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In The South

Jack Monroe to judge Great Rainbow Bake-off live final in LGBT History Month

Gary Hart February 6, 2016

WEB.300Following a public vote on cakes made for anti-bullying week in November, 2015, 12 schools will compete in the live final of the Edu-cake & Cel-a-bake Great Rainbow Bake-off on February 12, 2016.

The final celebrates LGBT History Month where the theme this year is religion, faith and philosophy.

Bakers in the competition will attempt to reflect this theme in their bakes. Noisy entries will be scored highly as the qualifying round of the competition was during anti-bullying week under the title Make a Noise about bullying.

Judging the competition is renowned chef and columnist Jack Monroe who formally came out as non-binary transgender in October 2015. They write a column in the Observer and are in the process of publishing a follow-up to their number 1 bestselling cookery book ‘A Girl Called Jack’ with a new publication ‘Cooking on a Bootstrap’.

Jack Monroe
Jack Monroe

They said: “I’m not a brilliant baker myself, my birthday cake efforts over the years have relied on wonky kook and Instagram filters, but I use baking to thrash out issues and worries, especially with my 5-year-old son. We punch and knead dough to de-stress, carefully ice biscuits, and chat about more difficult things while we do. We meet friends over cake and tea to catch up and talk, hold coffee and cake mornings to fundraise for charities and bake cakes for celebrations – baking is synonymous with love, conversations and jubilation. I’m honoured to be judging this year’s Rainbow Bake Off, to explore what LGBT History month means to people”.

Elly Barnes
Elly Barnes

Elly Barnes CEO of Educate & Celebrate also a judge, said: Our Great Rainbow Bake-off is an accessible and fun way to help schools increase visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people and their history. The idea has really taken off, we were overwhelmed with entries from schools across the UK in our second year of the competition. Having Jack as a judge in the live final is the icing on the cake!”

The Edu-cake & Cel-a-bake competition is an easy way for teachers to confidently engage with students via the medium of baking! Last year the winning cakes included the pink triangle, the genderbread person and rainbow layers all of which are an educational way to highlight the LGBT+ struggle on the journey to positive change

One of the finalists Keziah from Big Creative education spoke about her qualifying cake: “My cake represents the different people in society. Anti-Bullying means that we have to educate and spread the word more than ever before. We have to highlight different themes and issues throughout anti-bullying week and what we can do as a society and college to help prevent it long-term, not just for the week.”

Another competitor at qualifying stage, said: “My cake which is a rainbow sponge is a baked representation of the LGBT+ flag, something that shows unity within the community.”

The competition is run in partnership with Gay Star News.

The final will take place at Urswick School, London on February 12, 2016.

For further information on the competition plus how to access training and resources, click here: 

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