Our largest activity involves Surprise Cake! Whether as a means of briefly meeting other CakeFaeries, or of Surprise Cake materializing in your pigeonhole...
Also be welcome to ask for Kindly Notes or Silly Notes to accompany the cake...
This morale-boosting activity is particularly big at the start of Michaelmas, and again to express support in the build up to exams in Easter.
This activity is furthermore free and obviously 100 percent harmless and 1000 percent friendly.
In the event of lockdown, and over the holidays, Kindly and Silly Notes are sent by email. Under these circumstances, pictures of some of what we bake, and recipes, also become available.
If you'd like to be involved with CakeFaeries' wholesome activities, there are correspondingly various different wholesome kinds of CakeFaerie that you could be: Bakey CakeFaeries, Kindly CakeFaeries, Silly CakeFaeries (producing Silly Notes rather than Kindly Notes on request)...
CakeFaeries activities, including Bake-Alongs and the Icebreaker events where the Kindly Notes and Silly Notes are produced, have Support Group character. We insist on running Icebreakers all year round as a very significant contribution to wellbeing (if not perhaps a widely known way to contribute to wellbeing). All activities we run are Safer Spaces; why we do these activities is more important here than what our activities consist of... So, for instance, most other groups that run any Icebreakers at all only do so in Freshers' Week and Squash Week, but there is need for these all year round, so we strive to provide some...
Our Icebreaker activities include picnics, wordplay, drawing pictures for the Kindly Notes and making Silly Notes items out of pipecleaners. Most of these can be viewed as part of the CakeFaeries' Cooperative Scavenger Hunt; they are also an example of how our Allies and Ally Training work: listening to what people asking for Icebreakers actually want, and providing Icebreakers to match accordingly. Due to this we can also be viewed as an Icebreaker design society, whose activities consist of some of our more successful Icebreaker activities, foremost amongst which is Surprise Cake with Kindly and/or Silly Notes :)
One can consequently also find Hunty CakeFaeries, while some Kindly CakeFaeries are also Listeny CakeFaeries.
So, if you'd like Surprise Cake this term, email the Great CakeFaeries in the Sky with:
--- Your name:
--- email address (@cam if you have one):
--- College:
- The Magical Means by which Cake can reach you: at least one of
i) where in College your pigeonhole is,
ii) your room address,
iii) the CakeFaerie Badge, by whose magic cake may appear
[Note: while we display all three of these so you know about them for future occasions, it is likely that there will be no CakeFaerie room visits this term.]
--- Dietary requirements: Vegetarian, Vegan, Allergies� (preferences like 'chocolatey' or 'I'm not a fan of marzipan' can also to some extent be accommodated).
--- Whether you'd like Kindly Notes with some of your cake (as provided by Kindly CakeFaeries and Listeny CakeFaeries)
--- Whether you'd like Silly Notes with some of your cake (as provided by Silly CakeFaeries and Hunty CakeFaeries)
--- Whether you'd like to be an Active CakeFaerie and of which kind.
a) The idea is that most, if not all, Active CakeFaeries are Scouty CakeFaeries - Surprise Cake Deliverers - for we need at least one Scouty CakeFaerie per College; this is an activity which takes very, very little time to do; it is done quietly and discreetly :)
If you'd like to be more involved than this, would you like to also be
b) a Kindly CakeFaerie? (Kindly Notes Writer.)
c) A Silly CakeFaerie? (Silly Notes Writer.)
d) A Bakey CakeFaerie?
a), b), c), d) are voluntary activities: meaning that there are no obligations.
If you'd like to be an Ally and/or part of running events then you could also volunteer to be
e) a Hunty CakeFaerie,
f) a Listeny CakeFaerie,
g) a Duelly CakeFaerie?
The difference between the first two is that Listeny CakeFaeries listen to those who say why they need a Safer Space, while Hunty CakeFaeries provide or participate in Silly or other Lighter-Hearted Icebreaker activities that temporarily take peoples' minds away from worries and toils. This second mode of Support Group action is part of how people who are Not Out about why they need a Safer Space can none the less be accommodated and feel supported.
Indeed, there is a third kind of Ally: Duelly CakeFaeries. This follows from feedback from many people in need of a Safer Space wanting Allies who are well-versed in Security. This includes anonymity, privacy and how people who are Not Out do things. In ordinary times, Duellies illustrate personal safety with escaping and being very hard to ambush or corner in the approachable context of waterpistol fighting. At present, Duellies' personal safety tactics are being applied instead to working out how to actively socially distance in everyday life.
You are welcome to volunteer for any combination of the above wholesome kinds of CakeFaerie that you like! :)
While many of the more experienced CakeFaeries are Hunty, Listeny, or Duelly, there may also be need for a Head Bakey, as well as for several Scouty CakeFaeries that carry bags of cake more sizeable distances across town. Some of the people mentioned in this paragraph will, for a term or two, be the "Great CakeFaerie on the Hill" or the "Great CakeFaerie of Grangemerton" (from Grange Road through to Homerton). Large expanses of land like this are known as CakeFaerie Realms.
Of course, Bakey, Scouty, Listeny, Duelly, Silly and Hunty CakeFaeries are further explained on our webpage.
There is no deadline for joining :) Signing up for CakeFaeries is generally done on a term-by-term basis; so you'll need to sign up again if you'd like another piece of cake next term...
1) All our activities are Safer Spaces: a Culture of Respect.
All our activities are based on friendly conduct.
2) We are foremost about continually meeting new people and making friends.
To be involved in CakeFaeries is to consent to be met briefly at any point of meeting that you give.
