Lions Christmas cakes have raised more than $60 million dollars for worthy causes. The Lions Christmas Cake and Pudding program has been a major fund-raising project of Lions Australia since 1965 and raised more than $70million. The proceeds from this project are donated back into the community with great causes including Blindness Prevention and Vision improvement projects, Medical Research, Children’s Mobility Foundation, Eye Health Program, Hearing Dogs, Disaster Relief, Aged Care, Drug Awareness and Youth Programs.
You can rest assured that should you purchase a product from this program the proceeds generated will
be put to good use in the community.
An icon for generations of Australians. Savoured by our troops in Afghanistan and other war zones. For
hundreds of thousands, it’s a festive must. It is the Lions Traditional Christmas Cake. Biting into a luscious, moist slice is an occasion to be savoured. Yet despite its phenomenal fundraising records, the cake might never have been but for some early Australian Lions who played a hunch. Its all part of the cake’s colourful history. First released in 1965, clubs are annually flooded with requests for deliveries of the cake, and some of those requests are far from ordinary. Overseas emails regularly ask that cakes be delivered to loved ones around Australia, and many Australians send cakes to friends and family overseas.
Saving sight While the cake largely sells itself, in its half century-plus history Lions have excelled at promoting the project in many inventive ways. In 1992 a TV advert queried, “Did you know that eating a Christmas cake can prevent blindness”, a clever reference to Lions’ SAVE SIGHT initiative.
There have been Lions Christmas Cake decorating contests and cakes are regularly served to dignitaries at official functions, making it as synonymous with Lions as the Bunnings sausage sizzle.
Biggest bake names in Australia While the cake’s traditional recipe has barely changed over the years, it has been produced by the biggest names in Australian baking history, brands such as Big Sister, Arnott’s and Top Taste. Traditional Foods as the new custodian of the cake. Already Traditional Foods-produced Lions cakes are being shipped Australia-wide. The products include the familiar 1kg and 1.5kg cakes plus an 80-gram slice, along with the 900-gram and 400-gram puddings. From 2024 we introduced a Gluten Free 400g cake.
The maker For Traditional Foods, established in 1993 by Stephen Heath’s (Stephen is CEO) father, it has brought a hefty lift in production at its state-of-the-art, HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) accredited Dandenong South facility. Now the company’s biggest bake job, it’s roughly double that of the next biggest product. The initial bake took just over two months and will be followed by a top-up bake in October-November to satisfy late customers. “It’s the cooking that takes the most time,” explains Stephen. “The larger cakes take two to three hours to bake, so that limits how many we can do in a day.”
“The recipe for puddings is unchanged,” says Stephen, “but the cake recipe has been modified to our recipes with a slightly greater percentage of Australian ingredients, 49%, than the previous one.” Ideally, Stephen would like to see them containing 100% Australian fruit, but supply shortages and/or excessive
costs prevent this. Although he modestly declines to compare his company’s Lions cakes to what went before, he admits it was pleasing to receive feedback when he joined with Lions in offering samples at the May MD201 Convention in Canberra.
“The taste buds are in the eye of the beholder but the feedback there was all positive, and what I’m
hearing is that some thought it was moister than the previous cake.” Likewise, he is thrilled that what his company is producing is of such huge community worth Australia-wide.
“Hats off to Lions for getting this project up and running in the first place, and for sticking with it for all
these years,” he says. “It’s a great project to be involved in.”
Recommended retail prices:
Lions Christmas Cake 1.5kg $20.00
Lions Christmas Cake 1kg $16.00
Lions Christmas Pudding 900gm $16.00
Lions Christmas Pudding 400gm $10.00
Lions Gluten Free Christmas Cake $10.00
Lions Mini Cake 80gm $2.00
“A special Thank you to Lions N District Cake & Mint Coordinator Nora Brooks for providing the
information and story. Nora has provided written permission for Glen Innes Lions Publicity Officer to
publish and share this.”
Cakes can be purchased directly from Lions at local markets or through select retailers around town.
