Back in October 2011 we baked our first cake to celebrate the birthday of a child in Hackney we didn’t know. It had been a little while in the making – not the cake, that was fresh; the process.

We’d officially founded a Hackney branch of the Free Cakes for Kids network earlier in the year – August to be precise – but getting the word out there about who we are and what we do had taken a while and the referrals had been slow to come in.

That first cake was a milestone. It marked the real start of us.

Fast forward two and a half years (and considerable amounts of sponge batter and buttercream) from that first cake to now and here we are with another rather spectacular milestone under our belt: 200 cakes. Yes! TWO HUNDRED cakes. Pretty blinkin’ epic, we’re sure you’ll agree.

Behold! Our 200th cake:

Last summer our 99th, 100th and 101st cakes happened to go to the first set of triplets we’d ever baked for and the Hackney Gazette came out to mark the occasion. Our 200th cake slipped out one rainy day in early May. It was no more or less special than the other 199 cakes that had gone before it, but, for us, there was a bit of a “bloody hell” moment when we stopped and thought that we’d baked 200 cakes for children in Hackney who would have otherwise gone without on their birthday.

Woot!

So, a quick pat on the back; a small round of applause; then it’s back to work for us. The referrals are coming in thicker and faster than ever and we can see our 300th cake on the horizon (if it’s a clear day and you really squint!).