Hundreds of people gathered in Perth city centre on Sunday to grab a slice of a huge edible map made up of numerous cakes at this year’s Cake Fest.
Organised as part of Perth’s Winter Festival, amateur and semi-professional bakers from across the region dropped off and helped assembled the edible map of Perth and Kinross which included an array of buildings and fixtures.
The gigantic showcase, which was made up of 28 cakes that had been made by baking teams and individuals, was based in a marquee outside Perth Concert Hall on Mill Street.
Preparations for the event started at 9am with event organiser, Simon Preston, and his team of volunteers taking collection of the first cakes arriving.
Cake Fest is an opportunity for locals to celebrate their community by baking buildings that are found within the Perth and Kinross area.
The bakes vary from 30cm to one metre in height and are used to create a 60 to 100 metre square map complete with edible roads, woodland parks and water.
Returning for a fourth year after a two-year Covid-19 hiatus, those in attendance could admire the bakes from noon until 3pm, when the map finally came together.
The Cake Fest 2022 Baker’s Choice Award
At 3.30pm the winner of the Baker’s Choice Award, 24-year-old Katherine Burrows from Perth, was crowned after her fellow bakers voted her bake their favourite.
Instead of a traditional cake, Katherine constructed her building – AK Library – out of gingerbread. It also boasted Christmas trees out front and windows which were made of sugar glass that festivalgoers could admire the lights flickering inside.
This was the amateur baker’s first time entering Cake Fest after reading an article about the event in The Courier last month.
“I’ve been working on it for the past few weeks. I kind of wanted the library as I used to go past it every day on my way to school. It’s quite an iconic building in Perth,” she said.
“I like baking but I’m definitely an amateur. I tend to stick to gingerbread. It took four batches to build all of the panels and the detailing was added the morning of the event.
“The effort that went into all of the bakes is unbelievable. They are amazing and I didn’t expect it at all.”
This year there was a tie for second. Both semi-professional baker Elspeth Phin of Ellie’s Creative Cakes was recognised for her Black Watch Museum cake, as was the team at the Walled Garden who made a cake of their place of work.
The 2022 event was the walled garden team’s first time entering.
All of the bakes were then sliced up and handed out to the public for free. A total of 5,000 slices were devoured. One cake was donated to a local foodbank, who were happy to take the bake off of organiser’s hands.
An event for everyone
A team from Pink Saltire Scotland baked the Meikleour Beech Hedge while colleagues from the Drumhar Health Centre baked the centre and a team from RSPB Loch Leven made their workplace, too.
One family of three or four generations also came together to bake one of the biggest cakes, the St Ninian’s Cathedral.
Around 120 people are involved in the event from start to finish, with volunteers, the build team and the bakers included. The public were also given the chance to get involved and made snowmen, cars, Santa’s, cows and small models that were placed on the map.
Simon said there were some gluten-free and vegan cakes available for everyone to enjoy, however there was just one chocolate cake and no fruit cake for the first time ever.
He added: “Madeira cake is most popular as it stays freshest longest. Some of the bakers have been doing it for years, but many were first timers.
“The people who bake are very special. For all of the people who come to the event, there’s not that many bakers, so it is a great way to bring people together.
“It’s about celebrating where we live and being proud of where we live.
“The AK Bell Library bake was a clear favourite of the bakers. It was exquisitely done, but all of the bakes were just incredible.”
Enjoy a large selection of the other cakes…
Conversation