It’s the middle of the week. At the office of a firm that prides itself on keeping up with market trends, workers are gulping down their lunch, their eyes fixed on computer terminals. One of them springs up from her chair and announces that it’s a teammate’s birthday, there is cake in the common room. After the handshakes and greetings, all eyes turn to the table where a sunshine-yellow lemon cake awaits. The next quarter of an hour is spent in eating it and extolling its fluffy texture. The more discerning talk of the aromas of spices and butter. Everyone returns to their workstation happy, primed to meet the next deadline.
Of course, workplace bonding doesn’t necessarily require a birthday celebration. But an occasion to have cake is not to be disdained. The head of the UK’s Food Standards Agency, Susan Jebb, seems to believe that treating colleagues with these slices of pleasure is akin to making them passive smokers. She has suggested that people avoid bringing cake to office for the sake of their colleagues’ health.
However, even the censorious food safety expert cannot avoid talking of the charm of cakes: “If nobody brought cakes to office, I would not eat cakes during the day, but because people do bring cakes in, I eat them.” It’s difficult not to sympathise with this confession. Whether gilded with ornate toppings, frosted with buttercream and embedded with chocolate chips, fruits and nuts or evoking the discrete charms of vanilla, a cake is an indulgence to be had not for nutrition alone. The dessert is also about sharing, love and camaraderie. Eaten in moderation, it can’t be too bad, especially in times when deprived of mealtime fellowship, people are driving themselves to the extremes of emaciation and obesity.