Great British Bake Off’s Candice Brown calls for families to make a 'Great Rainbow Bake' to support seriously ill children

Get involved in The Great Rainbow Bake and raise some money for an important cause.

Rainbow cake
(Image credit: Catherine Prior)

Great British Bake Off’s Candice Brown is calling for families to support The Great Rainbow Bake, and help raise money for an incredibly important cause.

The TV cook, who won the seventh series of the popular Channel 4 programme back in 2016, has teamed up with children’s charity the Rainbow Trust, who support seriously ill children like severely premature twins Ruby and Bella, to encourage their Great Rainbow Bake campaign.

The charity supports families who are caring for a seriously ill child and their Great Rainbow Bake campaign calls on families and friends to spend time together and take on the challenge of rainbow baking, so they can have fun and support the charity at the same time.

‘It is time to dust off your aprons and get silly, get messy and get baking with friends and family to help us fund vital support for families with a seriously ill child,’ says Oonagh Goodman, Director of Fundraising and Marketing at Rainbow Trust.

candice brown great rainbow bake

Credit: Rainbow Trust

Try Candice Brown's rainbow layer cake recipe

‘Money raised from the event will enable families with a seriously ill child to make the most of the precious time they have together.’

The former Bake Off winner is encouraging people to take part in the challenge to ‘Bake and Donate’ by either making a donation to the charity or baking a cake and selling it to friends and family in order to raise money to donate.

If you've got a competitive streak why not set up your own office bake-off or suggest a school bake sale? It's all for a good cause!

‘My top tip for success with your Great Rainbow Bake is to just have fun, get messy and get baking,’ says Candice. ‘Don’t worry if it doesn’t turn out perfectly – we just want you to have loads of fun while raising funds for Rainbow Trust.’

Download the Great Rainbow Bake Fundraising pack

This is the second year that the charity has run its baking challenge so it’s set to be a fun one! If you want to take part in the challenge, get baking between Monday 6th May and Sunday 12th May and sell your bakes to as many people as possible to raise the funds to donate.

Not a whizz around a pair of oven gloves? The charity has teamed up with award-winning baking kit company Craft & Crumb to help you get your cake looking Bake Off ready.

For each Rainbow Cupcake Kit and Unicorn Rainbow Cupcake Kit sold the company will keep aside a certain amount of the funds for the charity, meaning that you’re donating even more money!

Head to the Rainbow Trust to sign up now.

Ready, steady, bake!

Who are the Rainbow Trust?

Founded in 1986, the Rainbow Trust works tirelessly to offer emotional support as well as practical and professional guidance. When a child is diagnosed with a serious, life-limiting illness family life can be turned upside down, so the Rainbow Trust works to pair families with a dedicated expert Family Support Worker who will help them tackle each day and get the most out of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=12&v=nmYT-biCcps

The Rainbow Trust support over 2,300 families in England but there are so many more families that need help.

There is an estimated 49,000 children and young people who are living in the UK with life limiting or terminal health conditions. The Rainbow Trust not only help these children, but their families, siblings and friends who need support and guidance too.

The charity have a five-pronged approach when it comes to helping families. There are nine dedicated teams of Family Support Workers based around the country to help families across the UK. The Rainbow Trust focus on helping the siblings of sick children continue with life as normal as possible, ensuring they stay on track at school and get to enjoy down-time such as trips to the cinema.

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Home and hospital support is offered to ensure the family cope with all the different appointments they have to juggle and how to process the information they receive at each step of the treatment journey.

Finally, the Rainbow Trust offer bereavement support for the entire family and are on-hand all day and night either by phone or face-to-face.

If you want to support this fantastic charity, take part in The Great Rainbow Bake challenge, and either sell your homemade and baked creations for cash or enjoy your cakes and bakes at home and then make a donation to the charity.

Rainbow recipes

If you're super excited to join the challenge and want some rainbow-themed inspiration we've got lots of colourful bakes you should try. Delicious enough to impress even the strictest of Great British Bake Off judges, we're sure these bakes will go down a treat with your friends and family.  You can share your creations on social media using the #GreatRainbowBake

Candice Brown's rainbow cake

Making this impressive looking rainbow cake is easier than you think. If you don't have enough cake tins you can bake the individual sponges in batches and then layer them up. We've even coloured the buttercream and smoothed it over for a chic ombre design.

Easy rainbow cupcakes

Rainbow cupcakes recipe

These bright little cupcakes take just 25 minutes to make and are sure to grab lots of attention. Topped with a generous helping of whipped cream, these cupcakes will stand out on the sales stand and are sure to be very popular.

Giant rainbow cupcake

Giant rainbow cupcake

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Why not combine our rainbow cake with cupcakes and bake this GIANT rainbow cupcake! You could even cut out the centre and fill it with colourful sweets for an extra special surprise.

Rainbow-inspired cake decorations

Stained glass cake

Instead of baking a rainbow coloured sponge you could try making something simple and topping it with a rainbow design. This stained glass cake is a great example. Our basic cupcake recipe is the perfect place to start if you are a baking beginner, or this Mary Berry Lemon Drizzle Cake recipe would surely make the former GBBO judge proud if you wanted something with a fresh, spring feel.

Rainbow biscuits

Mother's Day biscuits: Rainbow

Lots of people are bound to bring rainbow cake to the sale so why not offer something a little different with these rainbow biscuits? They take less than 30 minutes to whip together and are the cheery treat everyone wants with a cuppa!

Don't forget to donate any money you have raised from selling your bakes. To upload your donations or to simply make a donation to this fantastic charity, head to rainbowrust.org/donate.

Jessica Ransom
Senior Food Writer

Jessica is a freelance food writer, stylist and recipe tester. She previously worked as Senior Food Writer at Future. While at Future Jessica wrote food and drink-related news stories and features, curated product pages, reviewed equipment, and developed recipes that she then styled on food shoots. She is an enthusiastic, self-taught cook who adores eating out and sharing great food and drink with friends and family. She has completed the Level 1 Associate course at the Academy of Cheese and is continually building on her knowledge of beers, wines, and spirits.