Another successful party!

The lovely Sherry Secker has written this blog about her very successful Cake Time Party in Claygate.  I'm sure it will inspire many to consider hosting a party.  Thank you Sherry for your enthusiasm, energy and hard work!

Thanks so much for asking me to post on your Cake Time blog about our Cake Time event, although truth be told, it nearly didn't happen! I'd been emailing my editor friend at Essential Esher about putting the article in her magazine which has a reach throughout Claygate and Esher, and hadn't heard back from her and was beginning to think "actually, maybe we won't do it", when I heard the post arrive and it was the Essential Esher with a fantastic spread about the Cake Time event. That was it - I was confirmed!

My husband, William's godfather, encouraged me to get on with it and with a few brilliant sparks from him, I was off!! Vistaprint kindly offered to print 1,000 invites for me at a very good rate, how could I refuse - we were going BIG!

The aim of the day was going to be more of a family fun day where we could appreciate time together as families, but also help make time for Harrison. As the word spread, the generosity of people was overwhelming. People were offering cakes and help, left, right and centre and the day would not have been even half as successful without them. I really felt like the community came together so beautifully and were really touched by Harrison's story and of course the bravery of Alex and Donna (Harrison's mum and dad).


I hoped to raise £500, but through the generosity of everyone who came along, raised £700! I was so nervous on the day, not knowing how many to expect, so as people started rolling in, I was so pleased and relieved!! I loved organising it and will definitely organise one again next year! My biggest laugh, having my husband and 2 friends on face painting duties! My biggest fear, the outcome of three 4 year olds bidding on a box of cup cakes which eventually sold for £15! There were two very unhappy children!

A brilliant day, and we are looking forward to organising the next one (not over half term though please!!). For now, however, we're onto the next big fundraiser for Harrison - recycling!! Yes - your old toothpaste tubes, tooth brushes and baby food pouches are worth money to Harrison's Fund - and it won't even cost you a penny! See our Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/RecyclingForHarrisonsFund) for more details or email me at recycleforharrison@gmail.com. And while we're at it, collecting empty baby wet wipe packets for Ellie's Fund too (http://www.facebook.com/elliesfundbabywipecollection) - because we're friendly like that and it helps save the planet ;-) !

See you next year!

Sherry

x

We're loving the recycling project, so come on get involved, help save the planet and Duchenne boys  maketime.........

Party Party & more Parties

The Cobham Cake & Craft Party

Thanks to Andy Robinson's tireless efforts, this turned out to be a brilliant event, with everyone having loads of fun as these photos show.







  An amazing £3400 was raised, in part due to matched funds from Barclays Bank.  Thank you Andy, a real Harrison's Hero!

Mug painting

Face Painting

Tattoos

Doughnut dipping

Every sort of cake imaginable for sale

Plus handmade gifts for every occasion

The 1st Harrison's Cake Time Party....

The first Harrison's Cake Time Party has taken place!  WooHoo!

SITSS (School IT Systems Support), a team within the Hertfordshire County Council Childrens Services, held their party today before the half term break started.

Anna Hearn, who organised the event sent the following to give us the flavour of their party:

"£240.00 raised isn’t that great!  I was worried before today that I wouldn’t get enough cake brought in. Then when all the cakes arrived in this morning, I was worried that we would be left with loads at the end of the day – How wrong can one person be! By 9.30 we had people queuing up to get cake! Even one team donating £20.00 to take a tray of 20 cakes back for their team meeting later. We asked for a £1.00 minimum donation per slice and were not short of takers, by 11.30 the stock was seriously depleted and I had £150 in the pot. We now have £240 in the pot with just a few lonely looking slices of cake left. I never thought I would hear anyone on the SITSS team say that they could not possibly eat another slice of cake – well, saying that I have just managed to, but it was only my second piece today. It’s been great fun and I think we may very well have to do it again!"

Sounds like they had great fun, the cakes look scrummy, lots of people got together and a lot of money was raised, in our books that is a very good days work and brilliant team work.
Thank you so much to everyone, Anna for organising, everyone who baked and donated cakes and everyone who came along and bought cakes.

A great effort and an inspiration for anyone who is still thinking about running a work place Cake Time Party, it does work and it can be done without too much work for one person.

