Adventures in cake

For my birthday this weekend I tried to make a Zoetrope cake.  I was inspired by Alexandre Dubosc, whose cakes you should definitely look at after this one, because mine does not benefit from the comparison.  I’m putting the gif below a cut, as it may be a bit of a migraine or seizure trigger.

I have learned some valuable lessons about zoetrope cakes which I will now share with you.  First!  However lovely the idea of a “winter landscape at night” sounds, the gentle fall of snow and the waxing and waning of the moon will not give you enough movement to get a good zoetrope effect.  Next time I’ll go with a classic like a fox jumping over a fence or someone’s head falling off.  Second: producing a zoetrope effect in person and on video are two different things.  I was so focused on making the zoetrope effect work for my guests, using an efficient Susan* and a strobe app, that I didn’t think about what I needed for the gif.  In retrospect, I should have just taken a series of pictures - they wouldn’t have movement blur, and they’d be higher resolution.

Despite these flaws, I am proud of my zoetrope cake.  And hey, at least it was tasty.

• “Lazy Susan” is so dismissive.  Why should Susan have to always be reaching for things?

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