Charity bake off competition at The Lansdowne, Leicester

Can your cakes cut it? The Lansdowne pub in Leicester is staging a charity bake off and is urging local amateur and professional bakers to show off their skills.

Holly Bell, finalist in last year’s BBC Great British Bake Off TV programme, heads a team of guest judges who will be sampling entries in the competition, which takes place on Saturday March 17th.

The event is being staged in aid of Leicestershire and Rutland charity Coping with Cancer, which supports people affected by the condition.

Now organisers are appealing for home bakers and professionals to start flicking through their recipe books to come up with ideas for cakes, breads and bakes which will tickle the judges’ taste buds.

After judging, the cakes and breads will be sold off to raise money for Coping with Cancer, which The Lansdowne in London Road has pledged to support.

“Baking is really growing in popularity and we know from chatting to our regulars that there are many enthusiastic amateur bakers out there,” said event organiser Alex Lumley.

“We decided it would be a fun idea to stage our own bake off and at the same time raise money for the incredibly hard-working local charity Coping with Cancer. Holly Bell has kindly agreed to head our team of judges, who have been picked for their passion for baking, and now we’re looking forward to receiving details of people who would like to enter our bake off at The Lansdowne.”

Entries are being invited from professional bakers, as well as those who like to knock up a sponge at the weekend or create a tray bake in the evenings.

The competition, which is free to enter, has a number of different categories for cupcakes, brownies, speciality bread or a signature bake.

Holly, from Leicester, was a popular contestant in the 2011 BBC Great British Bake Off and made it to the final.

She said: “I'm very excited about being involved in the Lansdowne Coping with Cancer Bake Off; a really worthy cause and of course an opportunity to eat lots of cake and meet cake enthusiasts. I can't wait to see some of the creations and help to raise some money.”

The other judges are Matthew Wright, editor of Great Food Magazine, Char Lavender of Bitsy's Cupcakery, and Tom Brucciani, managing director of craft bakery and café company Brucciani (Midlands) Ltd.

Details for entering The Lansdowne’s bake off are available from the pub and also to download from the website www.orangetree.co.uk Forms need to be submitted by March 3rd 2012.

Issued by Nottingham PR company Perfect 10 PR www.perfect10pr.co.uk