What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 27 January 2014

Happy Birthday Shannon

Welcome to another week and we are starting the week with an office Birthday for Shannon who is celebrating hers today so its cakes all round today at Cloud 9 Event Management...and forget the diet.

The subject of office cakes remains a popular one and as most of the country is in the grip of a baking frenzy, as those of us who work in offices know all too well.Rare are the days when a colleague isn’t tempting us with their homemade flapjacks or chocolate cookies – but research suggests these kind souls aren’t purely motivated by a craze for cooking. According to a survey by Whitworths, a quarter of bakers admit their workplace generosity is a calculated gamble to please their boss.

If you’re opting to climb the career ladder via cakes, what treats are the most likely to please? Practicality is everything – although a triple-decker chocolate gâteau may look stunning in your kitchen, it may look somewhat less appetising after being crammed in a tin for your commute. 

Fragile, crumbly cakes with fussy toppings are out. Instead, you want something robust yet attractive that can easily be divided with makeshift office cutlery (letter opener, anyone?) and won’t leave crumbs all over the desk. 

Don’t go out of your way to show off (you don't want the cake to look like you've spent days slaving over it), and don't bring anything that’s has the potential to go off, like cream cheese frosting, if you don’t have a fridge available – giving someone an upset stomach won’t do you any favours.

Small, individual cakes like brownies are easy to share with colleagues, but be wary of lavishly-decorated cupcakes - they're fun to make, but sadly a) may not give the impression of a serious, career-minded person and b) may be too sickly-sweet to tickle your boss's tastebuds. 

We were very lucky at the back end of last year to win a competition via our pals at Venue Directory, which we use daily, to win 12 weeks worth of cupcakes and they were certainly an impressive and welcome addition to our office, even if they did little for our waistlines!  

Without wanting to sound at all ungrateful, they were incredibly sweet and we did end up sharing them between us so a whole box lasted quite a while, so this had us wondering, what other additions to offices are more approrpiate for those on a health kick?

When we are all trying to cut down our sugar intake and try and keep any New Years resolutions going until at least the end of the month, what other treats can we bring to work to stave off those winter blues?

There are lots of companies around who offer a similar service but one of the first was Fruitful Office who are the UK’s original workplace fruit supplier. They are committed to helping companies create healthy workplaces for their employees. As they only focus on offices – it means they know a little bit more about offering a tailored, high-quality service than other fruit vendors.

There has been a rapidly growing trend of UK businesses offering fresh fruit to staff, as a means to promote a healthy workplace. Many offices are discovering that employees would like more from their workplace than just the pay cheque at the end of the month – especially where this concerns health and well-being!

Fruitful Office believe that fresh fruit, much like the fresh drinking water dispenser which can now be found in every office, should be made available to employees in every office.

We have a slightly unusual approach to this so when each of us does our supermarket shops with the buy one, get one free deals on fruit, we've all started bringing in our own selection of fruit to share around!

 

One of the best companies currently offering great alternatives to treats without the guilt has to be graze whose range of snack boxes are pretty spectacular and we know as we have tried them. For instance you can make a jaffa cake, using roasted hazels, orange infused raisins and dark chocolate button, or billionaire's shortbread using fudge pieces, blanched almonds, milk chocolate drops and cranberries. We just like the sound of the chocolate bits, lets be fair!

 

 

Now, if you are looking for a way to be popular in your office, and sadly we don't have a big enough team to qualify, then Gu Puddings has a rather lovely intiative for larger offices with over 100 people where you could win an Office Drop. Simply nominate your office and if you are selected then they’ll send over a whole load of puds for free. Result – instant glory. So fill in the form and they’ll be in touch if you’re about to receive a lot of love!

Anyway cake to eat, events to plan and work to be done...have a good one and we'll see you next week. Enjoy.