Wednesday saw people gather from all over Dorset for the first West Dorset Cake Bake off – a fun competition for clients and service users of YOU’s West Dorset services.  In all, there were 31 entries from six different services with prizes being awarded for ‘most attractive looking cake’, most awesome cake baked by a young person’, ‘most scrumptious cake from a service’, ‘most fabulous cake baked by member of staff’, ‘most effort put into baking a cake’ and ‘best overall cake’.

“We didn’t think we’d be doing this today,” said Mr and Mrs Ballard, neighbours of the service, who helped judge the competition “it was a really difficult choice as there were such a lot of good cakes.  We’re both very grateful for being a part of it and for the invite.”

“The standard was very high and everyone took the competition really seriously,” said proud manager, Andy Cosma, “this event encompassed everything that YOU is about and really encouraged our young people to be the best they can be.”

“I’m really pleased I won,” laughed ‘most attractive cake’ winner, Seychella, “but I’ve definitely eaten too much now!” “There was loads of beautiful cakes,” said another resident, Laura, who helped with the day.

As well as being fun and tasty, the day aimed to promote the skills and positive qualities of Dorset young people by building links with the local community and telling people what local charity, YOU, does.  The Mayor of Weymouth, explained that he’d heard of the service but hadn’t realised the extent of the things that are done there.  The Mayor and Mr & Mrs Ballard were thanked for their exemplary judging skills and the Mayor has promised to return to talk about being mayor and to offer an insight into local government for the young people in the service.

The winners of the Bake Off were:
   
Best Overall Cake: Xavier Duncan & David Churchouse
Most Attractive Looking Cake: Seychella Farmer
Most Awesome Cake Baked by a Young Person: Natasha Richardson & Danni Gilkinson
Most Scrumptious Cake from a Service: Sherborne (Peter Walker) & Wollaston Lodge (Karen Phillips)
Mot Fabulous Cake Baked by a Member of Staff: Sally Cake
Most Effort put into Baking a Cake: John Poole