The Scientific Way to Cut a Cake - Numberphile

[Art Blade]

nope, not a joke

[fragger]

Talk about nerd culture

There is a sure-fire way to make sure your cake doesn't go stale - eat the whole lot at once

[Art Blade]

yes, indeed.. I was completely puzzled. Like, "what.. why do they even cut the cake let alone let it rot for days.."

[nex]

Cardinal rule. You do "NOT" put a cake in the fridge...!!!!!!
In a period of more than 50 years and had baked at least two cakes a month my mother "never"
put a cake in the fridge, you put it in a cake tin and leave it out.

[Art Blade]

Here, no cake ever made it to the fridge.

[fragger]

With me, the cake would be lucky to make it to the tin

[Art Blade]

 

[nex]

My dad, my brother and I were "civilized"   
And my mom regularly baked cake twice a week, one always a chocolate cake, the other one either a pineapple and cream or a granadilla cake,
we often sat around the table in the kitchen waiting for my mom to ice the cake so we could get stuck into it.   

Damn!!! wonder if I'll be able to con mrs nex in baking a chocolate cake 

[Art Blade]

best of luck 

[PZ]

 

[nex]

gonna need all the luck I can get..

[mandru]

Nex, I had to look up granadilla cake.  It sounds interesting.    +1


Cake is a topic near and dear to my heart.  I was spoiled by abundance of cake for a brief period of time in my youth.

When it comes to cakes I've developed a threefold philosophy:

1. Cake is primarily a delivery vehicle for frosting.  Preferably chocolate icing on chocolate. (unfrosted cake is over sweet bread that makes lousy sandwiches    ).
2. By rule of thumb a single layer cake typically is nothing more than uninteresting cupcakes poured into the wrong type of pan.
3. The only time I'll eat a carrot in association with a cake is if it's made purely out of butter cream frosting with a touch of food coloring. 

*** As a foot note Royal Icing sets rock hard and you can break a tooth on even a small piece of it if you're not aware of its presence***

When I was 14 or 15 my mother attended a several month long weekly series of cake decorating classes that was offered by the local community college in the evenings.  It was one of the happiest times of my young life.

Each week's class covered a different aspect of types of cakes or styles of decorating with the follow up requirement that a fully decorated cake would be brought from home to demonstrate each student's proficiency in the previous week's assignment.  Being a perfectionist my mom would make a practice cake (or two if she wasn't pleased with the results of her first attempt) so that on the day of the class she would (with proper practice) make her presentation cake for grading by the instructor.

It was with some sadness that the cake making classes ended a lot sooner than I would have liked but on the up side events like birthdays which would best be celebrated with a cake became special times.  Mom would always ask us in advance what birthday cake we wanted and my choice was invariably chocolate Stump Cake.

It was my favorite because the way she would embellish it with realistic appearing bark, tree rings, climbing vines, shelf fungi, mushrooms scattered around the base and out between the extending roots.  Sometimes even frogs, dragonflies and other small woodland critters would make an appearance. 

In other words it was slathered with what some people would consider an obscene amount of layers upon layers of FROSTING! 

[Art Blade]

mandru, +1 -- I've come across quite a few articles about cake and your post is definitely a highlight. 

[mandru]

 Thanks Art. 

[fragger]

+1 from me too Any lover of deliciously-frosted cake is a friend of mine. And chocolate reigns supreme among the frostings

"Cake is primarily a delivery vehicle for frosting". I have long believed that with all my heart A cake without frosting is just - well, unfrosted cake. Let them eat that - give me the frosting

Cultural difference: Americans tend to call it "frosting", Australians usually call it "icing". From an etymological point of view, both terms are equivalent, and both are inaccurate, since no actual chilling is involved. But who gives - it's still the same yummy substance in anyone's vernacular