A CRACK team of amateur bakers has mixers poised ready to ensure every child in Bicester gets a special birthday cake.

Six women have got together to follow in the footsteps of a successful community project that has been running in Oxford for about two years.

Free Cakes For Kids UK aims to ensure children, from babies to 10-year-olds, don’t suffer if their family is in financial difficulties and will still get a birthday cake to celebrate their special day.

Organiser Antonia Lavorato, a 35-year-old radiation physicist, said: “I took the idea from a similar project running since 2008 in Oxford with a lot of success.”

Mrs Lavorato, of Spruce Drive, Bicester, added: “Our policy is to help families who cannot afford to buy a birthday cake or if the family is going through a rough patch, such as a sudden death, and the last thing they are thinking of is baking a cake.

“The other point is we never deliver a cake to a home, not because we don’t want to meet the children, but psychologically if a family is going through a rough patch it’s nicer to see the parents walk in with the cake.”

Anyone who wants to donate ingredients, or order a cake should call 01869 321107.