Althouse: "The Scientific Way to Cut a Cake."

June 18, 2014

"The Scientific Way to Cut a Cake."

13 comments:

Bob R said...: Mathematicians. I live with these people. It's difficult.; 6/18/14, 9:56 PM
Irene said...: Gosh; we've been doing this for a while.; 6/18/14, 10:42 PM
Kelly said...: I'd like to see someone try that with a butter cream frosting instead of the fondant. I would think that would be extremely messy.; 6/18/14, 11:18 PM
Shanna said...: I'd like to see someone try that with a butter cream frosting instead of the fondant.

Seriously. I would never make fondant for a home cake.

Although the best way of cutting a round cake I've found is cutting the middle, then cutting that in half and then cutting pieces from it.

Also, don't put your cake in the fridge. Won't that just make it go stale faster, like bread?; 6/19/14, 7:58 AM
ThreeSheets said...: Seems like a lot of work. I'd rather just eat the whole cake in one sitting!; 6/19/14, 8:12 AM
kjbe said...: For a hobby, my brother makes custom cakes and has been doing this for as long as I can remember; 6/19/14, 8:31 AM
Roger Sweeny said...: To call this "scientific" is a misuse of the word. It is an engineering solution to a very specific problem: how do you cut a circular cake to minimize drying where the frosting is hard (ht: Kelly) and where no one minds that someone's hands are handling the pieces.; 6/19/14, 8:43 AM
Anonymous said...: The elastic is kind of gross, as is all the handling.

If you are going to use accessories, just cut the cake the normal (fun) way and cover the exposed area with aluminum foil or wax paper.; 6/19/14, 10:08 AM
Doug said...: This is obviously the British "scientific" way of cutting a cake; I prefer the American way - invite enough friends over so that you serve the whole cake at once.; 6/19/14, 10:20 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: If, instead of a scientific way you wanted a mathematical way, and instead of cake you were cutting pie, then the nth piece should be:

1/(n-3/4) - 1/(n-1/4)

This will give you an infinite number of pieces that add up to a whole Pi.; 6/19/14, 11:47 AM
veni vidi vici said...: Didn't watch but forgive me for taking from the video still picture on the post that here we have yet another hipster-loser braying something akin to "The science is settled!"

Idiots rule.; 6/19/14, 12:13 PM
Shanna said...: This is obviously the British "scientific" way of cutting a cake; I prefer the American way - invite enough friends over so that you serve the whole cake at once.

This guy seems to think you are supposed to sit at home, eating your sad little birthday cake (with fondant, because nobody loves you!) all by yourself for as many days as possible.; 6/19/14, 1:26 PM
Nichevo said...: I hate to admit it but I used a similar method for a friend who like black and white cookies but only if they had both the black and the white in the same bike. I cut out the middle in a slice as he did longboarders make your strip with both flavors, then I made another sandwich slice them center with both, probably at that point this is just the rest of the cookie...
but...

Yeah, no...

And I like wedges!

apologies for crappie Android voice to text quality. But Titus does worse every day of his life so whatever; 6/19/14, 9:49 PM