JEAN Beauchamp, our secretary, opened the meeting in the absence of the president and welcomed members and guests.

Our speaker for the afternoon was Beverley from Beverley’s Cakes in Redlynch, who taught us how to make sugar paste roses. She told us that it can take up to two days to make the flowers by hand for decorating wedding cakes.

We were each supplied with some fondant icing in a variety of colours and taught how to mix the coloured icing with the white icing to produce an even overall colour of our choice. Beverley demonstrated how to take a small piece of icing and work it until nice and flat and thin and then model it into a beautiful rose. By the end of her demonstration we had a very fine collection of roses (and almost roses) to show for our efforts. A new member, Sue Martin, was declared to have made the best flowers and was awarded a session at one of Beverley’s workshops.

There were birthday flowers for Margaret, Helen and Astrid. Some homemade rock cakes were supplied by Astrid to enjoy with our tea.

The next meeting is at the village hall on Wednesday, August 13 at 6pm and will include a supper and quiz. A jumble sale will be held on September 27.

New members are always welcome. If you are interested in joining us for some entertaining meetings please call Jean on 01722 712251 or Astrid on 01722 711693.