mums show live – an exciting announcement

… a very exciting thing has happened… The Viking and I as the dynamic duo of The Persuaders have created a new and really rather cool consumer exhibition for mums called Mums Show Live…

… it’s the first UK show for mums with kids aged 4 to 12 years old and promises to bring everything that is wonderful and sometimes a little scary about being a mum into one exciting and crazy arena for a few days… it’s only been a couple of months since the idea was conceived but so far we’ve had some great response from brands who want to take stands, a lot of them are from some really cool internet-only based companies which will make coming to the show even more interesting…

… now you may think it a little odd that two men have set up a show for mums but if I explain that in fact this is a partnership with my brother Jason who, until recently was Exec Vice President of one of the worlds leading exhibition companies and it was a few months ago when, after 17 years, he decided to leave his job in search of an easier life with his wife and kids, that he asked me if I had any ideas for a consumer exhibition… now obviously my world is all about food but I know that there are already many brilliant food shows out there and there’s no point competing in a crowded market… what I am aware of however are the plethora of brilliant mum (and of course dad) blogs out there and believe it or not, no consumer shows for them at all… and so I suggested we do a show for mums… but not a baby show, something for what happens when you send the little ones off to school and everything that covers those wonderful years…

… and a little more than a month later and the Mums Show Live was born… we now have a date in early May 2013 and the incredible Alexandra Palace in London as our first venue… and a wonderful website, the logo for which has been designed by the lovely Nick who happens to be Sarah from Maison Cupcake’s better half…

… and why am I telling all this to you dear reader… well, other than the fact that i’m very proud of this exciting new venture we also need content for the show, particularly in the Conversation Theatres where we plan to create a round-table ‘Loose Women’ style format where a selection of diverse topics will be discussed… we’re looking for bloggers of all sorts to take part, suggest topics or just come along and join in the conversation… we already have some of my favourite mum bloggers signed on but if you would like to take part or know anyone who you think would be great to have on-board then please feel free to either leave me a comment or email me at dom@mumshowlive.com or tweet us @mumshowlive…

… of course you can all come along and say hi… and get to meet The Viking too… i’ll be up-dating my blog regularly with what’s going on at the show, so check back here for more fab Mum Show Live stuff!

… and now, because i’d hate to leave you without a recipe, here’s a very special recipe from my mum
Rhubarb and Raspberry Streusel Flan, with pictures of my mum making it… (her hands anyway!)

Recipe
for the pastry:
8oz Flour
4oz Butter 
1 dessert spoon of sugar
1 beaten egg

for the flan:
rhubarb cut into small chunks
a punnet of raspberries
some jam (we used raspberry but any jam will do)

for the streusel topping:
4oz flour
2oz butter
2oz demarera sugar
lots of cinnamon

– crumble the butter into the flour, add the sugar and mix, then the egg and a drop of water and bring together into a dough – refrigerate for 30mins


– pull off 2/3rds of the pastry and roll it out to as thin as humanly possible (you may need to ask your mum to help…) and line a flan dish


– spread the un-cooked pastry base with jam