The 8 rules of cake club

• 1st RULE: Everyone votes at cake club.
• 2nd RULE: EVERYONE votes at cake club.
• 3rd RULE: If someone says "burnt" the cake is over.
• 4th RULE: Only one person can bake.
• 5th RULE: Only one cake at a time.
• 6th RULE: No shop bought, no spouse-made.
• 7th RULE: Cake will be eaten until it is gone.
• 8th RULE: If this is your first time at cake club, you HAVE to bake.

 

I like cake and have written about it before on Core Genomics. In nearly every place I've worked cake has been brought in at times of celebration, birthdays mostly. However in a few places the bringing of cake has become a more formal part of lab-life. When I worked at the John Innes Centre we had a lab full of young  people and our tea breaks were made extra special on Friday afternoons when it was time for cake club. One lucky PhD student or research assistant would bring in cake for the lab and we'd all give scores. It became quite competitive and scoring was brutal at times!

In my current Institute several groups have regular cake. My own lab has made Tuesday afternoon tea-break a time for us to give the lab a weekly tidy and then relax together. One of us will bake so we've got something to look forward to after clearing out qPCR plates, checking fridges and freezers are at temperature and making sure there are clean lab-coats and enough tips.

Holly's lemon drizzle cake

We don't get quite so tough on the scoring but some cakes are really very very good. It certainly brings everyone together. Why not get a cake-club going in your lab?