A Geraldine 10-year-old’s tea party has raised much-needed funds for The Starship Foundation.
Unlike other children’s tea parties, there was not a single pink plastic teapot or propped-up doll in sight.
Instead, Ada Necklen catered for 30 guests (half of whom were children) in a bid to raise money for the charity which supports New Zealand’s national children’s hospital.
Ada had been busy in the kitchen for a couple of months before the big event, whipping up a wide range of baked goods.
The event was planned for last month as part of Starship Foundation’s Big Bake Off.
The Big Bake Off was usually held on June 26, with participants hosting a morning tea, a bake sale, or a full-on dessert spread.
However, when Ada’s family was struck down by sickness at the last moment, it had to be postponed.
Money from last week’s tea party was raised from a gold coin donation at the door. There was also a selection of cakes for sale and the option for people to donate to the cause.
Her mother Philippa Necklen said her daughter had made about $250 from the day alone (after costs had been taken out), but altogether for Starship, she had raised over $1300 since the start of fundraising.
She said when her daughter was not reading in her spare time, she was baking.
After her brothers went to bed — and the kitchen was spotless — Ada would often offer to cook, usually for snacks to fill lunch boxes.
Her brothers Isaac, 8, and Liam, 6, were not too fussed with home-baked goodies in their lunch boxes.
But for Ada there were not many supermarket cookies that were better than homebaked ones.
She was a big fan of Farmbake chocolate chip cookies, though. Especially the ones from the bottom of the bag with bits of broken-up cookies on top.
Despite the mammoth effort of the past few months, she still had her passion for baking and wanted to work in a bakery when she was older.
She did try to clean up afterwards.
‘‘It depends if the dishwasher is full or not,’’ she said.
She felt baking had helped her somewhat in math class.
‘‘When we do fractions at school I kinda knew from baking.’’
