Message from the organiser...

..I'm incredibly excited and privileged to be bringing Cupcake Camp to the most vibrant city in the world!

A serious addiction to baking cupcakes and my connection with the North London Hospice came into my life at the same time. Three years ago my father, Fleet Street journalist Bob Coole, was diagnosed with kidney failure and spent the next two and a half years visiting hospitals at least three times a week. Finally it became too much and in March 2010 we were incredibly lucky to get a place in the North London Hospice for palliative care.

I cannot emphasise enough the difference between a hospital and this wonderful hospice. They were caring and supportive to both him and my mother and me, offering cups of tea and a shoulder to cry on as we sat with Dad for between seven and 24 hours a day. In the last few days of his life, I was allowed to sleep on the day bed in his room so I could be there should the worst happen. The nurses were amazing. There was no chance for me to feel alone or worried about my father's care as they checked on us constantly, and knew every change in his condition despite only knowing him for a week and a half. I say knowing rather than treating as that is genuinely what it felt like.

When you are sitting in a room for hours every day, good reading material is at a premium! On our second day at the hospice, I went to a local bookshop and bought the Primrose Bakery cupcake book. I must have spent ages leafing through those colourful pages, mentally comparing recipe tastes and contemplating which cupcake to bake first. After Dad died, I went on a baking frenzy. I swear I made a cake or cupcakes every day for at least two weeks!

For Dad's funeral I wanted to do something really personal and made ginger cupcakes with ginger fudge icing. Every Christmas and birthday for the last few years had included ginger-flavoured something for Dad! Baking was a huge comfort and the physicality of it was very theraputic.

When Dad died I never got to say thank you to our nurses. This is my way.

I hope you will come and help me and my gorgeous team of volunteers support this incredible charity on 31st October 2010 and celebrate the wonder and the beauty of the cupcake!

Love,

PS... Update:

What an amazing day we all had at Cupcake Camp London 2010! I'll confess I don't remember very many details due to running around like a crazy person, however looking back at the photographs and hearing the feedback, there appears to be one word to describe it all: Delicious! Congratulations to our well-deserved winners and runners up, a huge thanks to our judges and most of all thank you to all our bakers. The 2,200 cupcakes were dispatched quickly and efficiently into the bellies of cake-lovers! See you all next year...

Daisy Coole x