5 cakes, 50 children. What could possibly go wrong?
On Saturday 26th April 2025 we invited 50 children to join us in judging their favourite cake as we brought to life our new Once Upon a Feast collection at a magical secret garden in Islington, aptly named the Culpeper Garden after one of the first modern herbal botanists Nicholas Culpeper.
We wanted to bring to life the fantasy of a midnight feast and create a sense of magic for children and their families that would delight both their tastebuds and their imaginations.
Once Upon a Feast is inspired by foods we can easily find in our gardens or hedgerows and this setting with its quilt of community allotments and kids gardening club was the perfect place for children and their families to consider where their food comes from. Hidden away in Islington it felt like our guests were discovering a hidden jewel and its intricate hidden paths were the perfect setting for a Forivor treasure hunt that led them through edible plants, insect hotels and to a yellow brick road before bringing them back to a cake table we will dream of for years to come.
It felt lovely and fitting to make our own scones, dandelion jam and dandelion cordial and have some of our oldest friends serve guests using Rebecca's grandmothers crockery.
We were almost as excited as our young guests to welcome The Great British Bake Off finalist Christiaan de Vries, Suss Studios Julia Arden, Rupa Bohdani, Olivia Cavalli and Florin Grama to make cakes fit for a midnight feast.
We couldn't have asked for lovelier chefs and more delicious and exciting cakes - thank you so much for supporting us, and giving so much time and energy to our celebration of feasting, and for helping us raise awareness and funds for the wonderful work of Noah's Ark Hospice. Click here to be taken to our fundraising page; our Party Animal pyjamas also support this vital cause - please do support their important work if you can.
THE CAKES
We think all our guests, young and a little bit older, would agree every single cake was a worthy winner of a bake off handshake and most importantly perfectly fitting for the midnight feast we dream of! But what was in those delicious looking cakes, we'll talk you through each one.........
Christiaan de Vries beautiful yellow space ship style cake was a lemon poppyseed sponge with a raspberry and liquorice jam. It was an absolute delight on the tastebuds and the eyes.
Olivia Cavalli made a beautiful white and dark, day and night Forivor inspired chocolate marble bundt cake. It was perfectly moist and totally delicious, we've been wishing we had a slice for our morning coffee ever since.
Rupa Bohdani created frilly perfection with inspiration taken directly from our new Once Upon a Feast design. The prettiest cake with some good old fashioned bribery in the middle in the form of a smarties and skittles surprise.
Florin Grama from Tarn Bakery made a mouth watering chocolate and orange cake. Thank you so much!
Julia Aden from Suss Cake Studio arrived with a perfect chocolate rabbit that had everyone's heart melting before they even tried its perfect chocolate flavours and meringue mushrooms. No one wanted the job of slicing into that lovely rabbit though!
Thank you also to Skye McAlpine for loaning us her beautiful Skye McAlpine Tavola cake stands - they are things of beauty.
5 INCREDIBLE CAKES, BUT WHICH DID THE KIDS THINK WAS THE BEST?
Suss Studio’s Julia Arden won the contest with her exceptional springtime chocolate rabbit and was crowned with a hand painted cardboard crown by our young compères Myla, Skye, Remie, Rosa and Nina who were braver than us at speaking in public (if you’ve had our products from the early days you may recognise their names as Forivorland characters!)
SO MANY THANK YOUS!
We have so many thank yous for people and brands that helped us create such a magical event to celebrate Forivor’s new collection.
- Larkrise Pictures and Transversale Productions for capturing the event beautifully for us.
- Our friends and family Romy, Amy and Matthew who came and supported us with lots of tea making and washing up and making our guests feel welcome. Importantly, your support also meant we could enjoy the event ourselves and talk to people!
- Joe's Tea for supplying the necessary caffeine, Showerings Cider for an early morning tipple and Austin Austin for making the bathroom a lovely place to be!
- Re-agency for helping us plan and coordinate the whole thing - we couldn’t have done it without you.
- Culpeper garden for inviting us into their magical hidden space for our event. Everybody we spoke to said they had walked past it a thousand times but never knew it was there. An absolute hidden gem and open to the public everyday.
- To all our guests and friends who came and did the very important and serious job of judging the cakes. It was lovely to have you join us and celebrate our new collection.
- To our manufacturers Macrofast Organic for their longstanding commitment to making our products how we envision them. We love working with you and can’t recommend them enough if you are trying to source textiles.
Photo credits: Eleanor Church / Larkrise Pictures