The story behind "The Cake"

The Mozilla guys released Firefox 2 today. I know that it's a ton of work to release something as big and complex as a browser, so I thought it would be nice if we sent them a cake congratulating them on this achievement.

Since I didn't know any bakeries near the Mozilla headquarters, Christopher Vaughan and I called on a friend, Liz, down in Microsoft's Silicon Valley campus to see if she could help us out. She immediately obliged and found a bakery that would make the cake and deliver it. Liz mentioned something about the bakery not using food coloring, so our "e" logo wouldn't be blue. Oh well. Best not to poison the FF guys with food coloring anyway. (For those who care, it was a chocolate rum cake from the Prolific Oven in Palo Alto. This is apparently one of their most popular styles. I hope it was good.)

The cake from the IE team to the Mozilla team

Well, Fred from the Mozilla project blogged about the cake, and the story got picked up on Digg in a hurry.

As usual the comments on Fred's blog and Digg are hilarious.

I wonder if there's a message hidden in binary in the black frosting around the edge...

Whose blind toddler decorated it for them?

It's probably poison. Ever hear of the trojan horse?
Microsoft: eliminating competition the old fashion way.

Please, like the IE team would seriously sign it "Love,"...good prank

You should send them a cake back, include the recipe, and say you'll gladly accept suggestions for improvement.

Just hope it doesnt have a naked bill gates inside

Did anyone actually eat that cake? And how many were down with diarrhoea or intestinal worms after that?

Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar. We just wanted to give the FF team a pat on the back. There's no personal animosity between the teams (I like the FF team members I've met so far).

Nothing to see here.

[2006-10-24: fixed a link and some typos]

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8 Comments

David W. Reply

That's really nice of you guys. I'm a big fan of friendly competition, and it's good to see I'm not the only one.

Mary Ann Reply

What a delicious looking cake! And what kind of bakery doesn't use food coloring? How do they get away with making children's cakes?

Oh, I'm sure you've heard of this already, but... Do an I'm-Feeling-Lucky Google search on the word "search." :)

Bradley Gibson Reply

Great idea, Tony!

Really nice to see.

-Brad

Marcelo Pinto Reply

I wish i could send you a cake for the great job on IE7.

it's a nice thing you do with the FF guys.

Saludos

janeytk Reply

i had a feeling you were involved in this!

Elphaba Reply

how did they make black frosting without using food coloring?

~E

Tony Reply

I think it's just chocolate.

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