But not a card to intrude beyond welcome.
3) Our Safer Spaces' Icebreaker activities currently include Surprise Cake (Baking and Distribution), Kindly Notes production and Listeny CakeFaeries, Silly Cakefaeries and the CakeFaeries' Cooperative Scavenger Hunt, which both produce Silly Notes, and Duelly CakeFaeries' Safer Space Waterfighting. Our Scavenger Hunt also includes building things out of Lego or out of Pipecleaners.
4) With us, moreover, why we do activities is more important than what the activities themselves consist of. At least to us, people are more important than activities... We are foremost a Safer Space! CakeFaeries are also welcome to dabble in building workable Icebreaker activities; as such many of our Events can also be viewed as Icebreaker design gatherings.
5) We provide a Thoughtful Service that meaningfully accommodates New, Shy and Different Peoples who do not deliberately hurt others. This is in fact widely considered to significantly contribute to wellbeing, especially amongst many who consider to be de facto left out by how large numbers of societies are run and how conventional social groups are very often (if not always) formed and structured. We can be viewed as a by-design low-profile pep squad for those who actually are in most need of a pep squad, namely the downtrodden, the meek and those left out elsewhere.
0) With us, a person is upset if they say they are, and without having to say why. Apologies are expected, as are non-repeats of what caused it.
6) Many groups and societies are based on similarities between members, and have or form consensuses. We don't do these things. We are, rather, a General-Purpose Safer Space: we simultaneously accommodate a very wide range of different people.
7) CakeFaerie Safer Spaces are inclusive of any minority that is legal and consensual, regardless of whether additionally legally protected or whether a person is Out as regards belonging to the minority in question. As per the picture of a CakeFaerie on the CUSU website, this includes for instance Social Anxiety and Aces (Asexuals). CakeFaeries activities being a Safer Space additionally means that zero personal abuse is tolerated during this activity or over its running.
8) Each of our meet-ups' activities is at most a game in the sense of an Icebreaker game. Thus it is no excuse for trouble or nuisance. In particular, do nothing illegal, or which may be mistaken by onlookers as highly illegal. Non-cakefaeries are not to be inconvenienced by in-person CakeFaerie activities.
During an in-person activity, if you can't provide a reasonable explanation for what you are doing to any Porters/Fellows/Police Officers who challenge you over doing it,then you shouldn't be doing it.
These are all moreover harmless activities, so do nothing at all likely to cause injury to anyone, whether passer-by or Participant (including yourself), or cause material damage.
9) People signing up for activities are certainly CakeFaeries, regardless of whether Active or Passive. People signing up for our email list(s) are also CakeFaeries.
10) Each CakeFaerie has the right to be anonymous during CakeFaerie activities. Personal safety concerns of anyone present always take precedence over tactics or rules of splitting up, or choices of equipment.
11) You are not photograph or video people at or around Safer Space events without the explicit permission of all the people featured.
12) No CakeFaeries' Safer Space activities permit use of physical strength to enhance performance or outcome. This means no pushing or pulling things that other people are holding; running faster or being less slowed down by heavy gadgets are not affected by this.
13) Each of our specific activities has No Activity Zones, and/or limits on when in the day they can be done.
Most of our activities are currently done either off university property or online. Our waterpistol fighting and in-person scavenger hunting are done solely off university property.
Were an activity to permit being on university property outside of that where you belong, you must have your uni ID with you if you have any, or, if not, your alumnus card while being aware of how just having one of these is more restrictive.
14) In the unlikely event of a problem arising during a CakeFaerie-ing Event or mission, say "SafeOut" to alert all CakeFaeries present that there is a problem, so that all stop what they are doing and immediately pay attention to the nature of the problem.
SafeOut stops the activity until all participants present understand why it was evoked and that the reason for it no longer applies. SafeOut covers all Conduct and Safety matters, immediately stopping the activity to nip the problem in the bud. Be it a matter of common decency, safety, security, friendliness, inclusion, or Safer Space matters.
SafeOut includes "SafeOut: one of us is causing it". The way this case is handled is described in item 0).
15) Any CakeFaerie can volunteer to help out as an Active CakeFaerie or as part of running a CakeFaerie Realm or a type of CakeFaerie.
16) Some CakeFaerie organizing is run similarly to Linkline, for the similar reason of putting vulnerable people first.
17) Some things that we specifically are or specifically are not: we are neither a political group not an activist group. We are specifically cooperative and not competitive, nor are we a role-playing club. Anything we run called 'game' is specifically in the sense of icebreaker game and specifically not in the sense of 'gaming'. Cakefaeries is an education and (in)visibility network. CakeFaeries very much does not run activities on publicly viewable social media. We very generally do not consent to the CakeFaeries society, or our activities, being mentioned in any kind of social media or press, or being advertised by any group other than the CakeFaeries society. Nor do we accept any chat channels or social media groups set up by others to bear our society's name or any of our activities' names without our consent, nor any other kind of false impersonation.
18) Exercise common sense at all times. Participants are entirely responsible for their own behaviour. CakeFaerie organizers do not condone for any CakeFaerie events leading to confrontation with authority figures. CakeFaerie events are to avoid inconveniencing other people, especially Police, the general public, Porters and other university staff.
Postscript: CakeFaerie Kindness to all in these atypical times... Now let's go make Cambridge an even better and more wholesome place, by providing Safer Spaces in a few nooks and crannies, and by being a Crumb of Comfort with our Surprise Cakes, Kindly Notes, and Icebreakers held all year round :)