Get practising for the Canberra show

You’re probably all baking for school fetes, but once that’s behind you, it’s time to turn your mind to the Royal Canberra Show in February and start practising.

Being the centenary year, the ‘‘heritage cake’’ category should be hotly contested. Refreshingly unprescriptive, this can be ‘‘any type of cake made from a hand-me-down recipe’’, as long as it’s not a cake type already in the schedule (and there’s a long list, from fruit cakes, to marble, orange, chocolate, banana, coffee, gluten-free and more).

There is a ‘‘man’s favourite cake’’ category, also, and this one must be made by a man. And, in a nod to the past, there’s a category for damper, although it bgeats me how you’d judge the nuances of good and bad versions of flour stuck together with water and roughly fried. Also there are categories for children.

Tend those vegetables carefully for the produce competition, see rncas.org.au