Human Thaumatrope by Helen Ferguson [3D]

Submitter's Comments: (High Res Image)
This cake is actually 4D, but there wasn’t a category...

The idea behind the human thaumatrope tshirt is brilliantly simple. I wanted to do a cake that was in the spirit of a teeshirt design rather than a flat copy, so I thought this was a good concept - why not a thaumatrope made of cake? I like a challenge.

The cake was a cherry madiera with cherry flavoured buttercream and fondant. Carving it so that the central portion stood up vertically was tricky - I was convinced it would collapse as soon as I spun it. But it survived, even if it did get disturbingly lumpy.

The blackbird and cage are made from sugarpaste. The first birdie suffered a horrible beak mangling accident so had to be laid to rest. The second one required a dowel stuck up it to keep it upright. I probably should have made the cage a little more thin and delicate, but again, was worried about centrifugal forces flinging it across the kitchen.

I thought I might get away with filming on my lazy susan, but realised it needed a smooth rotation and considerably more speed. I also tried spinning the board on a drill, but it just made a massive hole in my cakeboard (and also the cake). So (being a modern girl only in possession of a cd player) I marched down to the second hand record shop and asked for the crappiest old record player they had. Exchange with bemused shop assistant went something like this:
“Well, this one isn’t very good.”
“No, I mean really bad. Do you have anything worse? I only need it to hold cake”
“Er. {Pause} This one needs repairing. You can have it for £5.”
“Great - do you think I can saw the arm off?”
“I take it you don’t want the speakers”.

The crappy arm was easily bent back. However, there followed a frustrating afternoon spent filming in our bike cupboard (only place with low enough light). Turns out that in order to get the illusion to work clearly (rather than appear as one big blue blur) the darn thing needs a strobe light. I don’t have a strobe, so there commenced a period of switching on and off various lights to see which would respond the fastest. The hallway lamp was the best option, so I sat there in the dark, trying to switch the switch really quickly, but in time with the rotation of the cake. This was surprisingly difficult and fatiguing, even at 32 rpm. Anyway, I shot as much as my fingers could take and then sped the film up on imovie. It sort of works, if you squint...?

Much like the t-shirt, the cake really only works in theory. (I think if you managed to actually spin wearing the tee at the required speed you’d pass out from the g forces - you really need wonderwoman to model it).

But hey, I’ve learned my lesson. Next time I’ll make it more complex and buy a strobe light. Or maybe build a giant zoetrope. Cake animation is the future.

(And of course, the cake was pretty good. Might stick with glace cherries next time. Organic cherries in syrup were pretty meh.)

Submitter's Comments: (High Res Image)
This cake is actually 4D, but there wasn’t a category...

The idea behind the human thaumatrope tshirt is brilliantly simple. I wanted to do a cake that was in the spirit of a teeshirt design rather than a flat copy, so I thought this was a good concept - why not a thaumatrope made of cake? I like a challenge.

The cake was a cherry madiera with cherry flavoured buttercream and fondant. Carving it so that the central portion stood up vertically was tricky - I was convinced it would collapse as soon as I spun it. But it survived, even if it did get disturbingly lumpy.

The blackbird and cage are made from sugarpaste. The first birdie suffered a horrible beak mangling accident so had to be laid to rest. The second one required a dowel stuck up it to keep it upright. I probably should have made the cage a little more thin and delicate, but again, was worried about centrifugal forces flinging it across the kitchen.

I thought I might get away with filming on my lazy susan, but realised it needed a smooth rotation and considerably more speed. I also tried spinning the board on a drill, but it just made a massive hole in my cakeboard (and also the cake). So (being a modern girl only in possession of a cd player) I marched down to the second hand record shop and asked for the crappiest old record player they had. Exchange with bemused shop assistant went something like this:
“Well, this one isn’t very good.”
“No, I mean really bad. Do you have anything worse? I only need it to hold cake”
“Er. {Pause} This one needs repairing. You can have it for £5.”
“Great - do you think I can saw the arm off?”
“I take it you don’t want the speakers”.