Harrison's Cake Time Party fundraisers packs are just an email away, info@harrisonsfund.com and we are alway here to give you any help you might need. Have a read of how to hold a party and the recipe pages on this blog for all the inspiration you might need.

Go on it's fun and every penny is helping to find a cure or a least a treatment for boys like Harrison.  They deserve a future with all the possibilities, adventures, opportunities, and dignity as their friends.

Make Time for Cake Time...

Homage to GBBO....

Have you been watching the Great British BakeOff Masterclass and last year's competition revisited?  Here at Harrison's Fund we are all addicted, partly because we all hope the brilliance of their baking and the inventiveness of their decoration will rub off on us as the Cake Time Party and the Cake & Craft Sale draws near.

Mary Berry always gives the best simple tips, for example, the times when you completely forget to take the butter out of the fridge to come up to room temperature before beating. Now we know to fill a bowl with baby bath temperature water and pop in the butter cut into cubes for about 10 mins, and it works, we've tested it!

I wonder if anyone's been trying out some of the bakes, rum babas, treacle tarts, plaited loaf, hand raised pie or a fondant fancy?  Love to see some pics.

We enjoyed seeing what the 2011 contestants are up to now, probably most bakers that watched the GBBO last year have bought the Jo Wheatley's Passion for Baking Book but it was great to see so many of the others had found outlets to use their skills, from teaching in college, advising on historic recipes that could be brought up to date and used in a delightful tea shop, to teaching baking classes and becoming a radio presenter.  The common factor between all the bakers was how down to earth they were, how much they loved spending time baking even if it could be stressful, their cameraderie as a group and their ability to shed tears over their bakes including the macaroons!

So there is still time to have a Cake Time Party, small or large, wiz an email to info@harrisonsfund.com and we'll send you a Cake Time Party fundraisers pack to download by return.  And don't forget to take lots of pics so that we can add them to this blog.

make time...

Thame & Claygate... This is your chance to get involved

So who's missing the Great British Bake Off already? Have you been inspired to do some baking? Why not join 'Harrison's Cake Time Party' from the 1st-8th November?

We have a great fundraiser's pack full of useful resources and fun ideas available. From posters and invites to cake stencils and recipes we've got it covered. Whatever you need to hold a Cake Time Party at home or work or for a Cake Sale in a hall we've got everything you need apart from the cake!

If you would like a pack please send us an email via www.harrisonsfund.org, tweet us on Twitter, @harrisonsfund or @jennijjs, and we'll email one out to you.

If you don't have time to host your own Cake Time Party, and haven't been able to persuade a friend to do so for you then we'd like to tell you about two great Cake Time Parties because I know that if you live locally you are just going to want to get involved, if you'd like to bake a cake that would be fabulous, otherwise you can go along and enjoy buying and eating cake, and don't forget that there will be lots of activities for children too.

So here's the details:

10 -12 am 2nd November             John Hampden Primary School, Thame, Oxon
Organiser: Liz Smailes

10.30 - 1pm 3rd November          Holy Trinity Church Hall, Claygate, Surrey
Organiser: Sherry Secker

Hot chocolate on a stick - divine decadence..

If you were thinking of having a cake sale party and wanted something else as well as cakes to sell then look no further.  The lovely Holly Bell @HollyBellMummy, one of the darlings and runner up of the Series 2 Great British Bake Off donated this lovely recipe to Harrison's Fund for their charity Cake Time Recipe Book. You can purchase your copy here. We are offering this recipe to you on our Recipe page as a fantastic, but simple way to add a little extra to your Cake Time Party offering.  I think the only drawback with these is the amount of will power you need to not pop them straight into hot milk!

Katie's cupcakes sales a hit at school...

Earlier in the summer we ran a big awareness campaign supported by the launch of a video featuring Harrison and his family discussing the impact of Harrison's Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy diagnosis.  Since that time we have had so many contacts, donations, and offers to take on a challenge to fundraise for Harrison's Fund that it has really touched everyone close to Harrison and his family.

