This ornate wedding cake was once white as a symbol of purity but has since browned with age.

The cake was made in 1898 and was originally on display in the window of a family bakery, in Basingstoke, Hampshire, which closed in 1964.

The cake had been moved to a loft, where it remained for almost a century! The baker’s daughter eventually donated it to the Willis Museum in Basingstoke.

Museum curator Sue Tapliss said:

“It has been stored in unfavourable environmental conditions, leading to the cake heating and causing the sugars to seep through to the icing, giving it a darker colour.

The baker’s daughter, who was unmarried, donated the cake towards the end of her life due to fears someone might discover it in her attic and think she had been jilted at the altar.”

Queen Victoria’s wedding cake was auctioned off in pieces but this is the world’s oldest complete wedding cake.

Hungry?

Yesterday saw the official opening of MADD – London’s first Mango based dessert and coffee lounge.

The owners appointed underscore to devise the name and create a fresh and funky brand to take their exciting concept to the market. The name itself is a mix of the words Mango and Addict, as most choices on their truly unique menu contain the superfruit Mango in some shape of form…. and we defy you not to become addicted to their delicious creations!!

Our communications needed to be playful, versatile and bold to establish a new brand in such a busy location as Soho – which is why MADD is the perfect name for this destination restaurant.

We recommend you embrace the Maddness at www.wearemadd.com and then head down to 53 Rupert Street, W1.

You’d be Madd not to.

HousingOptions is a free one-stop service to help Londoners find government funded affordable homes to rent or buy.

After a creative pitch underscore were appointed to rebrand HousingOptions to become First Steps.

The final outcome for the new identity (see above) merges 2 houses together to create an upward arrow that represents momentum on the housing ladder.
The resultant icon is strong, easily recognisable and sits well with a simple message of “First Steps to home ownership in London”.

The new brand will be launched across London in a couple of months.

Watch out for it.

Alexandra Palace’s Ice Rink has recently undergone a £2.3million refurbishment, enabling it now to be used for competitive standard ice skating and by the wider public.

As guardians of the Alexandra Palace brand, underscore were asked to develop a sub brand identity specifically for the ice rink that could promote the rink to visitors on and off site – before being immortalised under the ice rink itself!

Local pop star Chipmunk was on hand to re-open the rink and with extra sessions available over half term you really have no excuse not to get your skates on.

For further info please visit alexandra palace

The South East Affordable Homes Show is taking place on Saturday 19th February at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich. It’s the best place to be this year if you are looking to buy a home of your own at a price you can afford!  There will be the very best affordable housing providers in the South East of London ready to give you an overview of their developments, as well as financial and legal advice.

Underscore has been involved with the creative by designing awareness building adverts, flyers, posters, adwalkers and a website for registrants.

You can’t really afford not to be there, so register for the free show now at www.seaffordablehomesshow.co.uk

The best 365 css websites around the world in 2010

If you are a website enthusiast and appreciate a well designed internet experience then you should get your hands on the new Awwwards book which show cases 365 websites voted the best online during 2010 by a Jury spanning the world.

If you get a copy of the book and turn to page 135 you will see that the site of the day for October 2nd is for Alexandra Palace – a website designed and created by our talented web team here at underscore. Senior designer here at underscore said he was blown away with the award.

If you are keen to purchase your own copy of the book then you can do so at the following website: http://book.awwwards.com/

Enjoy…

If your new years resolution is to get your heart into a new home of your own, register your details at www.lqgroup.org.uk/heart and search through L&Q’s fantastic and affordable new developments in your area. You could also be in with a chance of winning an iPhone 4!

Underscore has just created and launched the ‘Home is where the heart is’ campaign to raise awareness and promote L&Q’s Part Buy, Part Rent properties. Promotional activity at major London stations is happening this week and a mix of outdoor advertising, website banner advertising, press advertising and much more has been live for the duration of January and February.

Fancy heading to The Museum of Modern Art in New York this weekend? Might be easier to head to your computer desk instead…

Google Art Project has opened the doors of some of the world’s most famous museums this week. Google has entered 17 world famous museums onto the web by using its Street View cameras, ranging from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid.

The project was launched on Monday at London’s Tate Gallery, viewers are able to enter each of the chosen museums and see their most famous paintings in situ on the gallery walls.

Viewers can zoom in on certain paintings and view information on each piece. There is even a chance to zoom in on the brush strokes on certain masterpieces such as Botticelli’s Birth of Venus and Van Gogh’s The Starry Night. The super high resolution “gigapixel” photo technology used is more than 1,000 times as powerful as the average digital camera.

The Google Art Project allows online visitors into 385 rooms across the world which are packed with more than 1,000 works of art and artifacts. So if you are unable to pop to Florence or Madrid for some culture you can get your fix via the internet giant Google.

Taking over the world – one photo at a time.

To find out more click on this link Google Art Project