Your host guide Bake to fight animal cruelty
Contents Thank you 4 Where your donations go 5 How to make your Cupcake Day a sweet success! 6 Use your online fundraising page 8 Be brave and ask! 9 Meet Melanie 11 Meet Coco the RSPCA Furbassador 12 Curtis Stone s brownie cupcakes 13 RSPCA pupcakes 14
Thank you We can t thank you enough for hosting your very own RSPCA Cupcake Day and helping us end animal cruelty in the sweetest way we know! Every day, the RSPCA provides food, bedding, comfort, medical attention and a second chance at life to animals in need across Australia. To do our work, we rely on the generosity of the community. Your support means that we can give the animals who come through our doors the best care possible. Whether you already have ideas for your Cupcake Day event or need some tips and ideas to get you going, this guide contains everything you need to make your event a success. Every dollar you raise this Cupcake Day will make a real difference to animals in need across Australia. From the bottom of our baking tins thank you! Where your donations go Every year, the RSPCA opens its doors to more than 135,000 stray, surrendered and seized animals. Provides a homeless kitten with a warm bed, litter tray, and a meal tonight. Will buy antibiotics for a sick dog this week. Will help desex an abandoned puppy ready for them to find their forever home. Will help keep an RSPCA inspector on the road fighting animal cruelty for another day. 4 RSPCA CUPCAKE DAY host guide 5
How to make your Cupcake Day a sweet success! Planning your Cupcake Day doesn t have to be hard, in fact it s a piece of cake! Here are some helpful tips to get you started. Start your fundraising Remind your guests that you are raising funds for animals in need. Share a link to your fundraising page via Facebook and email, inviting people to donate. You can even put your best paw forward by making the first donation yourself! Hint: Ask your employer if they would be willing to dollar match your fundraising. Choose a date and venue The official date for Cupcake Day is Monday 20 August, but if this doesn t suit you, you can pick any date in August to hold your event! When it comes to location, anywhere will work, as long as there are people (and of course treats) there this could be your work place, school, club or home! Hint: Host your event on a day your team or community group normally gets together! Spread the word Invite everyone you know! The more people who attend, the more animals you can help save! Use the posters in this kit to help spread the word. Be the host with the most Cupcakes are delicious but don t be afraid to branch out and include other sweet and savoury treats. To help raise more funds, you may also want to consider having an entry fee for your Cupcake Day event. Hint: Use the donation box in this kit to make it easy for people to donate, or have your fundraising page open on a laptop for those who don t have spare change. Bank your funds The sooner you get your funds to us, the sooner we can put them to work. Instructions on how to bank your funds can be found in your host kit. Hint: The easiest way to bank your funds is through your online fundraising page. 6 RSPCA CUPCAKE DAY host guide 7
Use your online fundraising page Here are some simple steps to get your page started. Make it interesting! Did you know that people who add a picture and story to their personal fundraising page raise more on average than those who don t? It s easy to do just log into your online fundraising page, upload a selfie (maybe one with your pet) and add a few words about why you want to end animal cruelty. Set a fundraising goal This an easy way to track how much you ve raised and is also a fantastic way to motivate your supporters! If you start to get close to your goal, you can set your sights even higher and increase it! Be the first to donate You ll be demonstrating your commitment and also setting the benchmark for further donations from friends, family and workmates. Share, share, share! Share the link to your online fundraising page through Facebook and your other social media accounts to encourage people to donate. This also allows you to update your followers as you hit important milestones, including when it s time to thank them! Be brave and ask! Asking people to donate isn t as scary as you may think. Most people love a good cause and helping to end animal cruelty with delicious treats is definitely one of them! Remember, $20 from five people is already $100 raised! Your Cupcake Day is only limited to your imagination, so you can host an event at work, school, home, in the park or with your local community group. Whether it be coffee and cake with your workmates or an elaborate high tea with your family and friends, every dollar you raise will help us end animal cruelty. It wasn t me doing the asking. I just sent an email out from my dog to all his doggy friends. My fundraising page was filled with comments to my dog from his furry mates. I discovered that dogs are very generous when asked. Glenn We had a dress as your pet day at school. All the kids brought a donation along. We used it as a teaching opportunity too. We talked about the importance of responsible pet ownership. There were some hilarious costumes a boy in Year One came as his pet axolotl. Claudia I encouraged people at work to forgo their take away coffees for a week and give the money to the RSPCA instead of course, I also bribed them with cake. Megan 8 RSPCA CUPCAKE DAY host guide 9
