weeks from the start of the project, of which Easter celebrations would occupy a large portion, there was no time for any research. All decisions were to be made on the fly, during the production itself. The on-screen crew consisted of six home economists led by Peta O'Brien and Sarah Tildersley, three sugar chefs, a machine operator, two prop experts, and four special effects modelmakers from Pennicott Payne Ltd, with a large production team off-camera. Filming was done in Shepperton Studios over four days, with baking machinery rented from baking equipment company Brook Foods, though preliminary work such as casting moulds for the Rice Krispie panels was done a week beforehand. Production finished exactly on time, with the final touch—the Škoda badge—fitted at 2:30am on the last day of the schedule. The crew planned to donate the remains of the cake to local charities and hospitals, but after four days under hot studio lights, it was no longer thought fit for human consumption, and was donated for composting to the East London Community Recycling Project in Clapham. Consequently the project came under criticism for the wastage . However, a few pieces, such as the chocolate speedometer and marzipan wing mirrors were kept for posterity. Post-production Post-production work was performed by Tom Sparks of Alteration Services, with video editing conducted by The Quarry. Ancillary elements of the campaign, such as the online presence and direct marketing, were handled by advertising agency Archibald Ingall Stretton, who had worked with Škoda for eight years prior to Cake. The online elements of the campaign included a dedicated microsite, which was linked to through baking-themed banner ads placed on the sites such as The Times Online, AOL, and Top Gear. For the direct marketing portion of the campaign, Archibald Ingall Stretton sent out car-shaped a double-chocolate, toffee-fudge cream scented air fresheners in the mail to potential and former clients. Sound The sound was recorded at Wave Recording Studios by sound engineer Parv Third. Release and reception Cake premiered on Thursday 17 May 2007. The dedicated microsite went online at 6pm, while the 60-second commercial first aired on ITV, Channel 4, Five, and on several multichannel television networks between 9 and 10pm. In addition, a 30-second edit of Cake began airing from Monday 21 May 2009. The commercial spaces purchased for Cake were chosen specifically to reach a mainstream audience, with selections including Big Brother, Britain's