The weather forecast has finally got it right this time and we all woke up to rainy Sunday. By 11am North Sydney Council reluctantly decided to cancel the popular free jazz event at Milson Park. However, all the lovely cakes our volunteers had willingly prepared for our fundraising had to be sold regardless of the rain.
Our only option seemed to be setting up an alternative cake stall near Milsons Point station. The Sunday Kirribilli Markets were on, so we could not set up a stall there. Carole Baker suggested we approach the station master. I asked my buddy volunteer Wendy to come to the station with me as I knew she can talk with a charm. The only thing I asked Wendy was ‘not to swear’, and we were allowed to sell our cakes at the station entrance!
With the help from many wonderful volunteers, we managed to set up a cake stand by midday. As soon as we spread the table cloth, Joan Switzer, great baker and veteran cake stall coordinator, jumped out of her car with many cakes, slices, biscuits and jam she had prepared and got straight onto her job selling cakes. And she did it so well.
We sold a variety of cakes, biscuits, slices, pies, tarts and jam made by our excellent bakers: Joan, Carole, Jan Howlett, Kate Marshall, Laura Zucchetti and Trisha Haly. Some with names like ‘love cakes’, ‘naked carrot cake’ and ‘ginger cakes with chilli icing’ drew great attention! The North Sydney mayor Jilly Gibson came to cheer us up and bought some cakes too. By 3pm everything as well as nearly half of the bread bought for the BBQ were sold and we fundraised $340! It was a fantastic example of our volunteering spirit and we are so grateful of our community’s support also.
I wish I took more photos of the cakes as they were all beautifully made and presented, and so yummy! Stephanie suggested if the bakers would like to share their recipes on our website. So please feel free to add your recipes here or email me and I’ll upload them. If you happen to have a photo, that’s even better.
Now we are planning to have a Christmas gathering to celebrate another successful year of community gardening. MCG Christmas drinks and BBQ will be held on Friday, 29 November from 6pm at Milson Park (next to the garden). We’ll have simple BBQ sausages and vegetarian options with BYO drinks and nibbles. Hope you can join us then.
As there has been a lot happening in the garden lately, I’ll update with my next posting later in the week.
Many BIG thanks to everyone and see you soon!
Thanks Yumi, you are A STAR.
Loved the peanuts cookies.
Sorry for the late reply! Here’s the naked carrot cake recipe.
Makes 2 loaves…
– Preheat the oven to 180C and line 2 loaf tins with baking paper.
– Whisk together 4 eggs and 350g of sugar and then add 300ml of olive oil; whisk to combine.
– To this add 340g of flour (I use a 50/50 mix of spelt and white flour, but you can use just white or wholemeal), half a teaspoon of baking powder, half a teaspoon of bicarb soda, pinch of cinnamon and fold into the mixture.
– Grate 350g of carrots and add into the mix along with 250g of walnuts.
– Divide the mix between the 2 cake tins (You can also make muffins if you don’t have tins)
– Bake for 30-45 mins, or until a knife comes out without any cake mix on it. Let cool in the tins and then enjoy
To keep it naked – serve as is. Or with a wedge of brie cheese. Yum.
Laura
Thank you Laura for sharing your recipe! Sounds so yummy and I know it is as I had your cake and loved it!