Vicky McDonald of Stasty is a brilliant woman. You know those almond-flavored rainbow cakes you see at parties, and you say, “I love those! I’m gonna have some of that later!” But then you can’t because they’re all gone? Because I ate them all? That is what this cake is made of, and McDonald had the even more wonderful idea to make it into a Rubik’s Cube as a tribute to Ernö Rubik himself. And guess what? He approves. What more could a hungry ’80s child ask for?
The cake, which is actually not referred to as That Awesome Almond and Jelly Cake but as a Battenberg Cake, was made in honor of Rubik’s July 13th birthday. Born in Hungaria in 1944, he invented the Rubik’s Cube in 1974 and it became a fad of the ages and is still a synecdoche for the late ’70s and early ’80s.
A day after McDonald posted her recipe for the cake, Rubik sent her an email in which he wrote: “Thanks for the nice birthday surprise which sweetens the bitterness of passing time.”
Here is how the cake looks before assembly:
And during assembly:
McDonald describes the process:
We essentially had to make three cakes which amounted to a whole pound of butter and over a jar of jam. It also took a lot of time to physically bake three cakes and wait for them to cool. But it was fun and I got a sort of childish glee when I saw all these multicoloured sections of cake coming out of the oven.
“Glee” doesn’t even begin to describe it. This is one of the most wonderful things that has ever existed. But what other fad toy could be made into something edible? Slinky pasta, maybe? Time to go have a snack.
Once again, that recipe can be found here.
(Stasty via Laughing Squid)
