THE EVENT
We got the call at 6am on Sunday morning – it was cold, raining, and the decision had been made to move the cake inside, away from the weather…

And so, for the first time ever, Melbourne’s Longest Cake was held in the prestigious Crown Palladium Ballroom – and six months of meticulous planning for an outdoor event ended up being re-arranged in 30 minutes!

With no precedent for holding the event indoors, we were not sure how it would unfold...  Would the public know where to go?  Was the Palladium too big for the cake? Would the room look empty? What would happen to the planned entertainment and activities?  Nevertheless, the cake assembly and decoration was  underway, so we prepped our volunteers and got on  with the show!

After a flurry of frantically re-organising ourselves to meet this revised venue and major setup challenges (including the indoor setup of the huge jumping castle!), our fears for attendance were quickly quashed when the Palladium Ballroom started to fill.  

By 10am the room was already half full - it was on for young and old, great to see plenty of your familiar faces, and stacks of new faces with support from the general public pouring through the doors in attendance.

Queues began to form as everyone eagerly received a generous serve of delicious chocolate cake and complimentary drink of choice, before settling down to enjoy the free entertainment. CPSN volunteers coordinated the important Cerebral Palsy awareness effort at the event, which saw the sale of our popular “Buzz the Bumblebee” fundraising-mascot merchandise.

The event was hosted by MC Tony Wilson, who did a fantastic job tying the entertainment together; we welcomed back magician Anthony De Masi, with his cute rabbit Brian, and children’s entertainer Peter Combe who flew over from Adelaide especially for the event. Australian Idol Carl Riseley took “the cake”, crooning to the parents and wowing kids with his impressive trumpet skills. He even had a dance with some kids who got on stage!

The fabulous girl group MoTunes completed two lively sets of 60’s Motown classics, and in between, some cast members from The Saddle Club - Lisa, Melanie, Desi and Jess - made their first Australian appearance together. The girls were on hand to award prizes to the ‘Piece of Cake’ competition winners – Elly Hudson, Stella Barton and James Nicolaci.

Kids got to meet their footy idols Daniel Giansiracusa (Western Bulldogs), Andy Carazzo (Carlton FC), Adam McPhee (Essendon FC), Chris Newman (Richmond FC), Xavier Ellis (Hawthorn FC), Steve Johnson (Geelong FC) and Paul Licuria (ex Collingwood FC).

All but 12 metres of the cake was either sold or picked up by sponsors. Second Bite food bank collected remaining cake for distribution to needy people around Melbourne, so not a crumb was wasted.
 
 
AFTER THE EVENT
Through the event, we successfully raised $53,000. The CPSN will be able to deposit a substantial amount of this into the Cerebral Palsy Support Network Members Trust Fund for the benefit of all members with Cerebral Palsy.

Thank you to all the volunteers and sponsors involved in making the event happen, to Crown for successfully re-organising the last minute indoor relocation of the cake, the general public, and to all CPSN members who attended and gave their support on what would have otherwise been a wet and dreary day.

We look forward to an even bigger and better Melbourne’s Longest Cake in 2010.

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for more images of the day click here

for previous years' images click here