Dubliner bakes 400 cakes for Dublin hospice fundraiser

A Dublin hospice fundraiser who starts stockpiling baked goods months in advance, has over 400 cakes in her freezer ahead of the Bewley’s Big Coffee Morning Social for Hospice event.

Carol Collins uses her own home-grown organic produce to pack eight freezers with cakes, tarts and soups, which she has sold to raise over €37,000 in eight years for St Francis Hospice in Dublin.

The coffee morning at her home this Wednesday (6th) will have an additional sparkle as she will be raffling a diamond ring she found on her land several years ago.

However, Carol’s event has become so popular that she is asking anyone else thinking of attending in person to instead make a donation to Hospice.

The 76-year-old grandmother of 15 says she starts cooking for the coffee morning the minute the first fruits and vegetables come into season.

“I start cooking months in advance and pack eight big freezers with all kinds of cakes which people then start giving me orders for,” said Carol, who runs the Collinstown Business Park in Swords with her husband Brendan.

“We grow organic food on our small farm so I make gooseberry, blackberry, plum and rhubarb and ginger jams, apple, plum and rhubarb tarts and fruit sponges, as well as homemade leek and potato, cauliflower and broccoli and French onion soups.

“I’d say there is easily over 400 cakes in the freezers but there are orders for them in already,” she laughed.

Carol started the coffee mornings after hearing an interview about Hospice care on the radio.

“It really touched my heart and since I started the coffee mornings, three work colleagues have died in the Hospice, where they received amazing care.

“I have a lot of friends in Bridge clubs as well as local businesses who donate fabulous prizes for the raffle and this year I’m raffling a diamond ring we found many years ago and despite all our efforts, was never claimed.”

The nationwide fundraiser, supported by Bewley’s since 1992, has raised over €43.2million – and there is a €2million fundraising target this year.

Together for Hospice, The National Hospice Movement, represents 26 Hospice and specialist palliative home care providers supporting patients and their families.

Funds raised locally stay local and go back into each hospice to innovate, build new facilities, develop new services and deliver quality improvements and extra benefits for their patients and family members.

Register now to host a coffee morning on September 21 – or on a date that suits you – at hospicecoffeemorning.ie or call 0818 995 996.

If you can not host or attend one, you can make a donation at hospicecoffeemorning.ie/donate