CakeFaeries 🍰

What is CakeFaeries about?

Our largest activity involves Surprise Cake!

Whether as a means of briefly meeting other CakeFaeries, or of Cake materializing in your pigeonhole...

You're also welcome to ask for Kindly Notes or Silly Notes to accompany the cake.

Or for their own sake, noting lockdowns impossibilitate giving out cake but not distributing kindly notes, silly notes, recipes and online bake-alongs :)

This activity is particularly big at the start of Michaelmas, and again to express support in the build up to exams in Easter.

It's free, and obviously 100 percent harmless and 1000 percent friendly.

It has Support Group character, as does the actual production of the Notes and Cakes :)

Some other activities we do produce our actual Kindly Notes, Silly Notes and Cakes...

If you'd like to be involved with CakeFaeries, there are correspondingly various different kinds of CakeFaerie that you could be: Bakey CakeFaeries, Silly CakeFaeries, Kindly CakeFaeries...

In-person events include Bake-Alongs and Icebreaker events, which we insist on running all year round.

Our Icebreakers 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, and are also an example of how our Allies, and Ally Training, operate.

One can consequently also find Hunty CakeFaeries, while some Kindly CakeFaeries are also Listeny CakeFaeries.

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...

See Secs V to VII for more details of our current and recent Support Groups, and the Sign-up Sheet and Secs I and II for more about types of CakeFaerie.

Signing Up

So, if you'd like Surprise Cake this term, email the Great CakeFaeries in the Sky: cakefaeries *at* gmail.com with:

[ii) your room address : not available during pandemic, kept in this version of signp for general past/future info]

[iv) the CakeFaerie Badge, by whose magic cake may appear: not immediately available during pandemic, but might be switched on later]

--- 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)

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, which takes very, very little time to do.

If you'd like to be an Ally and/or part of running events then you could volunteer to be

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/participate in activities that temporarily take peoples' minds away from worries and toils. This second mode of Support Group action is part of how people who aren't 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 CakeFaerie. This follows from feedback that a lot of people in need of a Safer Space want Allies who are well-versed in (Personal and Information) Security; some wish for Listenies who are also Duellies, while others just want Duellies. So Duellies do Information Security (including anonymity, privacy and by extension how Closeted people do things), and, in ordinary times, some also 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, analysing facemasks etc.

You can volunteer to be any combination of the above types of CakeFaerie that you like! :)

Finally note that, 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 sizeable distances across town. Some of the people mentioned in this paragraph will, for a term or two, hold titles like "Great CakeFaerie on the Hill" or "Great CakeFaerie of Grangemerton" (from Grange Road through to Homerton). Large expanses of land like that are known as CakeFaerie Realms.

Of course, Bakey, Scouty, Listeny, Duelly and Hunty are further explained as you further scroll down this webpage :)

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...

Active and Passive CakeFaeries

Being an Active CakeFaerie is voluntary. You are welcome here; Active or Passive, we are all CakeFaeries :)

If you volunteer to be an Active CakeFaerie in your sign-up, or in some later note to cakefaeries *at* gmail.com ...

Then the Great CakeFaeries In The Sky will sometimes suggest some specific other CakeFaeries for Active CakeFaeries to offer cake to.

Though, if you do carry out the suggested delivery, you should very briefly notify the Great CakeFaeries so that they don't need to summon further CakeFaeries to that particular address at that particular point in time.

Active CakeFaeries abide by the CakeFaerie Rules, in particular as regards how to get the cake to destination, taking note of allergy, vegetarian... notes, and ways in which CakeFaerie activities are inclusive.

Some Active CakeFaeries are Bakey. Others buy cake, and/or distribute cake baked or bought by other CakeFaeries.

Active CakeFaeries involved in distributing Cake, and arranging for cakey surprises, are calledScouty CakeFaeries.

There are occasionally small Bakey CakeFaerie meets (start of term baking parties) and/or small Scouty CakeFaerie raids; these are often small because they are local, e.g. baking on the Hill or Scouty CakeFaeries supplying colleges in the Centre.

