On Tuesday, May 4th, the English Language Centre and the Food Culture Club cooperated to host the second annual Meet Sweet DIY Cake-Making Event. Before the event, the Food Culture Club worked to match 20 different pairs of participants to take part in the festivities. The night began with a speech from representatives from the ELC and FCC.  After this brief introduction, several ELC teachers gave presentations about the role of cake in Western culture, including cake in South Africa, King Cake for Mardi Gras and cake TV shows. Following the presentations, the participants began the first game: each couple had to hold a straw between their fingers and walk across the stage without dropping the straw. Though the game was very difficult, it helped to acquaint people with their partners. 

Students competing in the Straw Game before the main event

The next game—known in the US as “Chinese Telephone”—involved standing people in a line and telling the first person a sentence, where he would then whisper the sentence to the next person and so on until the sentence reached the final person in line. This person would then write the sentence on a piece of paper; the team with the most accurate sentence would win. 

ELC teachers look on as students play Chinese Telephone

After these thrilling games, the couples began the main event:  cake-decorating. Each couple was given a medium-sized sponge cake and many accoutrements to adorn their cakes. Over the course of an hour, each pair crafted their own unique and personalised creation, with some following classic cake-decorating methods and others trying for a more experimental approach. 

UIC students crafting their perfect cakes

While most students seemed to enjoy decorating their cakes the most, others enjoyed being able to finally eat their creations.  After taking a group photo to commemorate the event, the pairs were allowed to box up and bring home their cakes—or what was left of them!

Everyone together after a night of fun

Cakes crafted by UIC students