What is the Threatened Species Bake Off?
The Threatened Species Bake Off is an invitation to Australians to bake a dessert in the shape of a threatened species. The Bake Off aims to build awareness in the community about Australia’s remarkable and unique threatened wildlife.
The Threatened Species Commissioner is delighted to announce the Threatened Species Bake Off for the sixth year running in 2022!
Key dates
1 September – Entries open
7 September – Threatened Species Day – why not hold an event to celebrate threatened species and eat cake?!
30 September – Entries close
7 October – Winners announced
How to participate
Using your baking skills, produce a baked creation that resembles or represents an Australian native threatened species and share it with the Threatened Species Commissioner on social media. A list of nationally threatened species can be found on the right under resources.
Upload an image of your baked creation to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram by using the hashtag #TSBakeOff and tag the Threatened Species Commissioner. Include your first name, the species and the category you are entering. If you are unable to enter via social media, please send your entry to tsbakeoff@environment.gov.au.
Schools and organisations are encouraged to submit their entry along with a short video or 100-word comment about why their threatened species is important to their school, organisation or region. Schools and organisations can enter via social media or by sending their entry to tsbakeoff@environment.gov.au.
Winners of the 2022 Threatened Species Bake Off will be announced on Friday 7 October by Dr Fiona Fraser, the Australian Government’s Threatened Species Commissioner. The winning entries will be displayed on the Commissioner's social media channels.
By entering the Threatened Species Bake Off you are giving permission for the Department and judges to use the image or video to promote the initiative.
Entries are open until 5pm AEST Friday, 30 September 2022.
What threatened species have you spotted?
This year’s Bake Off will celebrate the fact that if we take the time to look around, there are threatened species we might see wherever we are in Australia, even in urban areas.
You are invited to bake a dessert that looks like a threatened species you have seen in real life. It may have been on a bushwalk, in a zoo or on a scientific expedition.
If you’ve never spotted a threatened species, how about choosing one that you would love to see?
Citizen scientists may have plenty of options from their participation in activities like bird counts, BioBlitzes, or Reef Life Surveys, and from recording what they’ve spotted through platforms and apps such as iNaturalist and FrogID.
When you’re not busy baking, get outside and take another look at your local environment. You never know what you might see.
Categories
The 2022 Threatened Species Bake Off includes six categories so everyone can get involved. Entries will be judged based on the likeness to the chosen threatened species and the creativity of the design. Judges will also consider the content of the written or video comments when judging the schools’ and organisations’ categories.
Early Learner’s Award
The Early Learner's Award is open for children aged 4 years or younger.
Children’s Award
The Children’s Award is open for children aged 5 to 15 years.
Open
The Open category is for entries by individuals 15 years and over. This can include entries from organisations and community groups.
People’s Choice
The winner will be decided by you, the public! All entries will be uploaded into an album on the Threatened Species Commissioner’s Facebook page during the final week of the competition. The winner will be the entry with the most likes.
Schools Award
Open to all Australian schools. Schools are encouraged to submit their entry along with a short video or 100 word comment on why their threatened species is important to their school or region. Schools can enter via social media or by sending their entry to tsbakeoff@environment.gov.au.
Organisation Award
Open to all organisations and community groups. Organisations and community groups are encouraged to submit their entry along with a short video or 100 word comment on why their threatened species is important to their organisation or group. Organisations can enter via social media or by sending their entry to tsbakeoff@environment.gov.au.
Judges
Costa Georgiadis
Costa is a landscape architect, author, environmental educator, and TV host. When you’re not seeing him on the small screen hosting ABC TV’s Gardening Australia, he’s probably surfing or refereeing a rugby game. Costa generates enthusiasm for taking small steps to nurture the natural world because he exudes positivity. Costa’s passion for the environment includes all our precious native plants and animals which is why he can’t wait to see their portraits in edible form as Threatened Species Bake Off entries. His baking abilities are not well known although he has been known to make a compost birthday cake.
Dr Bec West
Bec is an ecologist for the University of New South Wales’ Wild Deserts project, which is reintroducing seven locally extinct mammals to Sturt National Park. Bec is an avid baker and has been making threatened species cakes for various events since 2010. The Threatened Species Bake Off was strongly supported by Bec in her capacity as a judge and co-founder when the initiative was launched in 2017. She is excited to see what the nation can produce for 2022’s Threatened Species Bake Off.
Dr Fiona Fraser
Fiona’s role as Threatened Species Commissioner is to champion the implementation of strategies and practical conservation actions to recover our most imperilled plants and animals. Using the principles of science, action and partnership, Fiona works with First Nations people, conservation organisations, governments, community and the private sector. Fiona is Australia’s third threatened species commissioner and is supported by a small team that is equally committed to and passionate about threatened species recovery. Fiona is looking forward to judging the incredible threatened plant and animal entries!