Meet Melanie Melanie has always been an avid animal lover. Having grown up with pets her whole life, she has always understood that animals are part of the family. Melanie s 9-year-old calico cat, Missy, has been her absolute world, providing her with unconditional love and comfort through difficult times such as when her beloved father passed away. Missy was always eager to curl up to one of my family members and liked to give us kisses. We would always ensure that her every whim was catered for; from buying her toys to stitching her own blankets and quilts, says Melanie. Melanie wanted to support animals who are not as lucky as Missy, so she decided to host her own Cupcake Day in 2017. Anything that my family and I can do to protect and help them is our greatest honour. I had so much fun baking with Missy supervising and it s brought a smile to everyone who has generously contributed. Instead of holding an individual Cupcake Day, Melanie told all her friends and family that for every donation made, they would receive a batch of cupcakes as a thank you! We are so thrilled to have the support of people like Melanie and with her new kitten, Coco, by her side, we are sure to see them baking up a storm in 2018! 10 RSPCA CUPCAKE DAY host guide 11
Meet Coco the RSPCA Furbassador Once upon a time, a puppy called Coco was stolen from her owner at just eight weeks old. After continuous searching, posters and ads in the local paper, she was returned two weeks later. As soon as she was returned, Coco was microchipped, and it s lucky she was because adventurous little Coco went missing from her Brisbane home a second time! This time she was found two years later at RSPCA Noosa, Queensland. After spotting Coco without an owner in a local park, a kind stranger decided to drop her off to the RSPCA. After scanning her microchip, RSPCA soon realised that Coco s owner, Blair, lived all the way out in Brisbane and staff promptly contacted her. Blair was sceptical that it was actually Coco after all, it had been a whole two years so the team at RSPCA sent her a photo to confirm. The staff at RSPCA Noosa were amazing! They knew I was driving from Brisbane to pick her up, so they gave me a harness to get her home with. They were just lovely! I couldn t have asked for a better team to help me reunite with Coco. Coco very quickly settled back into her old life. She now lives in Melbourne and has a large social following on Instagram. You will most likely find her in a café or at a dog friendly beach. She is frequently back in Queensland visiting family and friends! Curtis Stone, s brownie cupcakes Makes 8 cupcakes Ingredients 185g good-quality bittersweet chocolate (60% to 70% cacao), chopped 90g unsalted butter 1 tablespoon golden syrup or light corn syrup Pinch of salt ¾ cup sugar 2 large cage-free eggs ½ cup plain flour 1 teaspoon baking powder ² ³ cup coarsely chopped walnuts For the frosting: 125g cream cheese, at room temperature ¹ ³ cup golden syrup or light corn syrup 125g good-quality bittersweet chocolate (60% to 70% cacao), chopped 8 small, fresh strawberries Method 1. Preheat the oven to 180 C and line a standard ¹ ³ cup capacity muffin tin with 8 paper cupcake liners. Stir the chocolate and butter in a small heavy saucepan over a low heat, until melted and the mixture is smooth. Stir in the syrup and salt. Remove from the heat and set aside. 2. Using an electric mixer, beat the sugar and cage-free eggs in a large bowl until the mixture is thick and light. Stir in the chocolate mixture. Add the flour and baking powder, stirring until blended; then stir in the walnuts. Divide the batter equally among the cupcake liners, filling them completely. 3. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the cupcakes puff and crack on top and a skewer inserted into the centre of one comes out with fudgy crumbs attached. Remove the cupcakes from the tin and let them cool completely on a wire rack. To make the frosting Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese in a large bowl until it is light and smooth. Beat in the syrup. Place the chocolate in another bowl and stir over a small pot of simmering water, until the chocolate melts. Add the melted chocolate to the cream cheese mixture and beat until well-blended. Spread the frosting generously over the cooled cupcakes. Garnish each one with a fresh strawberry and serve. @coco_tales 12 RSPCA CUPCAKE DAY host guide 13
RSPCA Pupcakes Makes 12-14 pupcakes Please note: serve doggy cupcakes in moderation. Ingredients 2¾ cups water ¼ cup unsweetened apple sauce ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract 4 cups wholemeal flour 1 cup dried apple pieces (you can also use fresh fruit) 1 tablespoon baking powder 1 cage-free egg, beaten slightly 4 tablespoons honey Method 1. Preheat oven to 175 C. 2. Spray a cupcake tin with cooking spray. 3. Mix all wet ingredients thoroughly. 4. Combine dry ingredients in separate bowl. 5. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients slowly, scraping well to make sure no dry mixture is left. 6. Pour the mixture into the cupcake tin. 7. Bake for 30 minutes. Insert a toothpick into the centre of a pupcake and if it comes out dry, they are ready. From the bottom of our baking tins THANK YOU Please remember, this recipe is for your four-legged friends. They re sure to find them tasty, but you may not! 14 RSPCA CUPCAKE DAY
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