A Piece of the Cake goes to...

Yesterday Planet London hosted a fundraising event for 3 London based LGBT charities; ELOP, London Friend and Stonewall Housing.

The event, which was kindly hosted by Candy in Soho, drew in a number of lesbian and bi women of the cake-loving genre!

Carrot cakes

The guests got to sample and judge 2 kinds of brownies, lime & coconut cupcakes, vanilla cupcakes, lemon, orange & thyme cupcakes, chocolate cake, banana, baileys & fudge chip cake, meringues and minstrel cookies. All proceeds from the ticket sales are being donated to the three charities, and cake judges got to vote where their donations went with our fancy sticker chart.

The charity board

In addition to the cakes there was also a tombola, which some people found quite addictive ;)

It was a lovely atmosphere in the Candy Bar on Sunday afternoon, and might not be one you'd normally associate with the well known women's venue. Famous for its popular DJs and dancing nights, Sundays take a different vibe and play host to the Sunday Social, a relaxed atmosphere with good background music and a great happy hour. I'd be tempted to go back another Sunday or two, especially as it's the last women only space in Soho.

After 90 minutes of 'letting them eat cake', we got to hear the results of the event and hand out the prizes.

AJ won 2 prizes for her lime and coconut cupcakes and gluten-free brownies. Ann won a prize for her orange and thyme cupcakes. The Stonewall Housing and London Friend nominated cakes won their category so both received an additional £50 donation from Planet London.

Thank you to all of the women that attended the event - bakers and judges; we hope you enjoyed the cake, and had a nice afternoon.

The fundraising totals were:
ELOP £25
London Friend £70
Stonewall Housing £86

Hip Hip Hooray, we sash-ayed the Big Gay 10k

Sunday 30 September, Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. Sunny cloudy weather. A bunch of gays. What more could you want for the end of the Summer?

We arrived early, ready to set up our stall, which was bang in the middle of the row of pop up gazebos.

Within an hour we were ready to go with our village fete games – pick a lolly, play your cards right, tombola and find the cash behind the tube station, as well as a fine assortment of homemade cakes to sell (Naomi spent all day Saturday in the kitchen baking!).

Katie checked in for the walk, and took park in the group limbering up, with lots of dynamic stretches led off from the main stage.

Just before midday, Diva’s Jane Czyzselska called all the women over to take part in the lesbian visibility kiss. Before we knew it dozens of lesbians were smooching away with each other.

And then, Cheryl Baker was calling the start of the walk! All the runners, walkers and mincers led off, on the 10k path that took them along the riverside, South Bank, up to London Bridge, over and back down the other side.

It was a beautiful walk and the weather was perfect. It got a little busy in the South Bank area and Westminster – making it hard to keep full pace throughout, but Planet London walkers returned to Vauxhall in very respectable times indeed.

The afternoon continued with some great acts on the live stage including lesbian bands such as Grey Matter, stand up comedians Jen Brister and Zoe Lyons, and rounding off with members of the L Project singing It Gets Better.

The village fete worked really well and all the stalls had made a big effort to be fun and informative. There was a chilled party-like atmosphere all afternoon.

Planet London is very proud to have been a part of this event – walking and in the fete. We raised approximately £200 from the stall and walking which will go towards helping London Friend and Pace.