Festive Bake Off 2014

GCSE Food Technology students from St Mark’s Church of England School have been working alongside over 150 children from St Saviour’s Infants and St Saviour’s Junior School to bake, decorate and package over 200 miniature Christmas cakes to donate to Genesis Trust.

The work began with Year 2 pupils from St Saviour’s Infants baking the miniature Christmas cakes. Work continued this week, when Year 1 classes came into St Mark’s School to prepare the intricate icing decorations to top the cakes with. Reception children have been making gift tags for the cake boxes made by the Junior School children.

Organising the event is Head of Technology, Zoe Balfre, Headteacher of St Saviour’s Infants, Ed Harker and Headteacher at St Saviour’s Juniors, Kevin O’Shea.

“It has been a great experience, putting this collaborative project together for Genesis Trust. Our students have really enjoyed working and supporting the little ones and helping them to measure, mix and bake,” said Zoe.

“It was quite ambitious to try and involve all of the children at St Saviour’s but we have achieved it! The primary pupils have carried out all of the baking, have iced all of the cakes and St Saviour’s Juniors have been in charge of packaging; decorating the cake boxes ready for distribution.”

“The cakes look fantastic and will be donated to Genesis Trust, who will then give them out to the homeless and vulnerable in Bath over the Christmas period.”

All of the ingredients are Fairtrade (where possible) and have been bought with donations from St Saviour’s families.

“We designed the ‘Christmas Cake Factory’ project to give the children a very direct and local experience of caring at Christmas. The cakes are made at St Marks, and distributed through the Genesis Trust, a charity that we also support at Harvest,” said Ed Harker, Headteacher of St Saviour’s Infants School.

“We wanted the project to be local, but also to make a strong connection to Fair Trade, helping the children to see how their work was also helping people far away from Bath.”

“The children and staff have loved the whole experience, and we look forward to more baking with Zoe at St Marks next year!”

Headteacher at St Mark’s School, Barnaby Ash, commended the children on their hard work, “This project is incredibly important to our schools as it brings our communities together in the true spirit of Christmas.”

“Collaborative projects such as this one create unique opportunities for our students and the pupils of St Saviour’s Infants and Juniors Schools to work together and enrich their learning, something that they would never experience in a larger institution.”

“St Mark’s is a warm and caring school community and we are delighted that our students have been so involved in bringing the project together for the benefit of others.”