Cake Is Special

By Anna (Local Connector)

Cake is special. Cake is sweetness and joy and celebration and community. A treat to lift the mood. Shared food, that sparks conversations, and spreads happiness.

The culture around cake is visible in our media, just take a look at Bridgerton, on Netflix. Aside from having the most spectacular and novel dresses on screen, have you ever noticed that with every gathering of people there is a table centre stage – full of cakes? 

In our team, cake comes to our meetings when there is a birthday, or cluster of birthdays, so a modest, quarterly celebration that pops up here and there. Saying this doesn’t fully reflect the value of cake to our team. One of the first meetings I attended when I joined Wellbeing Exeter involved a thirty-minute discussion on how to incorporate birthday cake into the calendar inclusively. There are accommodations to be made so that all can participate and embrace the joy of cake.

Through these delicate deliberations it became apparent that we had an amateur baker in our midst and they agreed to bake for the Spring birthdays. After the grimness of more than forty days of consistent rain, the Spring Cake at our last team meeting was a wonder to behold. Coffee cake delicately iced in cream and Wellbeing green, with what can only be described as silk in the mouth textures and fluffy light layers of sponge, perfectly balanced and beautifully moist. It was the talk of the day.

Which led us to think about how good cake is for the soul, sharing cake is caring. It brings us together in celebration, both big and small. It gives us a moment to pause, engage in the senses and reflect, all key aspects of promoting wellbeing. As I was preparing to put fingers to keyboard for this little sentiment, I thought it prudent to have a quick scan of the internet on the benefits of cake to wellbeing.

I was amused to find that our cake culture is not a rare or independent thing (but of course not). Luckily, I quickly found rigorous academic research that, whilst acknowledging too much of a good thing can be bad, Office Cake culture does indeed foster stronger working relationships and wellbeing more broadly, bringing teams together and allowing time and space for cohesion.

We all know the positive powers of cake on social and emotional wellbeing, but cake can also improve our mood and reduce stress by the short-term release of endorphins and dopamine, win win! Cake is not just a long-lasting tradition, but a universal symbol of coming together, marking something important, a gathering of comfort and love, often handmade and imperfectly perfect. Please enjoy cake responsibly.