Have a Neighbourhood Bake Off!

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Have a Neighbourhood Bake Off

Break out the recipe books, stick on an apron and get your community baking! A neighbourhood bake-off is a great way to get to know your neighbours over some friendly competition. Everyone enters a baked good, the judges weigh in, prizes are awarded and everyone gets to eat some yummy treats!

From the experienced older bakers on your street who have classics they’ve been perfecting for years, to the new bakers who can’t tell their banana breads from their carrot cakes- this is a great activity for all-ages to get involved with.

What You Need

A group enthusiastic bakers.

Judges.

A table or two.

Plates and forks: encourage your neighbours to bring their own.

Baked goods

Make It Happen!

We’ve put together some tips to help you make this happen in your neighbourhood, you can read them all here or jump straight to these sections:

How To Approach Your Neighbours

How To Spread The Word

Decorate Your Space

What To Do

1.

Find your fellow bakers

You can’t have a baking competition without bakers! Reach out to the neighbours to find some fellow baking enthusiasts to participate. Make a point of letting older members of the community know as they’ll surely have a few classic bakes up their sleeves. Encourage people of all skill-levels to get involved and have some baking fun!

Get in touch with your neighbours by setting up a WhatsApp, Facebook or email group and asking them to join. Go the extra mile and put up some posters and pass out flyers.

2.

Choose a date & venue

It’s important to find a space that is large enough for your neighbours. You will need somewhere that has enough space for several tables to be set-up for all the baked treats your neighbours enter. Ideally, your street or local green space will do the job.

3.

Find your Mary Berry

There are plenty of ways to choose the judges for your bake-off. Maybe you have your own local Mary Berry who would be perfect for the job? One fun way to choose your judges is to put together a small team of people from your neighbourhood made up of different generations. That way, everyone is represented. A 10 year old’s taste might be totally different to a 70 year olds, and it might just spice up the competition!

4.

Pick some categories & prizes

Choose some categories for your bake-off: best cake, biggest cookie, tastiest treat…whatever you like! The prizes don’t need to be anything too elaborate- something fun and simple like a winner’s certificate, an apron or a cake plate will do the job

5.

Spread the word

Get the word out about your bake-off via WhatsApp groups, social media and good old fashioned posters and flyers.

6.

On Bake-Off day

On the day of your event, ask everyone to bring out their own plates and forks for cake tasting. Designate a table or two for people to leave their bakes on, and hand out labels for people to fill in and leave by their bake so it’s clear whose owns what.

Keep sanitisation in mind by providing hand sanitizer and asking people to wear gloves when cutting cakes etc.

Then there’s nothing left to do but enjoy a day of baked goods and getting to know your neighbours over some tasty treats. Piece of cake!