* So Bakey CakeFaeries bake (and/or decorate) cakes. Decoration includes icing, sprinklies and fondant.

Active CakeFaeries who complete a certain number of bakings and/or cakings are awarded wands [whether sparkly-magical, or bakey-magical, such as whisks :) Sparkly wands' magic is in Scouty CakeFaeries to be able to look the part, which can be useful in finding Cakefaeries, including other raid members, since raids move around a lot, and so can be harder to find than society meetings...] Some Active CakeFaeries additionally run the activities for the below and the website :)

Further Types of CakeFaeries

[This website's pictures are also button links to types of CakeFaerie, Events etc. Click on whichever to see more about it :) ]

* Most Listeny CakeFaeries start by being Kindly CakeFaeries: Kindly Notes producers, and perhaps by asking for CakeFaerie Parents. It is possible, however, to state up front that you wish to be an Ally, in which case some Ally Training or Safer Space Awareness page writing will be possible straight away (rather than in an a new Kindly CakeFaerie's second or fourth term).

* Hunty CakeFaeries run the CakeFaeries' Cooperative Scavenger Hunt. This typically has some Listeny Items, Silly Items, Bakey Items, and even some Duelly Items.

This is a menu: CakeFaeries can choose which they want to do, while not doing the others.CakeFaeries is explicitly not based on the common normativity that 'every one who is part of something has to do every part of that thing'. So, CakeFaeries, know that you are welcome to be whichever combination you please of Bakey, Scouty, Duelly, Silly, Listeny, or none at all :)

Scavenger Hunt items are presented in person at the start and end of term to CakeFaerie Scavenger Hunt Judges, or by email in the middle of the term.

Silly Items are for those who'd like to participate as Silly CakeFaeries' alias "Sheila and her Dog" :) silly/children's book genre rhymes and puns accompany the cake. Some such lines find their way intoSilly Chainstories, which are a great way for students facing very great adversity to start interacting again. Current Silly Activities include Wordplay CakeFaeries and Buildy CakeFaeries. Wordplay CakeFaeries activities include chainwriting and memes. Buildy CakeFaeries is, by intent, about building things out of Lego. But some Silly CakeFaeries, being Silly, came up with world-building and word-building as being both Wordplay and Buildy. That is, by itself, a fair example of what wordbuilding involves.

Duelly Items are for those who'd like to participate as Duelly CakeFaeries: Between Duellies, exchanges of bags of Cake, Notes can be accompanied by waterpistol fighting. As University rulings and regulations don't permit fighting with toy weapons on university property^*, Duelly CakeFaeries battles are to be done solely off university property. This also implies that if you keep a waterpistol in your room, then you should carry it in an opaque bag whenever you are taking it through college property, e.g. between your college's gate and your room. Duelly CakeFaeries have further rules to ensure we stay safe and don't disturb the general public.

Duelling can be done for fun, for confidence building or to demonstrate personal safety matters in practical situations; Duelly CakeFaeries are additionally welcome not to say why they duel, by which those in need of personal safety or confidence but who aren't willing or able to reveal this can participate by posing as 'for fun participants'. This paragraph serves as a further instance of how to accommodate Closeted people; Duellies who wish to be Allies can learn many further such things in our Safer Space Information Security activities.

It is currently possible to be a Duelly CakeFaerie in any combination of the following three ways: Battley CakeFaerie (waterfighter), Privacy CakeFaerie (info security), and Distancy CakeFaerie (active social distancing, facemask analysis etc). All involve strategy, tactics and adaptability in practical situations.

^* Some colleges may permit toy weapons fighting/demos in a booked room or on a booked patch of the college's grass.

