Twenty-six Candles

My birthday was a couple of days ago. I got obsessed with making the electrically conductive cake described in The Hungry Scientist, only I didn’t get a chance to re-read the recipe until the morning of, so when I discovered that I needed the rare (and expensive!) cake decoration silver leaf, I thought for sure that crushing disappointment awaited me.

Luckily I have awesome friends. Dan and I brainstormed some pretty disgusting possibilities - pickle cake was my favorite - before hitting on two awesome ideas: a lemon raspberry cake with decorative lemon slices that also serve as batteries for LEDs, and electric jello shots (apparently jello is a great conductor). It was too late to pull either of those ideas off for the party, but I’m going to try them out the next time I get the slightest excuse.

It turned out to be Katie who saved the day. She brought LEDs and coin batteries to make simple throwies, which we stuck inside cupcakes, covering up the tops of the batteries with delicious irish cream icing. You can see the delightful result here:

(The LED candles look neater in the dark, but then you can’t see the yummy cupcake goodness.)

I brought the leftovers with me to the training I went to the next day, and I must have explained how the lights worked a dozen times. A few people refused to believe it was as simple as taping an LED to a coin battery. I assured them that throwies cost spare minutes and spare change. Only downside? You can’t blow them out. I guess I’ll save my wish for next year.