Hands up whose mum has made them a cake from the Australian Women’s Weekly Birthday Cake Cook Book at some point in their life? Maybe it was the tennis racquet, the popcorn duck or perhaps the guitar was more your scene.
For so many Australian kids a birthday cake from the Women’s Weekly cookbook was simply part of childhood memories.
I remember getting out my mum’s copy months before my birthday to make the all important cake decision. The pages were well thumbed with years of eager anticipation. Poor mum would then be up all night trying to do it justice. There was always one very excited kid on birthday morning waking to find her creation lovingly covered in aluminium foil on the kitchen bench.
My husband and I still reminisce about which cakes our mum’s attempted.
Well one mother’s group from Canberra is bringing back the memories for all of us as they attempt to have all 104 cakes in the same room, a feat they believe has never been done.
PANDSI is a Canberra based support group focused on helping families affected by ante and post natal depression. On the 7th May they will hold the children’s cake challenge at the Hyatt Hotel in Canberra.
The objective is to raise funds for the group which is currently supporting over 250 families. The idea was the brainchild of group patron and journalist, Ginger Gorman, who believes that it will be the first time all 104 designs have been featured at the same time.
Ginger told The Motherish that she's a massive fan of the book. “I actually own two vintage copies of the book. I still remember getting the butterfly cake for my 7th birthday.
"This book was first published in 1980 and sold more than half a million copies before it was re-released a few years ago. So thousands of Aussie kids grew up with it, and now those parents are making the cakes for their kids. Who doesn’t remember begging their mum for the train cake or the pool cake?”
"The book has such a following that it has its own Facebook fan group and has inspired comedians, bloggers and even jewellery makers. I know this because I researched a big article about the AWWCBCB last year." Yes, Ginger is so into the book that she refers to it as an acronym.