Listeny Items can be regarded as Ally Training. These items are usually set by members of a populace so that Listeny participants find out more about that populace, and interact with some of that populace (by providing items they asked for). As an example, some terms there is an Ace (Asexual) items list section, raising Ace Awareness. As another example, some Safer Space populace who don't currently have a crest on their website might ask for such a crest to be drawn as a Scavenger Hunt item :)

Bakey items are partly based on a sizeable amount of cake being needed each term, and partly on any items on the list that are realized as pieces of cake or fondant cake decoration being considered to be particularly meritorious :)

So it may for instance be possible for a cake to have edible Silly decor, or a brief kindly inscription on it made with an icing pen :)

Bakeys are welcome to be one or both of Bakey and Decoraty :) That's the kind of thing that the Chief Bakey will ask Bakey signups about :)

Lest you were wondering, it is Silly CakeFaeries who ensure that we have a word ending in 'y' to describe every type of CakeFaerie there is :) It may also help to point out that exactly what types of CakeFaerie there are at any point in time is a matter of who wants to do what, so a fair answer to 'what kind of CakeFaerie would you like to be' is to suggest further kinds. So long as these are suitable for a Safer Space that runs Lighter-Hearted Icebreakers, and, if they are to become a practical reality, have low to no running cost and low to no storage requirements.

Some things we'd like you to know

* As a Society, we are strong on passive participants' rights to get a good deal out of activities...

* The Results of The Past Year's Feedback. Looking at the four corners of this year's Societies Fair Banner,

also this year be welcome to reply to sign up for, additionally, - Wholesome activities - Ace (Asexual) activities - Generation Z activities (or feedback on what these might also consist of) - Social Anxiety Friendly activities

Be welcome also to specify if signing up for any such activities means wanting to receive fortnightly emails about when/where meetings are, or if you'd like your Kindly/Silly notes along such lines (or both) :)

* The CakeFaeries' Scavenger Hunt is some Safer Space peoples' Support Group, with particular emphasis on Meaningful Not-in-Person Participation, such as Silly Chainwriting and Listeny Awareness webpage writing :)

* All CakeFaeries Activities are moreover one and the same kind of General-Purpose Safer Spaces: abuse-free zones for all who harmeth others not, based on

Rule 0) "People who say they are upset are believed without having to say why, and apologies and non-repeats of what caused it are expected"

We consider being Safer Spaces in this way to be a much more significant aspect of what we do than what exactly our activities consist of. This is much of why the CakeFaerie Rules have very advanced Conduct and Safety sections. Indeed, our activities are best understood as a collection of what happen to work as Icebreaker Activities for The New, The Shy and The Different, among which the most common and often first encountered is Surprise Cake... Some of the Different then turning out to be Safer Space peoples still currently left out almost everywhere else other than CakeFaeries activities.

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 New, The Shy, The Different, The Downtrodden and all Legal and Consensual Peoples that are Left Out Everywhere Else :)

All, in all be welcome to join CakeFaeries for whichever combination of Cake, Fun, Safeness, CakeFaerie Parents, or Good Deeds ^_^

The CakeFaeries' Calendar, and CakeFaeries' News

1) At present we point out here that what activities are possible may vary with state of lockdown.

The above and below menu of activities is unusually large so as to include both what we usually do and what can still be done in various stages of lockdown.

2) In ordinary times, the seasonal variation in CakeFaerie activities is something like this:

Easter "Relieving Exam Stress" option A substantial amount of cake is given out, especially by Grads, and people who have finished exams for the year. CakeFaerie Scavenger Hunting then becomes active in the Mayweek period :)

Over this Summer, we are discussing what to run under the present and future circumstances. We presently have an Ace group, a Survivors and Allies group, a Survivors of Bullying group, and some Closeted resources (Closet-Trans, Closet Mental Health). We are also having discussions about a Social Anxiety group. We also have several hundred ideas from our peoples' past as regards meaningful indirect participation in support groups. The rest of the world has lived like this for a few months now, but some of us have considered it necessary to live this way for years at a time, with tips on how to do this handed down for close on three decades.

So you can also ask us about setting up your own separate not-in-person societal activities. Bear in mind that all the ones we run are safer spaces, and none make use of social media. (It would appear that a high proportion of Survivors, Survivors of Bullying etc do not feel safe using social media. So if other societies look to have activities just on social media, they may well be leaving out vulnerable people who don't feel safe there. These are moreover very seldom willing to identify or to state that groups running social media based activities only amounts to leaving them out.)

