CTFBC 2010

CAPE TOWN FOOD BLOGGERS CONFERENCE

Time waits for no blogger. There are only 3 1/2 weeks left before the most exciting blogging event to hit the shores of South Africa. I cannot believe that it is so close now...........and I still have soooo much to do!! Stress, nerves, knotted neck and shoulders and rescue remedy are my constant companions....this has to be the biggest challenge in my life since...well, since sliced bread :o)
Here again is a reminder to all food bloggers and those readers and lurkers on the blogs who might be interested in starting up their own blogs


Date: Sunday 21 March 2010
Time: 9.30 for 10am - 5pm
Venue: The Giggling Gourmet Cooks Playground - just opened at 32 Napier Street opposite the new Cape Quarter.

A buffet style lunch will be served by the Giggling Gourmet team

Keynote Speaker - Jeanne Horak-Druiff from the award winning blog Cooksister
Other speakers - the delightful and talented Nina Timm from My Easy Cooking Jane-Anne Hobbs, otherwise known as Juno, professional book editor, sub-editor and writer of 20 years experience and author of the fabulous blog Scrumptious SA and Sam Wilson Editor in Chief of Women24, Food24 and Parent24.

Cost - R430.00 (including a goodie bag but excluding travel or accommodation expenses)

The venue can accommodate 100 delegates so please book urgently if you don't want to miss out on the blogging event of the year :o)
Here is the day's agenda - to whet your appetite if you have not yet decided that this is for you:

09.30 - 10.00: Registration and Champagne/Orange Juice

10.00 - 10.15: Welcome & Introduction by Giggling Gourmet Jenny Morris

10.15 - 11.15: WRITING - 'Finding your Blog Voice' by Jeanne Horak-Druiff and 'Effective Recipe Writing & Editorial Techniques' by Jane-Anne Hobbs

11.15 - 11.45: 'Getting to know your camera' by Nina Timm

11.45 - 12.00: Short Coffee Break

12.00 - 12.45: 'How to be a better Blogger' by Jeanne Horak-Druiff

12.45 - 13.30: Lunch Break

13.30 - 14.15: 'Social Networking - Getting Connected' by Sam Wilson

14.15 - 15.00: 'Food Styling' by Nina Timm

15.00 - 15.15: Short Tea/Coffee Break

15.15 - 16.00: 'The Legalities & Ethics of Blogging' by Jeanne Horak-Druiff

16.00 - 16.30: 'Monetizing Your Blog - how to make money from blogging' by Nina Timm

16.30 - 17.00: Questions & Answers with all the speakers


And if that is not enough to attract you ..............

* Each delegate will receive a goodie bag stuffed with exciting foodie lovers goodies!!!

* We will be having some grand prizes to hand out to some lucky bloggers. I have a few secrets up my sleeve but this one I have already shared with you all.....

A course from the divine chocolatiers for two to attend any of their amazing chocolate workshops at
The Chocolate Studio

So do yourself a favour - email me your personal and contact details here as soon as possible. I need to know who is coming so I can book your seats before I go away from 8th to 15th March to a wedding in the Eastern Cape.

I require real name (for name badges) blog name, email address and cell numbers. In return I will email you the banking details for EFT payments to secure your seat.

If you have already given me the above I will contact you via email soon.

I am still looking for some major companies to come on board with financial sponsorship. This is so that there can be a future for the SA FOOD BLOGGERS CONFERENCE and the chance to take it to other cities. If any of you have any contacts that could help me in this I would so value an email from you giving me details. Thank you so much.
Lastly, if you know of any food or wine bloggers who would be interested to find out about this conference please either let me know or give me their blogs names and I will go and find them and invite them. I have been doing a lot of that but it is very time consuming work trawling the net for bloggers. Most times I just get sooooo waylaid by all the fabulous looking food that I see out there LOL!! There are a lot of beautiful blogs to get lost in.

Looking forward to hearing from you all. The speakers are all excited and working on their presentations and I personally cannot wait to get educated on blogging :o)

Better for you than Champagne & Botox :o)

Colleen xx

HEAVENLY APPLE PIE

This morning passed in a very pleasant way. I took some time off from conference convening and had a little tea for some "old" friends. A wonderful excuse to make my heavenly apple pie. Two of the couples present are ex-pats visiting from Los Angeles and Texas so it was a wonderful reunion. This is an old family recipe that I have sadly neglected in the last few years but yesterday when I was feeling very tired with no desire to bake it suddenly came to mind at the last minute as I was about to go and see what I could buy for tea!!!! (HORRORS!!!) I think everything inside of my baker's heart rebelled against that idea so late last night found me in the kitchen whipping up my heavenly apple pie. The aromas that accompanied me to bed after midnight were enticing to say the least. I served it simply on a plate with a dollop of whipped cream. It was so delicious I thought I would share it with you.  I am, after all, a food blogger and that's what food bloggers do :o)

HEAVENLY APPLE PIE

125ml Granulated Sugar

60g Butter - at room temperature

Vanilla Bean Seeds - just a knife tip

3 Jumbo sized Eggs

30ml Milk

250ml All purpose or Cake Flour

5ml Baking Powder

1ml Salt

1ml Ground Cinnamon

1 Can Pie Apples

For the sauce:

1 Can Evaporated Milk

60g Butter - at room temperature

250ml Granulated Sugar

Knife tip of vanilla bean seeds



Preheat the oven to 180deg Celcius

Grease a deep pie dish well with butter

Beat the sugar, butter & vanilla well until light

Beat the eggs until very pale and thick

Mix the eggs into the batter

Sift the dry ingredients together then fold into the batter

Add the milk and mix through

Turn the mixture out into the greased pie plate and level

Place the apples on top of the cake mixture

Bake for about 30 minutes until lightly browned on top and a skewer inserted comes out clean



Ten minutes before the cake comes out the oven make the sauce as follows:

Boil together the ingredients in a saucepan over low heat for 5 minutes - stirring all the time

and watching that it does not boil over or burn

Once the pie comes out the oven prick it all over with a fork or skewer then pour over the boiling sauce

a bit at a time until it is all absorbed by the cake

Serve at room temperature with whipped cream, ice cream or custard!

Enjoy,
Colleen xx

CTFBC 2010

Welcome to the official website of the Cape Town Food Bloggers Conference 2010. I am so thrilled and excited to be a part of this awesome venture and I can tell you that the planning/organizing is on track and going well. I am currently looking for sponsorship for the conference and if you have any contacts in the retail world please do let me know and I will follow up.

Like many in South Africa, we have a sincere need to meet up with more than one or two of our cyber friends. The aim of this conference has not been to generate funds for some or other cause or charity but to invest as much as possible into growing the awareness and potential in the thousands of food bloggers and Millions (potentially) of bloggers who are discussing relevant issues, topics, sports, arts not to mention the fact that many are linked to fund generating opportunities around the world.

We therefore ask that you paste  one of the logo's in your posts, in your button/badge areas, do a post about the whole event........whatever it is going to take to get the message across to mainstream product managers, supermarkets etc.........that as a group we foodie bloggers can spend up to double what the average family spends to ensure that our blogs are updated, relevant and world class. 

The following are logo's which can be right clicked saved and used with the link

Looking forward to seeing who can be the most creative with promoting this event
Colleen (aka browniegirl ) xx