People do many different things to raise money for charity. These runners are doing the New York Marathon. Every year, the race raises about $40 million.
And these people are doing a sponsored skydive. There are also ways to raise money without taking exercise or jumping out of an aeroplane. These people are bringing cakes to a charity bake sale. The popularity of bake sales in the UK has increased dramatically over the last decade.
Thanks in part, at least, to the popularity of the Great British Bake Off. This programme, which began in 2010, has encouraged people of all abilities to bake, especially when it's for charity. Today's sale at Oxford University Press will raise money for two charities Macmillan Cancer Support and Adelante Africa a charity that supports education and other projects in a rural area of Uganda But this bake sale is different It's also a competition and will be judged by Daisy Watt and Emma Collin, who are chefs and professional bakers.
And from the moment the posters appeared, people have tried to persuade their colleagues to join in. Oh, I don't know, I'm not a very good baker. Go on, it's for charity.
Maybe, maybe. Emma is going to make Viennese whirls, biscuits with buttercream and jam. I bake quite often, probably...
once or twice a month. It's one of my main hobbies that I enjoy. Kind of a stress reliever for me, just being in the kitchen by myself with some music on, just enjoying baking. And it's just an added bonus to do it for charity as well, combining one of my hobbies with raising some money for some really great causes. It's not the first time I've taken part in a bake sale.
I've done several different kinds of bake sales for work and other things. James is going to make a sponge cake with blueberries. I bake not that often, maybe about, I don't know, once a month or something I might bake.
When I do, it's usually baking with my kids, I suppose. So, you know, we make something really easy like cookies or something like that. The cake that I baked today, I have baked that one in the past before, and so I'm quite confident that it's going to be okay at least, but I couldn't say that it's actually a speciality. I don't bake often enough to have a speciality, to be honest.
I mean, I'm baking now because it's for a charity, right, so I wouldn't say that I have a speciality. The finalists in this competition bake sale are a baklava cake, a Neapolitan cake, Emma's Viennese whirls, a loaf cake and a chocolate cake. Although this isn't the great British bake-off, Daisy is looking for certain criteria in the cakes. There are a few things I was looking for. Refinement.
It sounds harsh, but there were good cakes out there, so it was really important to choose the cakes that looked like someone had put real effort into the decoration. And you can see the ones that put the effort in. Cuts beautifully.
Ooh, and it's... And it's now time to judge the five finalists. That's fantastic. Very clever. And you've even done the different coloured icing in between.
A labour of love. Really good sponge, the chocolate sponge is delicious. It's not over chocolatey, it's just... And then to choose the winner. So, I've conferred enough because...
It is really close, but there is one winner who has obviously put so much effort, not just in the decoration, but also her sponge is technically brilliant. And now the only thing left to do is to eat the cake and give money to the two charities. Obviously really happy that my cake was chosen and it's really nice to bake for such a great cause as well. They were really complimentary about my bake which was great but a biscuit I don't think is going to stand up to those beautifully iced cakes that we had so the stand up was really high.
I mean I'm not the best baker in the world, I know that, but as I say it came out really well and it raised loads of money for the charities so now I'm really pleased I did it. The cake sale raised over £270 for Macmillan Cancer Support and Adelante Africa.