Sheila May Memorial Sponge Cake Bake-Off

Last year I went to three funerals and at every one, my cousins and I talked about how lovely it was to catch up, but how sad it is that we always catch up at funerals.  We always say we  need to make more of an effort to get together, and my cousin Ty is always the one to organise it for us. 

Not long after my cousin Jarom's funeral Ty put up an event on Facebook called the Sheila May Memorial Sponge Cake Bake-Off. He'd organised one a few years ago, and I was sad that we were in Sydney when it was on, as we missed out on it.  I was so happy that he was organising another one, and that we would be able to make it this time. 

Sheila May is my Nan's name and she was well known for making amazing sponge cakes.  When you went to visit her, you would be guaranteed to be offered a piece of sponge cake. She always had a fresh or frozen one on hand, and she would share her recipe with anyone who wanted it.  

My sister in law Steph actually has a hand written copy of the recipe in Nan's handwriting, so Eden and Steph brought it along in a frame on the day of the bake-off. The bake-off was at Port Sorell, which is where a lot of my extended family live.  Ty made a hilarious video depicting how our Pop might've felt about having it there, instead of Dunorlan or at Pop's river, which is where most of our families grew up together.   

It was such a fun day. We had lunch and Ty organised a family quiz on Kahoot and also had lots of old family photos online for us all to see.  My sister in law Becky won the last bake off, which was a bit controversial, as my cousin Toni is known for being an awesome baker.  Everyone had a big laugh that Becky won as she's not a blood relative of Nan, but  hers tasted the closest to Nan's sponge.  

The competition was really on this time, as everyone was keen to beat Becky and to make sure Toni didn't win it!  I'm not a baker at all, but thought it would be fun to join in and give it a crack.  Kobe had stayed at Mum's the night before, so he 'helped' Mum by lining the tins and licking the beaters :) There were some amazing looking cakes.Aunty Wanda and Uncle Tom were the judges.  Because there were so many cakes, they had to choose three each to taste.  They then had to do a blind taste testing and choose their favourite. These are the videos of them testing them (they can only be seen on web version). 

Auntie Wanda chose the sponge cake made by Aunty Deidre and her granddaughter Sophie (it had passionfruit icing) and Uncle Tom chose his daughter Carli's, which also had passionfruit icing.  There was a bit of controversy as Carli admitted she went away from Nan's original recipe, so she was disqualified!

It was such a fun day, and I'm sure Nan and Pop would've loved that we were all getting together for a sponge cake bake-off.  I feel so lucky to have grown up with such a big family, who all lived close by. 

These are some of the great grandchildren of Nan and Pop. There are many more, who couldn't be there that day. Simone worked out there are 90 great grandchildren all together. 

These are my cousins who were there.  There are 27 of us all together (or so...I need to do a recount to check). 

My Dad had 5 siblings.  His brothers Howard and Chayne have both passed away, so now only Uncle Tom, Aunty Wanda and Uncle Kim are left.  

I'm sure the Sheila May Memorial Sponge Cake Bake-Of will continue on in the future. and hopefully I can perfect my cake before the next one ;) Thanks so much Ty for organising it for us.