of the Annual General Meeting was then carried out with a new president and committee being elected.

Joan then introduced Alice Dangerfield who gave a wonderful display of how to ice a large cake.

Alice showed us how to roll out fondant icing to cover the large cake, quite a tricky undertaking, Alice made this look quite easy!

The cake was made damp with water being brushed on the cake first, then, the rolled out fondant icing was carefully placed on the cake, Surplus icing was then cut away.

An implement was then rolled over the icing to make it smooth, on the top and sides.

The next step was to roll out red icing to make poinsettia petals and then green leaves which were again lightly brushed with water.

These were than placed on the cake.

Small stars were then piped around the base of the cake in red butter icing, and finally a red ribbon was placed around the cake, it looked wonderful in fact too good to ever cut to eat!

Alice kindly donated the cake to us, we will all have a piece at our Christmas party, what a treat!

Joan gave Alice a big thank you for her demonstration.

Coffee, tea and a chat were then enjoyed by us all.

We meet the second Wednesday every month except August at the Congregational Church Hall Stroud, at 10.30am.

Please come and join us, we would love to meet you.