5) Click on the below "CakeFaerie News" button for new items entering our webpages [run by the Silly CakeFaeries' "Sheila Herald" and the Listeny CakeFaeries :) ]

More on what Listeny Cakefaeries do.

Those of us who stay around long enough to become experienced Listenies provide the CakeFaeries' Safer Space Awareness Pages (scroll to the end of this page); being a particular kind of Safer Space is a deeer why for the existence of CakeFaeries in the first place.

Listeny CakeFaeries are there more generally to welcome New, Shy and Different peoples, with Parenting, listening, awareness pages, and a range of icebreaker activities.

While the Surprise Cake Activity is our largest activity, especially at the start of Michaelmas and again to express support in the build-up to exams in Easter, it is not our only activity. Indeed, CakeFaeries aim to do all good things that nowhere else provides.

A. We are supportive of all peoples as listed at the bottom of the page, and more, in all those cases in which they are consensual, legal, and don't deliberately harm others (as required by essentially all of our Survivors, Closeted People and People Bullied Elsewhere).

B. Some of us also spend a small proportion of our time perusing other Welcoming and Welfare available in Cambridge; this includes scouting out a list of helplines below :)

* A big reason for this webpage and the CakeFaeries' Front Page not being the same is that this one contains furthe material in Secs IV to VI on Ally matters. So, if new people arrive asking about Allies, signing up as Listeny CakeFaeries etc, they are directed to the current webpage, whereas new people signing up for cake, or for being a Scouty CakeFaerie, are directed to the CakeFaeries' Front Page.

G.I.V.E.N. by CakeFaeries

* Having now introduced the Listeny CakeFaeries and Safer Space elements and motives of the Society, we can finish explaining why many of our Organizers, Founders and Backers do this, alongside the name of our Society Stall: Cakefaeries' Safer Space with Scavenger Hunt Icebreakers and Ally Training' ...

* The CakeFaeries are run as a General-Purpose (In)Visibility and Education Network (G.I.V.E.N.). We explain this in relation to A.V.E.N. : the Asexual Visibility and Education Network, which gives Visibility to Aces who wish for such, and Educates Whoever-is-Willing-to-Listen about Ace matters. A.V.E.N. by now having demonstrably worked well, a G.I.V.E.N. is then a General-Purpose (In)visibily Network, acting peaceably likewise now for ALL Legal-and-Consensual Peoples.

* This serves in particular those Peoples who Don't Already Have Recognition or Representation Elsewhere. Such as Avoidant Survivors, Non-Normative Survivors, those who are Closeted about Anything, Fluid in any regard, and many more.

* Our being in part specifically an *In*visibility Network reflects that we say and do what our Closeted Members actually wish for.

Which turn out to be 'non-obvious' things, since almost nowhere in the world has Listened to what it takes to be inclusive of Closeted Peoples Aside from Rule 0 above, some other examples are as follows.

1) CakeFaeries is inclusive of some Closeted People by having Meaningful Indirect Participation, such as our Scavenger Hunt's Chainwriting items or Cake delivery via Allies.

2) CakeFaeries involves many for-fun participants, so those Closeted People who do turn up can credibly pose as being further such.

3) CakeFaerie sign-up, event announcement... messages include sentences addressed to whatever proportion of our readers so happen to be Closeted about Anything.

* We have similarly listened for many years to what Avoidant Survivors, Non-Normative Survivors and other peoples who Don't (or then didn't) have recognition or representation elsewhere, and have factored these things into what CakeFaerie Activities are and how these are run.

* Many Peoples we have Listened to have expressed a desire for Safety and Security interactions rather than, or alongside, interaction with those with 'hitherto conventional' Listener skill-sets...

