Launching the Benjamin Foundation charity cake bake with chief exective Richard Draper and celebrity chef Galton Blackiston.

People across Norfolk are being urged to get baking butterfly cakes to cook up cash for a busy charity.

Richard Draper founder and chief executive of the Benjamin Foundation

The Benjamin Foundation runs a range of services from hostels for young homeless to support for children and families.

To mark its 18th birthday it has launched a Butterfly Cake Bake, picking up the theme of its logo, using a recipe from cake expert Mary Berry and with the backing of local celebrity chef Galton Blackiston.

They are hoping people will run cake parties and ask people to make donations to the North Walsham-based foundation.

It was launched by charity chief executive Richard Draper and Mr Blackiston at Winston Court in the town, one of the cause’s supported accommodation centres for homeless young people.

Foundation founder Mr Draper said: “My wife Vanessa and I set up The Benjamin Foundation in October 1994 as a small North Norfolk charity providing rural youth services. 18 years later our reach has grown further than we could ever have imagined.

“We named the charity after our much-loved eldest son Benjamin, who was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident. As the organisation approaches it’s coming of age, Vanessa and I are acutely aware that Ben never reached his own 18th birthday. We want The Benjamin Foundation’s birthday to be an uplifting event and we’d love everyone in Norfolk to celebrate with us. As our logo depicts a butterfly, what better way than with butterfly cakes?”

Mr Blackiston, from Morston Hall hotel, added: “The Butterfly Cake Bake is a fun way for people to get involved and raise some money to help The Benjamin Foundation continue its great work.

“Many of us know someone who will need The Benjamin Foundation’s help at some point in their life. That’s why we’re asking people across Norfolk to join in with the Butterfly Cake Bake and donate whatever they can to help the charity to bring hope, opportunity, stability and independence to thousands more people in our county.”

To find out more about The Benjamin Foundation’s work, to donate or register to host a butterfly cake bake, please visit www.benjaminfoundation.co.uk or telephone 01692 500 999. Butterfly cake bake leaflets, fundraising forms and posters can also be downloaded from the website. Additionally, anyone really proud of their butterfly cakes can email a photograph of their creations to cake@benjaminfoundation.co.uk marked ‘cake bake photo’ before 31 October 2012, to be entered into a prize draw to win a baking prize, courtesy of Norwich Cake Craft Centre.