Make your cake & eat it too

Lest you get the impression that I am way too serious and preachy to boot, I hereby propose (with tongue firmly in cheek) a new competition to be integrated with the FIRST (www.usfirst.org) efforts mentioned in an earlier post.

Naturally, it will be named SECONDS (as in “May I have seconds, please?”). The problem to be solved will entail designing, engineering and making a science and/or technology themed cake. The competition will be to have your cake consumed by the FIRST competitors before anyone else’s after the FIRST awards are presented. Considering the age of most FIRST contestants, thorough video coverage may be required to detemine the winners.

There will be multiple classes; and all entries must follow strict cost, volume, mass and material content rules. Most importantly, each cake must contain at least 95% edible ingredients. The following prototype entry in the Aircraft category demonstrates the difficult challenges involved.

In order to stay within the volume constraints, the contestant had to consider how to include those twin rudders. In order to stay within the mass constraint, the stealth frosting thickness had to be carefully controlled. The cost constraints came in to play again with those dang rudders. A thorough, matrix-based evaluation led to the use of poster board rather than titanium.

The following entries; one in Race Cars and the other in Military Vehicles, employ other examples of balancing mass and edible ingredients by using vanilla wafers for wheels, licorice for exhaust pipes and pretzels in place of heavy steel gun barrrels. Ingenuity is the key to balancing the difficult trade-offs required by the rules.

   

Another key ingredient that can’t be overlooked is meeting all of the requirements and still having immediate visual recognition without sacrificing mouth appeal. The cake has to make those hungry contestants want to consume it as quickly as possible!

SECONDS can become a fitting and tasty finish to help the FIRST contestants celebrate their participation and keep them fed too. If you have photos of your prototype SECONDS entries, please send them to me so that we can build enthusiasm for this new method to inspire kids to have fun with science and technology! 

(PLEASE! Whatever you do, don’t tell my sons about these photos. They are all now old enough and big enough to deliver that other fast food delight - a knuckle sandwich.)