The crappy arm was easily bent back. However, there followed a frustrating afternoon spent filming in our bike cupboard (only place with low enough light). Turns out that in order to get the illusion to work clearly (rather than appear as one big blue blur) the darn thing needs a strobe light. I don’t have a strobe, so there commenced a period of switching on and off various lights to see which would respond the fastest. The hallway lamp was the best option, so I sat there in the dark, trying to switch the switch really quickly, but in time with the rotation of the cake. This was surprisingly difficult and fatiguing, even at 32 rpm. Anyway, I shot as much as my fingers could take and then sped the film up on imovie. It sort of works, if you squint...?

Much like the t-shirt, the cake really only works in theory. (I think if you managed to actually spin wearing the tee at the required speed you’d pass out from the g forces - you really need wonderwoman to model it).

But hey, I’ve learned my lesson. Next time I’ll make it more complex and buy a strobe light. Or maybe build a giant zoetrope. Cake animation is the future.

(And of course, the cake was pretty good. Might stick with glace cherries next time. Organic cherries in syrup were pretty meh.)

Submitter's Comments: (High Res Image)
This cake is actually 4D, but there wasn’t a category...

The idea behind the human thaumatrope tshirt is brilliantly simple. I wanted to do a cake that was in the spirit of a teeshirt design rather than a flat copy, so I thought this was a good concept - why not a thaumatrope made of cake? I like a challenge.

The cake was a cherry madiera with cherry flavoured buttercream and fondant. Carving it so that the central portion stood up vertically was tricky - I was convinced it would collapse as soon as I spun it. But it survived, even if it did get disturbingly lumpy.

The blackbird and cage are made from sugarpaste. The first birdie suffered a horrible beak mangling accident so had to be laid to rest. The second one required a dowel stuck up it to keep it upright. I probably should have made the cage a little more thin and delicate, but again, was worried about centrifugal forces flinging it across the kitchen.

I thought I might get away with filming on my lazy susan, but realised it needed a smooth rotation and considerably more speed. I also tried spinning the board on a drill, but it just made a massive hole in my cakeboard (and also the cake). So (being a modern girl only in possession of a cd player) I marched down to the second hand record shop and asked for the crappiest old record player they had. Exchange with bemused shop assistant went something like this:
“Well, this one isn’t very good.”
“No, I mean really bad. Do you have anything worse? I only need it to hold cake”
“Er. {Pause} This one needs repairing. You can have it for £5.”
“Great - do you think I can saw the arm off?”
“I take it you don’t want the speakers”.

The crappy arm was easily bent back. However, there followed a frustrating afternoon spent filming in our bike cupboard (only place with low enough light). Turns out that in order to get the illusion to work clearly (rather than appear as one big blue blur) the darn thing needs a strobe light. I don’t have a strobe, so there commenced a period of switching on and off various lights to see which would respond the fastest. The hallway lamp was the best option, so I sat there in the dark, trying to switch the switch really quickly, but in time with the rotation of the cake. This was surprisingly difficult and fatiguing, even at 32 rpm. Anyway, I shot as much as my fingers could take and then sped the film up on imovie. It sort of works, if you squint...?

Much like the t-shirt, the cake really only works in theory. (I think if you managed to actually spin wearing the tee at the required speed you’d pass out from the g forces - you really need wonderwoman to model it).

But hey, I’ve learned my lesson. Next time I’ll make it more complex and buy a strobe light. Or maybe build a giant zoetrope. Cake animation is the future.

(And of course, the cake was pretty good. Might stick with glace cherries next time. Organic cherries in syrup were pretty meh.)

Submitter's Comments: (High Res Image)
This cake is actually 4D, but there wasn’t a category...

The idea behind the human thaumatrope tshirt is brilliantly simple. I wanted to do a cake that was in the spirit of a teeshirt design rather than a flat copy, so I thought this was a good concept - why not a thaumatrope made of cake? I like a challenge.

The cake was a cherry madiera with cherry flavoured buttercream and fondant. Carving it so that the central portion stood up vertically was tricky - I was convinced it would collapse as soon as I spun it. But it survived, even if it did get disturbingly lumpy.

