Something for the weekend
On the bake
A lawyer from one of Birmingham’s largest legal firms has given up the rat race to set up her own bespoke cake company. Rebecca Chitty left her job as a trainee solicitor at Wragge & Co earlier this year to form Chitty’s Cake Company. The Birmingham-based start-up, which has an ethos to provide tailor-made cakes that taste as good as they look, offers specialist occasion cakes and cupcakes as well as a wedding cake service. Since its launch the company has produced a range of weird and wonderful creations including a cake that looks like a cheese platter (pictured), the door of Ten Downing Street, a pumpkin and the New York skyline. And it's possible Rebecca may be bumping into some of her old colleagues (and the odd Insider journo) as she is holding regular cake decorating classes at the Old Joint Stock pub in Birmingham city centre.
The right prescription
Lloyds Pharmacy, which has its head office at Walsgrave, Coventry, has made a significant donation to the Jimmy Hill statue fund, taking Coventry City Football Club a step closer to its fund-raising target. The appeal has attracted tens of thousands of pounds in donations from supporters, businesses and other organisations. Jimmy Hill, the former manager and chairman of CCFC, led the club from the old third division to the top flight for the first time in its history during the 1966/67 season. His statue has been commissioned and is due to be unveiled at the Ricoh Arena on 28 July 2011 - in time for the start of the 2011/12 season. Joe Elliott, CCFC life president, said: "The statue is now well underway and we are all very excited about seeing it in place in time to celebrate 50 years of Sky Blue and the achievements of Jimmy Hill - a true football visionary."
Newcastle Brown day
Keeping the football theme going, in a tribute to West Bromwich Albion legend Tony ‘Bomber’ Brown, all Albion fans travelling to Newcastle on 22 May will be given a free ‘Bomber’ mask by Mask-arade. Tony is still connected with the club and holds the record for the most appearances and the most goals for The Baggies. Lifelong Baggies fan, Albion shareholder and director of Mask-arade Dean Walton said, "It's an Albion tradition to have a party at the last away game of the season and as Tony is a true Baggies legend, we will give the masks out free-of-charge to every Albion fan as they enter the stadium." The Dragons' Den film crew will also be present as they keep tabs on Mask-arade following the Southam-based mask making company’s appearance on the show in 2009. Mask-arade sold more than 200,000 royal family masks in the run-up to Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding.
