Threatened albatrosses, World Albatross Day, climate change? Then it’s clearly time for an albicake!

"Sea into the Future" by Amy King

“I've baked a vanilla sponge with jam and cream, a British summer classic, but iced it with a Sooty Albatross (they are my favourite so had to be on there) a Waved Albatross, as I hope to see one eventually, and a Black-browed Albatross as we have one currently hanging out at the UK's Bempton Cliffs Nature Reserve I'm working on this summer, with all the Northern Gannets and other seabirds.  The rising sea levels are creeping towards the chick on the nest, and the Sooty is shading under a sun umbrella, with the writing in flame colours to represent a hotter climate"

Forming part of the inaugural launch of World Albatross Day on 19 June 2020, the hugely successful Great Albicake Bake Off Competition saw photographs of no less than  74 cakes submitted from all over the world.  Everyone can agree that the calibre of some of the entries was on completely different wing sets!

“Rising Seas, Albatross Flee” by Emma Houghton
“Aa peanut butter cake with vanilla frosting waves.  The nest is topped with Biscoff crumbs and the Laysan Albatross is a moulded rice crispy treat”

"Caring for our Future" by Vanessa Stone
“A vanilla buttermilk cake with Italian frosting buttercream icing with supportive hands and chocolate wings”

This year the theme for World Albatross Day 2022 is Climate Change, so we put the call out encouraging bird-loving bakers that albatross cakes do not need a competition to be created for a second Albicake Bake Off.  An albicake needs only an inspired and enthusiastic baker to celebrate this threatened group of birds in deliciously sweet form! We encouraged all albicake bakers to submit their creations on social media with the tag #albicakebakeoff – even though no official competition was being organised.

Slippery Slope", a chocolate-coffee cake with tumbling albatross eggs, chicks and nests as the climate heats up, by Kim Stevens & Vonica Perold (pictured) and Roelf Daling on Gough Island

And the cakes did not disappoint!  From a Sooty Albatross sunbaking on a beach to an albatross fleeing from rising seas – their bakers did wonders by incorporating this very grave theme into very delicious-looking cakes. Five different cakes were shared with ACAP, overall, the cakes emphasize how important it is to care for our 22 species of albatrosses.

Michelle Risi on Aldabra holds her vanilla sponge cake “Aldabra's Lonely Albatross”, with endemic species Aldabra Giant Tortoise (“torties will eat anything”) and a curious Aldabra White-throated Rail

“It's 100 years into the future, and we humans have not done enough to stem the swift impact of climate change. The sea level has risen and now 500 m of coastline has been lost around Aldabra, severely reducing the land area.  The ocean is green due to rampant algal blooms (also due to limited food colouring options on a remote atoll).  And due to  severe droughts, the land is completely barren.  Tortoises are extinct because their existence was tied to the vegetation they ate.  Strong wind events have blown one of the few remaining albatrosses far off course, and it flies, sadly, over Aldabra ”

For the love of albatrosses, there needn’t ever be a reason to bake an albicake.  As Marie Antoinette once said, “Let them eat cake!”*.

“Michelanie” (Melanie Wells, Hobart, Australia & Michelle Risi, Aldabra, Seychelles), 27 June 2022

*Actually, it seems certain she didn’t (click here) - Ed.