Lights, camera, cake: amateur bakers sought for Oswestry’s answer to the Great British Bake Off
Oswestry Heritage Bake-Off is destined for the ‘big screen’ as part of town’s Heritage Open Days 2016 events
Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood may well be flavour of the month again when the BBC’s Great British Bake Off returns to our TV screens this autumn. But the border town of Oswestry in North Shropshire is busy cooking up its very own version of the popular competition in which local culinary talent and heritage will take centre stage.
The HOOOH Community Group and film maker Joey Edwards of Filmage are teaming up on the community film which will document all the excitement and drama of the home-grown contest as it unfolds during Oswestry’s Heritage Open Days (September 9-11).
The organisers are calling on amateur cooks, 16 years and up, to submit their designs for a showpiece cake or bake on the theme of Oswestry heritage for the chance of going forward to the filmed bake-off. Three finalists will be selected from initial entries by a judging panel including representatives from Oswestry Country Market and Oswestry and Border History and Archaeology Group (OBHAG).
The bake-off will be hosted by North Shropshire College in the kitchens of its Oswestry campus on September 9. Judging takes place the following day at Oswestry Castle Bank where Oswestry town mayor, Paul Milner, will present the winner with the Oswestry Heritage Bake-Off trophy.
“The bake-off is intended to be a fun way to celebrate Oswestry’s heritage and make it a talking point as the town counts down to a fantastic programme of Heritage Open Days events,” says Kate Clarke of the HOOOH Community Group.
The film and its participants will then get the red carpet treatment when it is premiered at Oswestry’s independent cinema, Kinokulture, in November.
Ms Clarke added: “The Oswestry Borderlands are full of inspirational heritage, from castles and hillforts to railways and canals, and boast many inspirational figures like the war poet, Wilfred Owen. People can interpret whatever aspect of the area’s heritage they choose in their cake designs in order to impress and perhaps clinch a coveted place in the bake-off.”
The deadline for cake/bake design entries is 12 August 2016.
Full details, rules and entry forms can be downloaded from HOOOH’s website or Facebook page -https://www.facebook.com/OldOswestryHillfort or http://oldoswestryhillfort.co.uk/
They are also available from the organiser (tel: 01691 652918 or email: press@kateclarkepr.com) and can be picked up from Oswestry Library (Arthur Street, Oswestry) or Honeysuckle Wholefoods (Church Street, Oswestry).
