Some cake : Pharyngula

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PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
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Some cake

Category: Cephalopods • Weirdness
Posted on: October 12, 2009 12:00 PM, by PZ Myers

Out of a whole collection of steampunk-themed cakes, this one has to be my favorite:

It looks like something out of Girl Genius — it must have been made by a spark.

It's also interesting to see that there is a whole wide freaky cake-decorating sub-culture out there. Very cool.

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Comments

Posted by: SEF | October 12, 2009 12:14 PM

I couldn't see a description of the ingredients for each part of the various cakes. Some of the others could easily have been basic round sponge cakes covered with icing painted to look like wood or metal (much as I've done non-steam-punk cake painting). My first guess for those tentacles would be marzipan.

Posted by: Sastra | October 12, 2009 12:25 PM

Hmm.. looks like the Anglican Inquisition's "cake or death" forced choice is being fine-tuned so it's not quite so easy anymore, is it? Religion poisons everything.

Posted by: Glen Davidson | October 12, 2009 12:28 PM

Looks like a recipe for hardware disease. I think I'd swallow a cow magnet before I ate that.

Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/mxaa3p

Posted by: mandrake | October 12, 2009 1:13 PM

I want one. cybersquid that tastes like cake! 3 great things that taste great together...

Posted by: Glenn Kachmar | October 12, 2009 1:24 PM

This is bizarre, PZ, and it doesn't look particularly tasty. Are you familiar with Cakewrecks? It is an amazing blog about professional cakes that are disasters beyond anything one could imagine. Check it out:

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

Posted by: RamblinDude | October 12, 2009 1:25 PM

I love those cakes! I didn't even know about 'steampunk' before.

Posted by: Silič O'Nopolitanopoulos, Färschdbischuf Beesknees aus Ulm und Klein Elguth, Elector Pharynguline. | October 12, 2009 1:27 PM

Heh. I knew it would be pointeless to send you the link when I saw it on Cakewrecks yesterday. You've become cephalopod central. (I'd've had to buy those silly glass sculptures for you, if I were to compete.)

Posted by: SaraJ | October 12, 2009 1:31 PM

Ha, I love Cklewrecks! It's my second favorite blog on the interwebs.

Posted by: SaraJ | October 12, 2009 1:33 PM

Um, wow, that was a really bad typo. Obviously I meant Cakewrecks.

Anyway, Glenn this cake IS form Cakewrecks' blog. This is from their Sunday Sweets in which only really amazing and awesome cakes are featured.

#10

Posted by: Jason Thibeault | October 12, 2009 2:11 PM

Jodi and I are going for a steampunk theme (at least, as much as we can afford) for our wedding. That, coupled with our promise to include something cephalopod-related in the ceremony in honor of the method of her proposal, means I'm extraordinarily jealous.

#11

Posted by: Aaron Baker | October 12, 2009 2:19 PM

Ahh, but is it submersible?

I'd love a steampunk story jam-packed with Holland-style submarines (Holland the submarine-designer, not Holland the country).

#12

Posted by: Aaron Baker | October 12, 2009 2:23 PM

For some pictures of John Holland's handiwork, see http://www.submerged.co.uk/holland.php

#13

Posted by: Postman | October 12, 2009 2:25 PM

This comment is off-topic, but PZ's advisory video with The Deity is up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Clm6nlWxzc&feature=sub

#14

Posted by: jmauck | October 12, 2009 2:27 PM

seems to be inspired by nemo's nautilus in alan moore's league of extraordinary gentlemen...not exact, but definitely similar

#15

Posted by: Paranoid Budgie | October 12, 2009 2:36 PM

#1, I would also assume that those tentacles were marzipan (I've made various marzipan shapes for my mother's cakes), the only other thing I would think they could have done would be what display cake makers cheat with: Styrofoam. I had my mother look at the metallic work and she says you're correct about the metallic paint job, that its most likely a form of glitter paint.

#16

Posted by: tamakazura | October 12, 2009 2:51 PM

I'm reading Jeff Vandermeer's City of Angels and Madmen, which is so far a pretty awesome combination of steampunk and cephalopod fascination. So far recommended!

#17

Posted by: SaraJ | October 12, 2009 2:56 PM

The description from the baker: "Cake was made of fondant and gumpaste, with a custom cpvc tenticle support made and the finish was airbrushed"

#18

Posted by: Neorice | October 12, 2009 4:33 PM

PZ Reads Girl Genius? That's pretty awesome, wow.

#19

Posted by: Glenn Kachmar | October 12, 2009 4:41 PM

@ SaraJ - Thanks. I should have guessed it came from Cakewrecks.

#20

Posted by: skeptical scientist | October 12, 2009 5:34 PM

Damn you "Zed", this post led me on a four-hour cake detour.

#21

Posted by: Stogoe | October 12, 2009 6:31 PM

This is bizarre, PZ, and it doesn't look particularly tasty.

Glenn, it's called Sunday Sweets*, and all those steampunk cakes were awesome.

*On Sundays, beautiful cakes are featured.

#22

Posted by: Kristine | October 12, 2009 11:53 PM

Harumph - cakes. For those of us watching the bakery intake, how about doughnuts? Cthulu cremes - they would be raspberry-filled bismarcks, of course!

Shimmy cakes would be cupcakes. *Twinkle!*

Evo-delights.

Irreducibly chocolate-chip cookies.

#23

Posted by: iasasai | October 13, 2009 12:12 AM

I'm with Neorice: PZ reads Girl Genius?!?! Sweetness! I have the first couple issues signed by Phil and Kaja lying about somewhere...

#24

Posted by: furr-a-bruin | October 14, 2009 5:41 AM

Not an appetizing looking cake... but HURRAH for the Girl Genius reference! It's a brilliant story with fantastic art.

Adventure! Romance! Mad Science!

...and, I might add, not a little snark and hilarity along the way!

#25