Yesterday we heard about Katie who has been making cupcakes - and we mean lots of cupcakes! She is selling them at her school to raise money for Harrison's Fund.  Katie is a gorgeous 15 year old from London who attends the Sacred Heart School in Hammersmith.  Katie watched the Harrison's Fund awareness video with her dad Michael and decided she wanted to do something to help. 



Katie loves baking cakes, her speciality is a lovely chocolate one that her Dad is rather partial to, and she is now quite an experienced baker, and decided that this was the way to raise money.  She's teamed up with her friend Louise who also loves to bake and they've raised over £40 on their first day with more days to come.

Here's the 70 cupcakes on their way into school today, don't they look delicious!

From everyone at Harrison's Fund and especially Harrison who always send a big smile to a pretty lady, a big thank you to Katie and her Dad for making time to watch the video together.

If you would like to help Harrison's Fund and join the Cake Time Party, we now have a great support pack complete with invitations, cut out bunting, recipes and lots more that we can email to you. Just send an email to Cake Time and we'll do the rest, and as Mel and Sue say, 1,2,3 let's bake!

Make Time for Cake Time...

GBBO's John Whaite supports Cake Time Party

Another Great British Bake Off contestant John Whaite has agreed to support Harrison's Cake Time Party. John is now in the last 4 of the contest and was Star Baker in the second episode when their technical challenge was Paul Hollywood's daunting eight strand loaf.

You can follow him on Twitter @JohnWhaiteBakes and do take a look at John Whaite's blog 

So his recipe is for a gorgeous Coffee & Walnut Cake which has a lovely rich flavour great for a morning Cake Time Party, but then maybe it would be just as delicious at Tea Time, and then again, I think it would also be perfect made as a square cake and cut into neat little squares to eat with a glass of something bubbly.  So there you are perfect anytime of day.

Cake Time Party in the News!

The Surrey Advertiser, a great supporter of Harrison's Fund, have featured a picture of Harrison with his brother William about to devour chocolate cake, along with a great article on the upcoming Cake Time Party.

Today was the time to support the Macmillan Coffee Morning, a fantastic event raising much needed funds to help people affected by cancer.  We wish everyone involved every success.  

We hope that having been inspired by the fun of meeting up with friends, family, colleagues to share a drink, cake and a natter that they'll be ready in 5 weeks time to get together again and really get the cakes out to celebrate the first Harrison's Cake Time Party!

And if you were unable to be involved today, then there is even more reason to get involved with the Harrison's Cake Time Party as cake is very definitely the hero of the show!

Surrey Advertiser supports Harrison's Cake Time Party

Cobham Cake & Craft Fair supporting Harrison's Cake Time Party

The Cobham Cake & Crafts Fair is being held from 10:30-12:30 on Saturday 3rd November at Cobham Village Hall as part of the Harrison's 'Cake Time Party'.

Do please put the date in your diary, and join us for a great morning with masses of activities to keep the little ones busy and plenty of gorgeous stands to tempt you to make an early start on your xmas present shopping and take home some delicious goodies for tea.

*Stalls selling beautiful crafted items for babies, children & the home, hand-crafted jewellery, books, kitchen and pamper products, including:

Stella & Dot Jewellery

Jacks Mummy Made It

Signature-Prints handmade silver fingerprint jewellery

Baba Nappy Cups

Hand massages and products from Neals Yard Organics

Usborne Books

My Secret Kitchen

Jamie at Home

Phoenix Cards

Clarion Photography

Jack's Mummy Made It

*Christmas crafts & decorations

*Tables stacked high with delicious homemade cakes, cookies, cupcakes, jams, honey & sweets! With contributions from the baking enthusiasts of the Cobham Clandestine Cake Club.

*Children's crafts, activities & traditional games, including:

Piggy bank & mug decorating

Face painting

Glitter tattoos

Mini-manicures

Chocolate tombola

Popcorn making

Name bead necklaces

Ice-your-own cupcake

Guess the weight of the cake

Lucky cupcake

How many sweets in the jar?

Christmas decorations painting

*Raffle with some fabulous prizes donated by The Art of Living, O2, Ruth's Emporium, The Larder at the Medicine Garden and many more.

