Eating in

Just like fashion, says Laura Pitcher in The Face, “baked goods are rejecting ultra-polished aesthetics” and becoming “experimental, ugly and chaotic”. There are wilting flower cakes, “iridescent but sinister” wedding cakes, slimy jelly cakes, lopsided cakes, and cakes that look like “a kid’s alien-themed science experiment”. Businesses specialising in these ghoulish gateaux are popping up across the world, with popular “disorderly cake accounts” in Berlin, New York, London and Taipei. Obviously, the rise in “ugly cakes” is just a reaction against “the millennial-curated aesthetic online”, and before long we’ll all get fed up with it. But the current mood has called for “more playful, celebratory chaos” – and cakes have managed to deliver that in our time of need.

Books

“Literature’s history is a history of mistakes, errors, misapprehensions [and] simple typos,” says Ed Simon in The Millions. Especially vulnerable, it seems, is The Bible. A 1631 edition of the King James version left out the word “not” in Exodus 20:14, so that it read: “Thou shalt commit adultery.” An 1823 version replaced “damsels” with “camels”; in 1944, a reference to women’s “own husbands” became “owl husbands”. Before the printing press, scribes sometimes apologised in the margins for their errors. One “particularly creative fellow” in the late 13th century made up for mistakenly deleting a line by drawing in the page’s borders “a little peasant using a pulley to hoist the missing sentence back into its correct spot”.

Life

I gave naked hiking a try over the summer, says Jane Mulkerrins in The Times. It was a blast. Sure, the group consisted of me and 20 “late (to very late) middle-aged men”, some of whom made rather “clumsy” comments. “You might lose a few pounds this afternoon,” said one, in reference to the heat. But they had some great lingo: they call stripping off “getting into our uniform”; people who wear clothes are “textiles”. And walking naked through the countryside in the sunshine really did “feel good”. By the end, I was “almost reluctant to put my clothes back on”.

Eating in

At a 1984 dinner party in Alaska, palaeontologist Dale Guthrie served up a “once-in-a-lifetime delicacy”, says Atlas Obscura: 50,000-year-old bison. The beast, nicknamed Blue Babe, was discovered after mining equipment melted part of the gunk it was frozen in. Guthrie and his colleagues managed to pry its head and neck from the icy surroundings – and decided to make a meal of it. The neck, which provided enough for eight portions, was cooked with “generous amounts of garlic and onions”, before adding carrots and potatoes to make bison stew. It tasted “like what I would have expected, with a little wring of mud”, commented the chef. “But it wasn’t that bad.”

THE BALLROOM

Behind a stucco-fronted period building in Kensington, west London, lies this former ballroom, cleverly converted into a two-bedroom apartment. The modern design incorporates original details, and makes use of the dramatic 13 ft ceilings and beautiful south-facing french windows. The first-floor property also boasts a private balcony terrace with views over a vibrant church garden that’s accessible to residents. Gloucester Road tube station is a three-minute walk. £2.25m.

THE MANOR

This Grade II listed manor house, nestled in the heart of pretty Harlington village, dates back to the late 14th century. With 10 bedrooms, the main house extends to over 8,300 sq ft internally and includes 1,905 sq ft of outbuildings. Despite various renovations, the historic house – Charles II is said to have stayed in one of the bedrooms – retains original features including Tudor fireplaces and some early 17th-century panelling. Harlington station is round the corner with direct trains to London St Pancras in 44 minutes. £1.85m.