Inside the bakery

Like a marathon runner desperate for a pee and sprinting for the finish line, Cake is about to make it to the end of 2007. Everyone agrees that while it has been a long hard slog, this has been a truly memorable year.

Before we leap back onto the merry-go-round and into 2008, it is customary to stop, look back on the year and have a long hard think about what we’ve done. So, in no particular order, here are seven of 2007’s top Cake moments…

1. Turfalgar Square

Surely the most memorable image to have graced the front pages of the newspapers this year was the snapshot of the UK’s most famous square transformed into a village green for Visit London’s Villages campaign. Pigeon poo was not a problem for the interpid events team who did a great job creating a picture that has now become famous across the world.

2. Glossop’s hair

Geek chic reached a new level when style guru Paul Glossop and his hair joined the digital team here at Cake. Paul’s gravity-defying hairstyle was misunderstood at first, with many finding its lack of respect for the laws of physics quite disconcerting.

However, over time, Cakers learned to embrace the way of the Glossop-do and a number of copycat cuts began to appear, including the ones below sported by Cake’s fashionista, Fleur, and key coiffeur opinion former, Mark Hindle.

Hats off to Paul’s hair, that’s what we say.

3. Marriages and babies
One of the best things about working at Cake is that it makes you more attractive to the opposite sex. For this reason and this reason alone, we have seen a number of Cake marriages over the course of 2007. Our Art Director, Simon Moore married his lovely wife, Maddie, while Design diva, Jane Tibbetts married her other half, Nigel. Ex-Cakers, Sian, Andrea, Paul and Simone also got hitched this year (the last two actually ended up marrying each other).

As if that were not enough joy for one year, Adrian Pettett, one the proud fathers of Cake, became a proud father to a baby boy called Sonny. Awwwwww.

4. Cake’s Lizzy Pollott replaces Avid Merrion as the UK’s most prolific celebrity stalker

When it comes to harassing celebrities, no one is more accomplished than or very own celebrity blood hound, Lizzy Pollott. She once stayed awake for three days outside Madonna’s house in the hope of getting a free yoga lesson and, while she was unsuccessful on that occassion, the list of celebrities she has wooed into reluctant and awkward friendship makes for impressive reading.

Next year, Lizzie is hoping to add Simon Cowell and Drew Barrymore to her list. Lizzy, we wish you luck.

Check out these snaps from Lizzie’s sleb cam… no, it doesn’t have a flash!

5. V Festival

We all know that V is a Cake highlight every year, but 2007 was no different at all with Foo Fighters and the Killers headlining and Cakers smack bang in the middle of everything. Far too much went on to recount here, so why not check out August’s V blog for a blast of Summer nostalgia.

6. Marines Day

By industry standards, Cake is quite a manly company. A lot of testosterone flows through the arteries of Cake Towers, but we were all made to feel like a bunch of quivering pansies when confronted with the might of the Royal Marines on our team building day. Surviving the infamous ‘sheep dip’ will remain an all-time career high for most of the people brave enough to take part.

7. Cake’s Christmas party

Every January, the countdown begins to the most anticipated social event of the year - Cake’s Christmas party. This year’s extravaganza had a wild west theme and much drunkenness and debauchery did occur but luckily, due to the free bar, no one remembers any of it. Relief all round.

They say a picture speaks a thousand words, so please find 10,000 words on the Cake Christmas party below.

See ya next year!

Creating a 12 tonne pound coin and erecting it next to the Thames is all in a day’s work for us here at Cake.

We created this 25ft monster in Potters Field, London, to symbolise the £50 million Lottery Good Cause investment BIG is about to make through a nation-wide competition, with the biggest-ever Lottery award to be decided by public vote.

There was a scary moment when it looked like the 48mph winds we were subjected to last night might send the coin clattering to the ground, but thankfully, everything came together in the end.

AMA

Carling Supports saw Carling scour the UK on a mission to unearth the best local music talent. Entrants were encouraged to upload their two best tracks to www.carling.com and four outstanding bands from Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow Liverpool and Newcastle were given the opportunity to play at their local Carling Academy. The prize at stake was a Supporting slot at a Carling venue, priceless exposure in NME and the opportunity to showcase their talents to an industry crowd in London.

Of the twenty-five hopefuls, the five finalists were:

Pinstripe (Carling Supports Bristol)
Page 44 (Carling Supports Birmingham)
Stoneleaf (Carling Supports Newcastle)
The Inventors (Carling Supports Liverpool)
Yoshi (Carling Supports Glasgow)

Armed with a tour bus with their name on it, our five intrepid bands set out on a mission to conquer London in the Carling Supports Showcase and didn’t fail to impress. The event kicked off with the hilarious comedy of award winning Andrew Maxwell, who introduced the bands and ensured there was never a still moment in the two hundred strong crowd.

First up came Pinstripe; showing no signs of a band of eighteen-year-olds who have been playing together for less than two years. They breezed through a string of catchy hits of the future, showing the maturity of group way beyond their years.

Then the crowd were treated to the musical delights of Merseysides The Inventors. The scouse six some looked at home on Supports stage and picked up a room full of fans at the same time. Sounding like a cross between The Coral and The Zutons, they had the room swaying to their quirky grooves from start to finish.

Third on the bill was Birmingham’s Page 44. Taking the night in a rockier direction, they blasted out a string of anthems that would be as home in a stadium as they were to the intimate Supports crowd.

Just as the crowd began to mosh, Yoshi took over and filled the room with a funk injected dance floor explosion. Sounding like a Scottish version of Junior Senior, they rolled out the baselines, plucked the funky licks and rapped to the crowds delight.

Last but not least came Stoneleaf. The Geordie three piece finished the night with a heavy dose of grunge that left the crowd with something to talk about on the way home. It was no surprise to see an entourage of happy fans in attendance for the polished outfit.

Ice-cold Carling, a happy crowd and the best new music made the Carling Supports Showcase the complete live experience! Look out for its return in 2008.

Generally speaking, we are far too sedentary a bunch here at Cake Towers, which is why the 10 bravest Cakers hefted themselves out from behind their desks and into their lycra for the first ever LGN (Look Good Naked) 5K Inter Ad Agency Challenge.
The run took place in Hyde Park around The Serpentine on a blustery day and proved a fun experience for all… apart from the last 200 metres, which were situated on what can only be described as a mountainous hill. Dreams of a sprint finish lay in tatters as we struggled across the finish line.
Congratulations go to our very own speed demon, Matt Holmes who finished in just 20 minutes and 34 seconds. Web geek Claire Watson made it round in 23 minutes and 18 seconds, with the rest of us finishing in a respectable 31 minutes.
Obviously we’ve all started training for next years event, so bring it on!

If asked to name my favourite word, I’d probably go for something onomatopoeic like ‘plop’ or ‘fizzle’ (any excuse to use the word onomatopoeic).

However, according to research from Ubisoft, creators of new language game ‘My Word Coach’, the most popular word in the UK is Nincompoop. Close runners up were ‘love’ and ‘mum’.

Nincompoop is undeniably a great word, rolling as it does, around the ear drum like runny honey, but should it really come ahead of the phenomenal ‘discombobulated’ and more importantly, does it deserve to be a full nine places ahead of the irrepressible ‘onomatopoeic’?

I certainly don’t believe so, but perhaps I’m just being a bit of a nincompoop!

The nation’s top ten words –

Nincompoop
Love
Mum
Discombobulated
Excellent
Happy
Squishy
Fabulous
Cool
Onomatopoeia