The blackbird and cage are made from sugarpaste. The first birdie suffered a horrible beak mangling accident so had to be laid to rest. The second one required a dowel stuck up it to keep it upright. I probably should have made the cage a little more thin and delicate, but again, was worried about centrifugal forces flinging it across the kitchen.

I thought I might get away with filming on my lazy susan, but realised it needed a smooth rotation and considerably more speed. I also tried spinning the board on a drill, but it just made a massive hole in my cakeboard (and also the cake). So (being a modern girl only in possession of a cd player) I marched down to the second hand record shop and asked for the crappiest old record player they had. Exchange with bemused shop assistant went something like this:
“Well, this one isn’t very good.”
“No, I mean really bad. Do you have anything worse? I only need it to hold cake”
“Er. {Pause} This one needs repairing. You can have it for £5.”
“Great - do you think I can saw the arm off?”
“I take it you don’t want the speakers”.

The crappy arm was easily bent back. However, there followed a frustrating afternoon spent filming in our bike cupboard (only place with low enough light). Turns out that in order to get the illusion to work clearly (rather than appear as one big blue blur) the darn thing needs a strobe light. I don’t have a strobe, so there commenced a period of switching on and off various lights to see which would respond the fastest. The hallway lamp was the best option, so I sat there in the dark, trying to switch the switch really quickly, but in time with the rotation of the cake. This was surprisingly difficult and fatiguing, even at 32 rpm. Anyway, I shot as much as my fingers could take and then sped the film up on imovie. It sort of works, if you squint...?

Much like the t-shirt, the cake really only works in theory. (I think if you managed to actually spin wearing the tee at the required speed you’d pass out from the g forces - you really need wonderwoman to model it).

But hey, I’ve learned my lesson. Next time I’ll make it more complex and buy a strobe light. Or maybe build a giant zoetrope. Cake animation is the future.

(And of course, the cake was pretty good. Might stick with glace cherries next time. Organic cherries in syrup were pretty meh.)

Submitter's Comments: (High Res Image)
This cake is actually 4D, but there wasn’t a category...

The idea behind the human thaumatrope tshirt is brilliantly simple. I wanted to do a cake that was in the spirit of a teeshirt design rather than a flat copy, so I thought this was a good concept - why not a thaumatrope made of cake? I like a challenge.

The cake was a cherry madiera with cherry flavoured buttercream and fondant. Carving it so that the central portion stood up vertically was tricky - I was convinced it would collapse as soon as I spun it. But it survived, even if it did get disturbingly lumpy.

The blackbird and cage are made from sugarpaste. The first birdie suffered a horrible beak mangling accident so had to be laid to rest. The second one required a dowel stuck up it to keep it upright. I probably should have made the cage a little more thin and delicate, but again, was worried about centrifugal forces flinging it across the kitchen.

I thought I might get away with filming on my lazy susan, but realised it needed a smooth rotation and considerably more speed. I also tried spinning the board on a drill, but it just made a massive hole in my cakeboard (and also the cake). So (being a modern girl only in possession of a cd player) I marched down to the second hand record shop and asked for the crappiest old record player they had. Exchange with bemused shop assistant went something like this:
“Well, this one isn’t very good.”
“No, I mean really bad. Do you have anything worse? I only need it to hold cake”
“Er. {Pause} This one needs repairing. You can have it for £5.”
“Great - do you think I can saw the arm off?”
“I take it you don’t want the speakers”.

The crappy arm was easily bent back. However, there followed a frustrating afternoon spent filming in our bike cupboard (only place with low enough light). Turns out that in order to get the illusion to work clearly (rather than appear as one big blue blur) the darn thing needs a strobe light. I don’t have a strobe, so there commenced a period of switching on and off various lights to see which would respond the fastest. The hallway lamp was the best option, so I sat there in the dark, trying to switch the switch really quickly, but in time with the rotation of the cake. This was surprisingly difficult and fatiguing, even at 32 rpm. Anyway, I shot as much as my fingers could take and then sped the film up on imovie. It sort of works, if you squint...?