This is reflected in how Scouty CakeFaeries involves a bit of Safety and Security, whereas Duelly CakeFaeries can involve a lot of Personal Safety and Security for those wishing for such. Whether for their own use, or as Allies to one or more persons in very difficult situations. Duelly is, on the one hand, an approachably gentle setting to start considering such matters, and, on the other hand a rich enough context in which to develop very advanced real-life applicable skills such as losing a tail or avoiding 'chance encounters' with a bully.

* On the other hand, many people in difficult situations don't want to talk at all about what the matter is. What they have asked for instead is (often Meaningful Not-in-Person Participation in) Silly activities to take their mind off things. Chainwriting and other Scavenger Hunt Items List Sections suitable for Meaningful Not-in-Person Participation are the result; indeed some such people write Scavenger Hunt Items List Sections :)

* Many people in difficult situations moreover wish to raise awareness of generalities about what the matter is. This is as opposed to giving any specifics whatsoever about themselves or the difficult situations they are or have been in, viewing such specifics as one or both of highly private or a safety risk to disclose. So for instance, a Survivor may wish to make or extend resources for Survivors with no reference whatsoever to their own case history. G.I.V.E.N. by CakeFaeries is designed to allow for such possibilities.

* In conclusion, the name of this Safer Space is now G.I.V.E.N. by CakeFaeries. We are fine with it if most people think that literally means that Cake is 'Given by CakeFaeries' [which is certainly true :) ], but certainly at the level of CakeFaerie organizers, we know that this means "General-Purpose (In)Visibility and Education Network by CakeFaeries" :)

For those further interested in such Listeny CakeFaeries matters, click on the pictures above this Section V for further links [Silly CakeFaeries might spell that "Lynx" ^_^ ] Scroll down to the end for a more detailed (if still not exactly complete) list of Peoples our activities support as a G.I.V.E.N. :)

* Another way to summarize our activities is that the CakeFaeries' Safer Spaces strive to do all good things that nobody else does.

extends to providing All-Year-Round Icebreaker Events (currently mostly in the form of Scavenger Hunting),

and to the Listeny CakeFaeries' Awareness pages and Ally Training in the form of G.I.V.E.N. by CakeFaeries' (In)Visibility and Education Network.

This start and extensions being the result of actually Listening to, and acting upon, what our Trans*, Ace, Closeted, Survivor... members have said over the past three decades.

* From a historical point of view, as time progresses the number of Safer Space Peoples with widespread recognition and acceptance increases, and exactly which Safer Space Peoples evolves accordingly.

Trans* people gained widespread recognition and acceptance around 2008, prior to which many had *just this group of Societies here* Listening to them and acting upon it...

Aces gained at least local recognition and acceptance around 2014. Unlike various other peoples who gained recognition and acceptance elsewhere, moreover, most of our Aces stayed here as well as doing Ace-specific things elsewhere. They have done so, endearingly, to be of assistance to other Safer Space Peoples who don't as yet have recognition of acceptance elsewhere.

Many such Safer Space people here, including most of our Closeted, Survivor... members are moreover only O.K. with A.V.E.N.-like peaceable action of making awareness and education available to those who are willing to listen to such matters. 'Only O.K. with' meaning as regards what they contribute and what they Consent for others to do on their behalf. While such peacable action existed before A.V.E.N., Aces' success in recognition and acceptance by such means was the first of its kind. And so other Peaceable-Action-Only Peoples have now ventured out to join our Ace Allies in building up G.I.V.E.N. by CakeFaeries :)

Doing all of these things means that we are not easily characterized by anything other than by striving to do all good things that nobody else does :) What is foremost at ours is why we do activities, rather than what our activities consist of... These whys resulting from of Listening to thousands of Safer Space Peoples over the past three decades that aren't (or weren't) welcome anywhere else, All the while handing down between our organizers the ever-growing lists of general points made, of diversity of peoples and of difficult situations, and of what kinds of activities and awareness webpages address what this multitude of people need and wish for. Which, after three decades, takes the form of this here G.I.V.E.N. by CakeFaeries, with its Listeny, Duelly, Silly, Hunty variants in addition to its Bakey and Scouty activities :)