Star bakers in the making: How staff and business got involved in NUH Big Bake Week

Our very first Big Bake Week was a huge success, thanks to the incredible involvement from so many! It was wonderful to see staff across NUH and local businesses from across Nottingham come together in support of our hospitals.

On 14th October, we invited staff across NUH and businesses throughout Nottingham to pre-heat their ovens and get baking for our first ever NUH Big Bake Week in support of Nottingham’s hospitals.

Over 40 bake sales took place, with money raised is still coming in, but so far thousands have been raised to support patient care throughout Nottingham’s hospitals. The week concluded with a special bake sale at the Nottingham Breast Institute, organised by the fantastic staff as part of their fundraising for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The event saw everyone pitching in, from staff baking cakes to patients past and present popping by for a delicious treat. Sweet and savoury goodies, including Arabic coffee, were available, and with nearly £400 raised, these funds will directly support the vital work done at the institute.

It wasn’t just patient-facing and clinical teams who got involved—Heathfield House, responsible for technical support across City Hospital, joined in too, unleashing their baking skills with a fantastic selection of Halloween-inspired cupcakes, cookies, and cakes. Later on in the week, Rebecca Rhodes and the team at the Children’s Development Centre held a wonderful bake sale, raising over £75, while Maxillofacial Outpatients at the QMC encouraged patients and staff alike to sample their homemade butterfly cakes and freshly baked bread.

Rebecca Rhodes, Paediatric Neurodisability Registrar at the Children’s Development Centre said;“We really enjoyed our bake sale at CDC. We raised an amazing £75 and it was a lovely morale boost for our department to do something all together.”

Alongside NUH staff, local businesses like Eden Public Relations and Catena Network joined the baking fun, raising over £150 with help from The Cake Boutique, which provided plenty of delicious treats. Volute and Touch Design teamed up with the Price and Myers team for their Big Bake Week sale, encouraging the whole office to get involved. Together with other participating businesses, they raised over £280 through our online JustGiving page. Thanks to the use of QR code cards, supporters could easily donate by scanning with their phones, making it a perfect cash-free solution and helping more people get involved in supporting Nottingham hospitals. Handelsbanken also held two days of bake sales, doubling their total through match-funding to make an even greater impact.

Don’t worry if you missed out on our first-ever NUH Big Bake Week; you can bake for Nottingham hospitals all year round!

Bake Week and the NUH Big Bake are here to stay, and you can download our free pack at any time to plan a bake sale that suits you. The pack is filled with top tips and resources, including recipe cards, posters, signage, cake labels, and even a judging pack if you want to add a competitive edge—just like the team at Ward C25 at QMC who raised an impressive £110, and team members judged the bakes to the highest taste-test standards, crowning Gwen as their Star Baker.