*Children's 'Firework' themed art competition with prizes for the winners in the categories of Under-5s, 5-8 year olds and 9 years old +

The Cobham Cake & Crafts Fair is shaping up to be a really fun community event for children & adults alike! And a great opportunity to get some early Christmas shopping in while raising funds & awareness for a great cause!

 

Tea Party Cake Ideas - my favourites!

Tea Party Cake Ideas - my favourites!

I thought it might be an idea to suggest some cake ideas suitable for the different times that you could have a Cake Time Party.  So I'm starting off with a traditional Tea Party.

An experienced cook or if you're in a rush and prefer to pop out to buy some cakes, my suggestions would beany of these:

• Cupcakes, dainty and pretty with lots of colour
• Macaroons, they can also be in different flavours and colours but my ultimate favourite is Chocolate with a ganache filling.
• Coffee Eclairs, actually not as difficult to make as you would think.
• Shortbread, lots of different flavour combinations work well
• Millionaires Shortbread, very decadent and delicious
• Battenburg, not to be taken on to bake by the faint hearted!

If you'd like to bake some simpler but equally delicious cakes then I'd suggest:

• Chocolate Cake, Harrison's Favourite
• Coffee and Walnut Cake
• Apple Cake
• Chocolate Brownies
• Cookies that have a nice squidgy centre
• Victoria Sandwich with Cream and Fruit

What do you think?  Let me know if you have other suggestions.  A lot of these recipes are in the Cake Time Book but I will also be adding some to the recipe page here so do keep having a little look for updates here.

Happy Baking and Cake Eating!  Make Time.....

Italian Apple Cake

Parties, Parties Everywhere

Parties, Parties Everywhere

We've only just started to encourage you to hold a Harrison's Cake Time Party and our "cake covers the country" target is coming alive.

There are going to be Cake Time Parties across the country, including Burnley, Poole, Berkhamsted, Cobham, Putney, Longfield, Otford, Poole, Mountsorrel and even a rooftop cake party in Hong Kong!

Cake is crossing the country and all to raise money to help find a cure for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

If you haven't taken the plunge yet, get your best meringues out and join us, you'll find all the information you need on the Party Invitation and Holding A Party pages on this blog. 

Go on you know you like eating cakes and as it's for a good cause you won't even put on an ounce!

So who's still making a strudel for their Cake Time Party

Having watched last night's episode of Great British Bake Off, strudel has been very firmly crossed off my list of things to bake!  All the contestants are really good bakers, far better than me, and if they're struggling then I'm going to stick to Beeny's Brownies and the Chewychocchip Cookies which are chocolaty, chewy and just plain yummy.

You can find the recipe for Beeny's Brownies on the Recipe page of this blog, but we haven't posted the Cookies one yet.

If you want to see what they look like, have a look at Harrison's Bake-Off blog where some really keen bakers are baking a new recipe each week out of the Harrison's Cake Time Cook Book and then posting pictures of their creations for everyone to see. If you want to join in and get lots of baking practice in before your Cake Time Party, you will need to buy the cook book - just click on Buy Cake Time Cook Book to get your copy and then just join in - they're really nice bakers and not a bit scary!
happy Baking!

Cake Time Party Takes Off

Natasha Stringer was a finalist in this year's Great British Bake Off and she's given us a wonderful Lemon, Passion fruit and Elderflower cake recipe for you to try as part of your Harrison's Cake Time Party menu - thank you Tasha it looks fab & tastes even better!
It's a 3 layered vanilla sponge, with lemon curd between one layer and passion fruit jam and butter cream between the next layer. The cake's decorated with a simple cream cheese and mascarpone frosting, flavoured with elderflower cordial, a subtle but fresh flavour.
Go on, you know you want to!
Natasha also writes a lovely food blog  that's full of fabulous cake recipes, just click on Tasha's Temptations to have a look and find more of her fantastic cake recipes.

We're having a Cake Time Party!

Do you like eating cakes?

Silly question, of course you do, then join Harrison's Cake Time Party in the first week of November, eat lots of cake and raise some money for Harrison's Fund at the same time.

Click on the Party Invitation tab at the top of the page to find out more. 

We need your help to cover the country in cake, because the more cake we all eat at Harrison's Cake Time Party, the more money we can raise to find a cure for Duchenne.

Please help us to make time to find that cure.

Thank you!