Much like the t-shirt, the cake really only works in theory. (I think if you managed to actually spin wearing the tee at the required speed you’d pass out from the g forces - you really need wonderwoman to model it).

But hey, I’ve learned my lesson. Next time I’ll make it more complex and buy a strobe light. Or maybe build a giant zoetrope. Cake animation is the future.

(And of course, the cake was pretty good. Might stick with glace cherries next time. Organic cherries in syrup were pretty meh.)

Submitter's Comments: (High Res Image)
This cake is actually 4D, but there wasn’t a category...

The idea behind the human thaumatrope tshirt is brilliantly simple. I wanted to do a cake that was in the spirit of a teeshirt design rather than a flat copy, so I thought this was a good concept - why not a thaumatrope made of cake? I like a challenge.

The cake was a cherry madiera with cherry flavoured buttercream and fondant. Carving it so that the central portion stood up vertically was tricky - I was convinced it would collapse as soon as I spun it. But it survived, even if it did get disturbingly lumpy.

The blackbird and cage are made from sugarpaste. The first birdie suffered a horrible beak mangling accident so had to be laid to rest. The second one required a dowel stuck up it to keep it upright. I probably should have made the cage a little more thin and delicate, but again, was worried about centrifugal forces flinging it across the kitchen.

I thought I might get away with filming on my lazy susan, but realised it needed a smooth rotation and considerably more speed. I also tried spinning the board on a drill, but it just made a massive hole in my cakeboard (and also the cake). So (being a modern girl only in possession of a cd player) I marched down to the second hand record shop and asked for the crappiest old record player they had. Exchange with bemused shop assistant went something like this:
“Well, this one isn’t very good.”
“No, I mean really bad. Do you have anything worse? I only need it to hold cake”
“Er. {Pause} This one needs repairing. You can have it for £5.”
“Great - do you think I can saw the arm off?”
“I take it you don’t want the speakers”.

The crappy arm was easily bent back. However, there followed a frustrating afternoon spent filming in our bike cupboard (only place with low enough light). Turns out that in order to get the illusion to work clearly (rather than appear as one big blue blur) the darn thing needs a strobe light. I don’t have a strobe, so there commenced a period of switching on and off various lights to see which would respond the fastest. The hallway lamp was the best option, so I sat there in the dark, trying to switch the switch really quickly, but in time with the rotation of the cake. This was surprisingly difficult and fatiguing, even at 32 rpm. Anyway, I shot as much as my fingers could take and then sped the film up on imovie. It sort of works, if you squint...?

Much like the t-shirt, the cake really only works in theory. (I think if you managed to actually spin wearing the tee at the required speed you’d pass out from the g forces - you really need wonderwoman to model it).

But hey, I’ve learned my lesson. Next time I’ll make it more complex and buy a strobe light. Or maybe build a giant zoetrope. Cake animation is the future.

(And of course, the cake was pretty good. Might stick with glace cherries next time. Organic cherries in syrup were pretty meh.)

Submitter's Comments: (High Res Image)
This cake is actually 4D, but there wasn’t a category...

The idea behind the human thaumatrope tshirt is brilliantly simple. I wanted to do a cake that was in the spirit of a teeshirt design rather than a flat copy, so I thought this was a good concept - why not a thaumatrope made of cake? I like a challenge.

The cake was a cherry madiera with cherry flavoured buttercream and fondant. Carving it so that the central portion stood up vertically was tricky - I was convinced it would collapse as soon as I spun it. But it survived, even if it did get disturbingly lumpy.

The blackbird and cage are made from sugarpaste. The first birdie suffered a horrible beak mangling accident so had to be laid to rest. The second one required a dowel stuck up it to keep it upright. I probably should have made the cage a little more thin and delicate, but again, was worried about centrifugal forces flinging it across the kitchen.

