Oktoberfest: it's synonymous with FUN! The sheer mention of that glorious German word conjures images of beer & babes that dance in the heads of people all over the world.

At Zappos, we do things a little differently. Our beer ended up being root beer candies we politely chucked at passing coworkers, and our "babes"... well, you'll just have to check them out for yourself!

On our last day of Customer Service Week, many Zapponians dressed in lederhosen, yodeled and danced the Chicken Dance in a parade around the office to celebrate Oktoberfest one more time before week's end. We have some special visitors today and they were allowed to see the true craziness that is Zappos.com!

As much fun as the Zoktoberfest was, the event that really took the cake (pun intended) was our German Cake Bake off. That's right. Four brave cake lovin' Zapponians spent a few outside work hours baking their hearts out in order to WOW our judge's taste buds. The best part about today's bake off was that no two German Chocolate Cakes were alike.

Out of our four contestants: Ryan Q., Amber W., Arcelia L. and Rowena D., only two walked away with a winning title, but no hurt egos here because they all got Zollars for effort.

Thanks to our wonderful Judges, Clarissa G., Rob R., and Dr. Vik, each cake was carefully examined and judged fairly according to best taste and most creative.

And the Grand Prize for Best Taste and Presentation and overall WOW went to Ryan Q.! Way to go Ryan! I asked our winner to share a few of his baking secrets with us so that we can better attempt to make his tasteful cake at home.

"The cake batter was a combination of cake flour, meringue, and chocolate sauce all mixed by hand so it would stand up against the weight of the cake. There were 3 types of chocolates used in the batter and the frosting (a bittersweet, a semisweet and a German sweet chocolate). I owe everything to the Zappos dev department who let me test an earlier version of this recipe on them last week. Their feedback helped me come up with the final product"

And the prize for most creative went to Amber W. for her German Chocolate Cheese Cake - my personal favorite, I'm a sucker for cheesecake!



Check out our winning Cake Above...Oh, and Ryan, you must have been a baker!

Even though we can't smell the crisp cool breeze of Fall or see the leaves of big beautiful trees change colors, we sure don't miss out on the ultimate Fall activity in the history of man, that's right Oktoberfest. Ah yes, nothing beats polka music, bratwurst, Beer stein and fennel cakes! Ok, for those of you who got a bit concerned when I mentioned Beer stein, there was NO alcohol at this Zappos event - we have work to do! But it did go over and beyond most fun and a little weird days in the office, that's for sure.

Some of the highlights from this years Zoktoberfest was definitely the Fennel cake stand. For those who went to a good amount of small town fairs as a kid, like myself, then I'm sure those deliciously fied cakes brought back a bit of nostalgia. Oh and of course no Zoktoberfest would be complete with out a bratwurst eating contest and a Beer stein holding competition! A big cheers to the brave Zapponians that participated in these physically demanding events.