Students and staff from the University of Nottingham swapped their lab coats for aprons and rose to the annual charity bake off challenge this week, producing a variety of unusual and creative cakes with an animal theme.
The popular competition is in it’s 7thyear and is organised by students based on Sutton Bonington campus. It has raised £500 so far for Vets in the Community, a Nottingham Vet School project which offers free pet care to homeless people in the city.
There were four categories for the bakers to choose from and climate change and its effect on wildlife was a strong theme this year. A madeira cake called ‘Survivors’ showing a group of penguins teetering on melting ice was the overall winner and winner of the Dynasties’ Desserts: David Attenborough category.
Gross cakes and showstoppers
The grossest cake category was won by a cake showing flystrike in rabbits – a condition of pet rabbits where maggots accumulate on the skin and start to eat the rabbit alive! This was called ‘Who didn’t check Roger Rabbit’. Despite it’s offputting appearance it also won the best tasting cake!
Other showstoppers included: a detailed fondant scene in the scrumptious science category illustrating In-Ovo Vaccination on chick embryos, this also won the online public vote. A sheep made from profiteroles called ‘Profiter-Sheep’ won the Farm to Fork category and an impressive bra shaped cake called ‘It’s a Woman’s World’ topped the Baking Bad News: Current Affairs category.
Sarah Febry, a fourth year vet student was one of the organisers and said: “This year’s cake off was a great day! We had brilliant, hilarious and inventive entries as well as some cakes highlighting important issues. An example of this is the It’s a Woman’s World cake which was inspired by the current gender pay gap in the veterinary industry despite the majority of its members being female! We are so proud to have raised this money for Vets in the Community who provide free veterinary care for the animals belonging to the homeless and vulnerably housed in Nottingham.”
The cake off justgiving page is still active for further donations.
— Ends —
Our academics can now be interviewed for broadcast via our Media Hub, which offers a Globelynx fixed camera and ISDN line facilities at University Park campus. For further information please contact a member of the Communications team on +44 (0)115 951 5798, email pressoffice@nottingham.ac.uk or see the Globelynx website for how to register for this service.
For up to the minute media alerts, follow us on Twitter
Notes to editors:
The University of Nottingham is a research-intensive university with a proud heritage, consistently ranked among the world's top 100. Studying at the University of Nottingham is a life-changing experience and we pride ourselves on unlocking the potential of our 44,000 students - Nottingham was named both Sports and International University of the Year in the 2019 Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide, was awarded gold in the TEF 2017 and features in the top 20 of all three major UK rankings. We have a pioneering spirit, expressed in the vision of our founder Sir Jesse Boot, which has seen us lead the way in establishing campuses in China and Malaysia - part of a globally connected network of education, research and industrial engagement. We are ranked eighth for research power in the UK according to REF 2014. We have six beacons of research excellence helping to transform lives and change the world; we are also a major employer, proud of our Athena SWAN silver award, and a key industry partner- locally and globally.