July saw us stepping a little out of our comfort zone – we channelled our inner east end barrow boy and headed down to Spitalfields to set up a one off FCFK Hackney market stall.

We’d been invited by Imago Dei to tout our wares and raise awareness of what we do alongside a whole host of other ethically and socially minded organisations in the grandiose surroundings of Hawksmoore’s Christ Church.

Now we’re not about to pack in our day jobs and set up a permanent stall but it was a great experience; we raised some all important funding; and we got a whole load of people talking about and interested in what we do. Can’t say fairer than that!

And, even if we do say so ourselves, our cakes went down a storm. One person even came back for thirds! If that isn’t a ringing endorsement then we don’t know what is!

Watch this space as we may head to market again and we’d love it if you could drop by.

Back in June Free Cakes for Kids Hackney took a trip west to be part of the organisation’s annual network day in Bristol. It was kind of like a big family reunion (without your distant uncle making inappropriate jokes after one too many sherries).

Representatives from FCFK branches all around the UK joined to share ideas – and cake – to see how we can improve the organisation and how we might be able to help each other out.

We’re lucky in Hackney to have a great team of volunteer bakers, but some FCFK groups are less fortunate and might not have kept going without the support from the network. Realising that the FCFK family is spreading a little birthday magic to kids all over the country makes our work seem even more powerful and, quite frankly, impressive.

We had food hygiene quizzes, talks on how to make the most out of social media, and break-away sessions on what’s next for our groups. But it wasn’t all hard work, there was also a cake tasting competition and three of our lovely Hackney bakers had their cake nominated for a best cake of all time prize.

We’re already looking forward to next year’s reunion. But for now we’re excited about what we can achieve over the coming 12 months.

FCFK forever!

We couldn’t think of a better way to mark Free Cakes for Kids Hackney reaching our 100 cake milestone than for it to coincide with our first ever bake for triplets.

 
Odulcan, Kardelen and Omurcan Savaram-Gokmen turned six at the end of May and celebrated their big day with our 99th, 100th, and 101st cakes.  As ever our bakers stepped up to the mark.  Becca Ljundberg, Anna Brewster and Alison Horner took on a cake each producing creations sporting racing cars and a princess, presenting the cakes to the triplets in person at their school.
Such a big occasion deserved a bit of attention and even the Hackney Gazette came along to report on the event [link].

 
Fame and glory at the age of six… plus enough cake to share with their classmates and their family back at home.  A top birthday we’d say and their mum agreed, telling us what a difference we’d made to their day.

 
Free Cakes for Kids Hackney goes from strength to strength.  Here’s to another 100 cakes and maybe even some more triplets’ birthdays.

Right now, we could not be happier.  Our cake and cook book sale on Sunday can only be described as a rip roaring success.  We raised not one hundred, not two hundred, not even three hundred … in fact forget the hundreds, we raised ONE THOUSAND POUNDS!  We are gobsmacked!

 
It would not have been possible without the extreme generosity of Debora and Sean, who opened up their gorgeous house and garden to us, donated a table load of the latest cook books and made enough tea and coffee to wash down the mountains of stunningly delicious cake that was made for the day.  Beetroot cake; brownies; banana loaf; lemon and blueberry gateau; good old vicky sponge – you name it, we had it (until the hoards came and ate it, that is!).

 
If you came and donated we’d like to thank you (and if you baked us cake and gave us cook books to sell then you are also great).  We say it so many times: yes, we are kept going by volunteer bakers who donate their time, ingredients and cake making skills for free, but our organisation is not free to run.  This money will mean that FCFK Hackney can get bigger and better and set the world on fire… or maybe just make a few more birthdays special for a few more local kids, but that’s just as good.

 
And if you weren’t there, you missed a certain Richard Arnold of GMTV fame walk off with one of our brand new FCFK Hackney tote bags on his arm.  Trendsetters, us?!  Watch this space and soon you might be able to get your mits on a bag too.

 
Thanks all.  You made our day, week, and month! x