Bake-Off beckons for Martha Stewarts with a social conscience

Set your egg timers, because you have ten days to fit in as many banana fritter flops and chocolate cake de l’orange disasters as you can before the 2009 Bobby Goldsmith Foundation Bake-Off.

Moving on from the triumphs of last year’s 21st celebrations, Bake-Off organisers are keen to keep the event growing and evolving. This year they will move from the Midnight Shift to the Paddington Town Hall to make space for the ever-growing number of participants wanting to take part in one of the most popular events on the fundraising calendar.

We want to have a bit more space to display the cakes and want to encourage a larger crowd to come to the event, BGF CEO Bev Lange explained.

As the event has continued to grow we’ve really grown out of the Midnight Shift -” recognising of course, that they’ve been wonderful supporters of the event and of BGF for many, many years.

I think if we move to Paddington Town Hall we will encourage a different crowd, as well as the same crowd that goes to the Shift. I think we’ll have an opportunity to attract a crowd of people who don’t necessarily go to the strip for all of their gay and lesbian celebrations.

Bake-Off novices will further be encouraged this year, with the introduction of a new category, -˜best fete baking’ -” a good choice for anyone whose baking skills come from the recipes they find on the back of cereal boxes. The new category is also sure to be a hit with buyers keen to relive those grade school memories of 60 cent toffees and sneaking fairy bread into sixth period history class.

You can dive into your mum’s old recipes and your Margaret Fulton cookbook and pull out all those recipes for chocolate slices and chocolate crackles and pikelets -” and that doesn’t require great baking expertise. It just requires you to have a go, Lang said.

There’s lots of room in Bake-Off for people to have a go and make something you think your friends might want to buy.

Bake-Off committee member Shauna Jensen, a fierce competitor in the preserves section, hoped that the new category might encourage apprehensive cooks to get their aprons on.

We’re trying to upgrade the Bake-Off and make it more accessible, she told Sydney Star Observer.

I’ve been involved for about six years. I used to go just to watch it but then started putting jams in.

The first year I put one in, it got the Best in Category and took out some ridiculous amount of money for a jam -” and that was a really exciting thing to be involved with.

It’s such a special event in that way, because [people] can be physically involved with it. I mean people can be involved in Mardi Gras, etc. But with this they’re actually doing something and making something and being creative, and everyone loves to be creative.

That’s the thing about Bake-Off -” not everyone might be able to go and contribute $200 but they can contribute by making a cake or biscuits, and people love it. Lots of people do it with their friends and lots of people do it in memory of their friends.

Encouraging your friends to get involved is key to the success of Bake-Off which, delicious treats aside, serves a crucial role as a fundraiser for BGF.

Each of the fundraising events we put on attracts a different segment of our supporter group and Bake-Off is a really grassroots event, Lange said.

It’s an important event for us because it raises a good deal of money that we can put back into programs, and in the midst of the global financial crisis, all charities are pulling out the stops to attract people. Bake-Off is one of the longest running events we have and so it’s important we keep the tradition of people coming to Bake-Off to bid and buy and celebrate with us.

Key parts of that tradition, of course, are the annual prizes for both Best in Show and Worst in Show.
Perennial favourite Glen Lewis (Miss 3D) of Sweet Art in Paddington may seem unbeatable after taking out the top prize more often than any other contestant, but BGF assures competitors that the playing field is tough, and only won through continual hard work

The competition in the best professional field has brought in some phenomenal entries in recent years. The competition is still fierce and she [Miss 3D] would still feel she has to pull out all the stops to win her Best in Show, Lange said.

Lewis himself admits to still feeling nervous in the lead-up to Bake-Off as he feels the pressure to compete, not only with other cake masters, but with himself.

I do get nervous and quite emotional actually, he told Sydney Star Observer of his 13 years as a Bake-Off contestant.

In that time he’s created Arabian pigs, dykes riding lipstick canisters, Dali-inspired Simpsons characters and last year’s astounding impression of Heath Ledger as the Joker in cake form -” a piece he counts as one of his greatest achievements, and his most photographed work.

Of all the pieces he’s done though, there is one which still bring a tears to his eye -” the cake he created in memory of Peter Allen.

I actually wept when I was making that, so a lot of emotion goes into it, he said, quickly adding many entries have left him crying from laughter as well.

The Paris Hilton cake was outrageous. I was laughing the entire time I was making that one. For anyone who missed it, Lewis’ cake, inspired by Hilton’s trip to jail and demands for cupcakes, featured the heiress in a compromising position -” bent over and taking it like a prison bitch while her own pooch looked on.

Taking weeks of preparation time and up to 60 hours to produce each creation, it is a laborious process, but one which Lewis still loves -” unfortunately for anyone who wants to strip him of his titles.

Where else do you get an opportunity to enter a cake competition like this? I’m lucky I have this skill and I can use that skill to raise money for people who are really sick. It would be a waste for me to not do my best to try and get bids as high as possible.

info: Visit bgf.org.au. To see some of Miss 3D’s award-winning entries, see the scene pictures at starobserver.com.au