One&Only Cape Town Partners with the Cape Leopard Trust to Celebrate the Wild Leopards of the Cape for Heritage Month

Published: 18 September 2019

The Cape Leopard Trust celebrates its 15th birthday in 2019, and we were recently presented with the perfect opportunity to use our anniversary to raise awareness of leopards in the Cape for Heritage Month when we were approached by international Cake Master Dot Klerck.

In 2017, Wellington-based Dot won the equivalent of a culinary Oscar for her life-size elephant and calf cake. Each year since then, Dot has created a life-size cake for a wildlife cause close to her heart, and this year she chose the leopard. No occasion is complete without a cake, and now all we had to do was to find the perfect territory deserving of such a special big cat. An ardent supporter of the Cape Leopard Trust, One&Only Cape Town was excited to give the cake leopard a fitting home. To make things really interesting the O&O team designed a series of events at the resort to kick off from Friday, 13 September for a month, with the purpose of raising awareness of the valuable natural heritage in the Cape for the benefit of tourists and Capetonians.

Finally, the big day dawned. After seeing snapshots shared intermittently by Dot of the ‘step by step’ cake building process, we were elated to finally see the finished result, a leopard female and two cubs gracing the hotel reception area.

One&Only Cape Town is renowned for its sophisticated afternoon tea, and the aroma of chocolate and sugar hung seductively in the air as the first the sweet creations, designed by chef Chris Mare and his pastry team were presented to guests. Each piece had a link to the event, including a cake copy of the handbag donated by one of Cape Town’s inspirational women business leaders, Carol Bouwer. The proceeds from the handbag if sold will be donated to the Trust. Aptly named ‘The Cat That Got the Cream Tea’, each special edition of the iconic high tea booked in the next month will contribute R20 to the Cape Leopard Trust.
A Dylan Lewis elevated leopard sculpture added more gravitas and stood guard over the reception area.

If this wasn’t already enough, we had the privilege of showcasing distillers Lesley and Colleen of Ginsmith gin as they launched a Leopard Extravaganza cocktail, crafted by the One&Only’s Vista Bar’s own mixologists specifically for heritage month. Adorned with a leopard figure as its bottle’s signature, Ginsmith from the Grootwinterhoek mountains has its origins in leopard territory and supports the work of the trust.

Getting the youth involved in conservation is a cause close to our hearts, and we were thrilled to be contacted by Camps Bay High School learners, Drew Goldie and Sebastian Byrnes. Drew and Sebastian initiated the Big Cat Youth Collection a few years ago to support big cat conservation. A few months back, they asked if they could support the Cape’s leopards by launching a new pride member, and we invited them and their latest cat mascot, ‘Chui’, to share the afternoon with us to and to acknowledge their conservation efforts. The young ambassadors began their fundraising drive two years ago to raise money for big cat conservation causes by selling locally crafted big cat figures. Since then, the initiative has grown and supported numerous organisations from the sale of each big cat figure.

We love it when a plan comes together, and it was incredible how this event fell seamlessly into place with all the partners helping us to raise awareness of leopards in the Cape. We would like to thank One&Only Cape Town, Dot Klerck of Eat Cake Party, Elda Thomas and The Elephant Project SA, Ginsmith, Carol Bouwer Designs, Dylan Lewis Studio, Leopard’s Leap Family Vineyards and Big Cat Youth Ambassadors, Drew and Sebastian.

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