The Big Amazing Cake!

One of the great joys for me this year has been the development of the English Club, how it has grown, changed shape, and become something interactive, student-led...original and fun!
The culmination of this year was surely the Big Amazing Cake. The seed for this idea was sown earlier in the year by Radka Tylichová of 2B - all she had was an idea for a 'big amazing cake'...and that was all. Like all seeds, it died, and one day grew into something truly BIG, AMAZING, and BEAUTIFUL! About a couple of weeks before the end of the last English Club of 2013, we talked it over...students decided what was to be done, and how, and also when. The decision was taken to do it in the big break (9:40-10:00) and to invite teachers & students etc to come, have a look at it, and scoff it! All for free! :-)
Radka came the week before & showed us her design, and also fitted together a cardboard template of a map of Great Britain & Northern Ireland (the Republic of Eire was left out because we don't cover it as a Maturita topic ;-) ). Each one of us (9) took a piece of the cardboard & the idea was to make a cake, of any flavour, with a topping (marzipan or coloured icing) according to Radka's design...
I confess a slight trepidation as to how it was going to work out. We each had a piece of the jigsaw, but only a vague hope of how it would fit, what it would look like etc...

On the morning of 13th June, we arrived at room 110. I was first at about 9.10am, and then the others came (even some kind volunteers from 2B!). It was a fascinating process as we watched the construction of the cake unfold! I had no covering for our part (London etc, with the Union Jack) & Anna Havranková kindly did some last.minute.com marzipan work, which as you can see, was awesome! 
We began with Scotland, and worked our way down piece by piece. It felt like I was witnessing an operation in surgery...Dr House meets Kluci v Akci :-) As you can see from the photos on Facebook, it was very much precision work...and amazingly (for it was an amazing cake!) it all fitted together perfectly! 
I have had some special times at SGO - and I don't like to rate them - each is precious to me for its own merit...but this was one of those 'goosebumps' moments :-) The feeling of witnessing something truly special, original...beautiful.
The time passed so quickly, and before we knew it 9:40 was upon us! We brought in everyone in the corridor who was passing, and grabbed teachers from their 'kabinets'...even the deputies from their office along with Mrs Pavlickova! One added bonus was having the student teachers from Durham there at that time...! A couple of speeches were made, and then the cake was cut & passed around.
One of the wonderful things about this idea was the assortment of flavours with each piece of cake - each was a delicious surprise :-) Excellent quality, and no problems with quantity!
And one of the other special things for me was the atmosphere...this was done at a time when the 'Schaffnerová' situation was brewing...after a young girl from 2B had recently committed suicide...The heaviness of those days seemed, at least for a short time, to lift....and we enjoyed not only a great piece of cake, but also a taste of hope for better days...a taste of the potential of what might be... And you know? It tasted great!

Finally, I want to take this opportunity to thank EVERYONE for their involvement with the Big Amazing Cake - mainly Radka for her inspirational idea...but for all who contributed in any way, shape, or form. This was truly teamwork...and, it has to be said...this is the fruit of I.S.L.I :-)
Thank you!!
Mr E