Turn A New Leaf

Sydney Morning Herald

Tuesday April 29, 2008

Leesha McKenny

Careful planning meets the challenge of this fund-raiser's annual tea party, writes Leesha McKenny.

CHRISTINE ABELA is a firm believer in the mass appeal of food. "You can always bring people together with food," she says. It's a theory frequently put to the test for the 63-year-old mother of three and grandmother of seven.

Although her greatest catering challenge is an annual tea party. For the past seven years she has staged a "Biggest Morning Tea" at her Grays Point home, a fund-raiser organised by the Cancer Council.

"I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999 and once I got my head around what had happened and I'd finished my treatment, I'd been invited to one and I thought: 'I could do this,"' she says.

In her first year, her morning tea had 30 guests. Last year the invites blew out to 130, raising almost $7000 in the process.

"It is being embraced in a big way now, which is lovely," she says.

Abela enlists friends, her two adult daughters and daughter-in-law to help with invitations and some of the cooking. But even with a few extra hands, her morning tea starts early.

Abela begins planning a raffle in December and is up at dawn on the day to ensure everything runs smoothly.

"I usually start cooking about a fortnight before and put in the freezer anything that freezes very well," she says.

"You learn all the time. Don't put out folded serviettes between cups and saucers because it's too hard for the ladies to get at - just all these little quirky things to make it easier."

Despite the workload, the event has become her passion. "I just feel so fortunate," she says.

"My sister has had ovarian cancer, my mum passed away in 2006 with bone cancer, my niece has had breast cancer. But it's not just me - it's everywhere and every time you turn around you're hearing about somebody."

If a morning tea for 130 people sounds daunting, it is fair to say that Abela is not without practice.

Once a week for the past eight years, her children and grandchildren - or 15 people all up - head over to her house for a multiple-course weekly family dinner, which takes all day to prepare.

"My husband's Maltese. He is one of six kids and we used to bombard his mum every Sunday afternoon with all our kids just to all get together and I guess that's where the tradition started," she says.

"It just gives the siblings time to get together."

Abela says she had always planned to hold 10 morning teas before throwing in - or passing on - the apron, which means she does have to make the odd compromise.

"Let's put it this way," she says. "We don't have family dinner the night before morning tea - that's off."

A cuppa to fight cancer

More than 1 million people across Australia are expected to raise their tea cups in the fight against cancer next month. Officially held on May 22, the Biggest Morning Tea is one of the Cancer Council's big fund-raising events. Participants hold a morning tea at home, work, school or in the community and ask guests to donate.

To register and receive a resources kit, or to donate, phone 1300 656 585 or see www.biggestmorningtea.com.au.

Banana cake with passionfruit cream cheese frosting

3 cups self-raising flour

1 tsp bicarbonate soda

1 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups of caster sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

5 over-ripe bananas, peeled and mashed

125g cream cheese

2 tbsp butter

Pulp of 1 passionfruit

About 3 cups of sifted icing sugar

Preheat oven to 170C. Grease and line a 25cm x 35cm baking dish with baking paper.

Sift flour and bicarbonate of soda. Add oil, sugar, eggs, vanilla essence and bananas in a large mixing bowl and beat well for four to five minutes. Pour mixture into a prepared tin.

Cook for about 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Cool in a tin for five minutes before turning it out. For the frosting, beat cream cheese with butter until smooth.

Add passionfruit pulp, then gradually add sifted icing sugar until thick and creamy.

Spread generously over cake.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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