Bake-Off’s sweet success
High fashion, Hollywood and home-cooked delights helped the Bobby Goldsmith Foundation Bake-Off reach a record fundraising haul on Sunday.
Now in its 19th year, the event at the Midnight Shift raised about $41,000 for the HIV/AIDS charity, topping last year’s record total of $38,000, although the number of entries was down this year.
Judges Claire de Lune, My Restaurant Rules star Patrick Collins and Ready Steady Cook personality Peter Everett assessed 64 entries, including cakes, tarts and preserves, before hostess Mitzi Macintosh opened the Bake-Off auction in front of a crowd of about 1,000.
A Chanel handbag fashioned from white chocolate mud cake led the style stakes and sold for $1,500. Hollywood got a look-in with a fruit cake depicting actress Shelley Winters sipping a martini at sea. It also raised $1,500.
As expected, best in show went to regular winner Glenn Lewis (Miss 3-D), for a spectacular showgirl-atop-a-lipstick creation that fetched $1,500.
The highest price tag belonged to another of Lewis’s confections, a cake in the shape of teeth entered by the Midnight Shift. It first sold for $3,100, was re-donated and sold again for $1,000.
Other favourites included an oversized rubber duckie cake from Sydney City Steam, netting $2,000, and a jagged chocolate cake by Sydney Star Observer‘s Tim Ball, which sold for $450.
One of the day’s biggest donors was Team Toggs, led by drag identity Sandy Toggs. It entered six items, raising $3,250 for BGF.
Sunday was the 22nd anniversary of Bobby Goldsmith’s death and this was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate his life by raising over $41,000 for men, women and children living with HIV/AIDS, BGF chief executive Bev Lange said.
