I’ve long argued that the rural economy around here runs largely on tray bakes and our local summer bike rides are no exception – since we’ve started providing home baking as part of the package, numbers have gone from strength to strength.
There’s just one problem: much as I love my cow pannier bag, it’s exactly the wrong shape for carrying cake tins, so everything I bake has had to be robust enough to handle being stuffed into it sideways. There’s a reason why cyclists are so fond of flapjacks, which are effectively indestructible. This week, though, I was experimenting with iced lemon cupcakes* which meant a more civilised conveyance was required. I’m pleased to report that the cakes made it down intact, and the leftovers were also safely carried back up the hill to home, where I suspect they will not last long.
*top tip: lemon curd combined with icing sugar makes a wonderfully quick and easy lemon icing**
** top tip no 2: don’t try and eat the surplus with a spoon when you make too much though. A little goes a loooong way
Town Mouse 
I have really struggled with transporting cakes and other delicate foods by bike. I do have a basket on one of my bikes but it’s not big enough for a large cake, lasagna, that sort of thing – also, the bike with the basket is extremely slow.
The Brompton basket is nice and wide, and the cake tin was resting on something soft to reduce the shaking. They still looked a bit squashed but not unduly so