And another party!

Another party in Salisbury, lasting the whole day, did fantastically well.  This is the write up and photo, thank you Di and Nicki, Harrison's Great Auntie and Granny, Amah, spreading awareness and raising a brilliant amount too.  We all appreciate the enthusiasm and effort needed to make these parties a success!

"My sister Di, put on a cake time party last Saturday in her home near Salisbury. She had a coffee and cake in the morning and tea and cake in the afternoon. I took all my crafty bits down as well. We had a steady stream of people come through all day and while the total wasn't as big as some of the cake time parties, I think we did quite well. Di took over £150.00 and I took £147.00, so nearly £300.00. She had worked very hard to make it a good day and even had her laptop set up for people to see Alex and Donna's video at home telling them about Harrison which I thought was brilliant, so the people knew exactly what it was all about.  I did take a photo, but unfortunately it was only my stall, but I have still attached it for you. I didn't think to take photos of the cake time parties. It was a most enjoyable day."

From an autumnal Salisbury we are jetting off to the balmy warmth of Dubai where Harrison's Auntie Kate hosted an outdoor cake time party with the Dubai Netball League at the Emirates Sevens Stadium on the 7th November . (Please blow some of the warm air this way)

Auntie Kate is amazing, she has set herself the challenge of swimming around "The World" islands in Dubai to raise £20,000 for Harrison's Fund.  That is a swim of 25km, an ultra marathon which will take at least 10 hours to complete in jelly fish infested waters!  She is now ready, fully trained and fit to take on the challenge which will start at dawn on the 21st November, a week today!  Please read all about her challenge here . You can also see a map of her route here  If you use Twitter please follow her, @swimaroundworld, and give her lots of support before her epic and very scary challenge.  Don't forget, you can sponsor her here

More parties and photos tomorrow, don't forget it's not too late to have a party, nobody wants to be a party pooper!!

Party, Party, Party....

There have been some brilliant parties happening around the globe, so this week we're going to give you a little flavour of them. As you'll probably soon be thinking why didn't I hold one, we'll just remind you it's not too late and all the information is here and a fundraisers' pack can be on it's way to you in a flash! 
 
Pearlfisher, an award winning design company that created the branding for Harrison's Fund, held the first fundraiser when the charity launched at the beginning of the year in their own inimitable style. Having produced a brilliant cake time party fundraiser's pack that many of you have received, they, of course, decided to hold their own style of party!  Have a look at the pics below...
Big thank you to Pearlfisher, doing it in style, as always.
 

 

 
 
 

 

Another great party held last week was in Essendon, Hertfordshire.  Christabel, has known Harrison's Dad, Alex, since he was 4 and we're sure can tell a few interesting tales.  Of course, she was very keen to support Harrison's Fund and loved the idea of holding a Cake Time Party and inviting both  her friends and the local community.  She raised an absolutely amazing £1030 and really enjoyed the morning, these are her words below although the part that really made us giggle has been put in italics.

 

Essendon Harrison's Cake Time Party

I am so excited to let you know that we raised £1030, including donations from people who could not attend, for my Cake Time Party, held at my home in Essendon, Hertfordshire.

It was so lovely to open my home to friends and neighbours who all entered into the spirit of things fantastically making such a fun morning. People arrived armed with all sorts of cakes and biscuits, items for the bring and buy and presents for the raffle. I had so many generous donations for the raffle including a voucher from our local beauty salon and even a two tickets for a Buddy Holly tribute evening at our local nursery. Those who arrived early were given jobs and I had two brilliant helpers on the coffee side of things and the washing up afterwards! How could you ever manage without such willing volunteers.

Lots of chatter and laughter filled my home and we even had two very brave men arrive late, during the raffle draw, who I managed to pull inside, fleece them of their money, give them some cake and they quickly gave their best wishes and left much to the dismay of my naughty ladies who thought I had provided entertainment!!

I am so grateful to all who came to support Harrison's Fund, for their generosity and spirit, it was a lovely, happy morning.

 

Thank you, Christabel, and your lovely helpers and visitors, sounds like a fabulous fun morning.

 

There will be more about the parties in the next few days so look out for new posts.

 

Make Time for Cake Time or Cake Time to Make Time....

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...

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...

Holding a Harrison's Cake Time Party at work

I thought that you might be interested to see this great idea for running a Cake Time Party in the workplace. One of our lovely fundraisers, Anna, came up with this idea to hold in her team, SITSS, which is part of Children's Services, Herts CC. 

1. Set a convenient date for your Harrison's Cake Time Party.
2. Send out an invitation email to everyone asking for them to take part in a Cake Time Challenge by baking and bringing to work a cake on the Cake Time Party day. Ask for confirmation back of those willing to bake a cake so you know how many cakes you have on the party day, they can of course make more than one! Make a small charge, perhaps £1, for entering the challenge.
3. Include in the email that if they cannot/don't want to make a cake, not to worry as all the cakes entered will be sold on the day and so they can make their donation by buying a slice or more of the cakes.
4. Do tell everyone why you are raising money for Harrison's Fund, take a look at www.harrisonsfund.org for more information about the charity.
5. Send me an email to let me know you are holding a party and I'll send you the fundraisers pack to download.
6. Put up posters to remind everyone about your Cake Time Party.
7. Maybe persuade the bosses to donate a couple of small prizes for the winner and runner up of the challenge.
8. On the day set up a table for all the bakes, with plates, napkins etc, and enjoy!

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!