I thought I might get away with filming on my lazy susan, but realised it needed a smooth rotation and considerably more speed. I also tried spinning the board on a drill, but it just made a massive hole in my cakeboard (and also the cake). So (being a modern girl only in possession of a cd player) I marched down to the second hand record shop and asked for the crappiest old record player they had. Exchange with bemused shop assistant went something like this:
“Well, this one isn’t very good.”
“No, I mean really bad. Do you have anything worse? I only need it to hold cake”
“Er. {Pause} This one needs repairing. You can have it for £5.”
“Great - do you think I can saw the arm off?”
“I take it you don’t want the speakers”.

The crappy arm was easily bent back. However, there followed a frustrating afternoon spent filming in our bike cupboard (only place with low enough light). Turns out that in order to get the illusion to work clearly (rather than appear as one big blue blur) the darn thing needs a strobe light. I don’t have a strobe, so there commenced a period of switching on and off various lights to see which would respond the fastest. The hallway lamp was the best option, so I sat there in the dark, trying to switch the switch really quickly, but in time with the rotation of the cake. This was surprisingly difficult and fatiguing, even at 32 rpm. Anyway, I shot as much as my fingers could take and then sped the film up on imovie. It sort of works, if you squint...?

Much like the t-shirt, the cake really only works in theory. (I think if you managed to actually spin wearing the tee at the required speed you’d pass out from the g forces - you really need wonderwoman to model it).

But hey, I’ve learned my lesson. Next time I’ll make it more complex and buy a strobe light. Or maybe build a giant zoetrope. Cake animation is the future.

(And of course, the cake was pretty good. Might stick with glace cherries next time. Organic cherries in syrup were pretty meh.)

Submitter's Comments: (High Res Image)
This cake is actually 4D, but there wasn’t a category...

The idea behind the human thaumatrope tshirt is brilliantly simple. I wanted to do a cake that was in the spirit of a teeshirt design rather than a flat copy, so I thought this was a good concept - why not a thaumatrope made of cake? I like a challenge.

The cake was a cherry madiera with cherry flavoured buttercream and fondant. Carving it so that the central portion stood up vertically was tricky - I was convinced it would collapse as soon as I spun it. But it survived, even if it did get disturbingly lumpy.

The blackbird and cage are made from sugarpaste. The first birdie suffered a horrible beak mangling accident so had to be laid to rest. The second one required a dowel stuck up it to keep it upright. I probably should have made the cage a little more thin and delicate, but again, was worried about centrifugal forces flinging it across the kitchen.

I thought I might get away with filming on my lazy susan, but realised it needed a smooth rotation and considerably more speed. I also tried spinning the board on a drill, but it just made a massive hole in my cakeboard (and also the cake). So (being a modern girl only in possession of a cd player) I marched down to the second hand record shop and asked for the crappiest old record player they had. Exchange with bemused shop assistant went something like this:
“Well, this one isn’t very good.”
“No, I mean really bad. Do you have anything worse? I only need it to hold cake”
“Er. {Pause} This one needs repairing. You can have it for £5.”
“Great - do you think I can saw the arm off?”
“I take it you don’t want the speakers”.

The crappy arm was easily bent back. However, there followed a frustrating afternoon spent filming in our bike cupboard (only place with low enough light). Turns out that in order to get the illusion to work clearly (rather than appear as one big blue blur) the darn thing needs a strobe light. I don’t have a strobe, so there commenced a period of switching on and off various lights to see which would respond the fastest. The hallway lamp was the best option, so I sat there in the dark, trying to switch the switch really quickly, but in time with the rotation of the cake. This was surprisingly difficult and fatiguing, even at 32 rpm. Anyway, I shot as much as my fingers could take and then sped the film up on imovie. It sort of works, if you squint...?

Much like the t-shirt, the cake really only works in theory. (I think if you managed to actually spin wearing the tee at the required speed you’d pass out from the g forces - you really need wonderwoman to model it).

But hey, I’ve learned my lesson. Next time I’ll make it more complex and buy a strobe light. Or maybe build a giant zoetrope. Cake animation is the future.

(And of course, the cake was pretty good. Might stick with glace cherries next time. Organic cherries in syrup were pretty meh.)

Submitter's Comments: (High Res Image)
This cake is actually 4D, but there wasn’t a category...

The idea behind the human thaumatrope tshirt is brilliantly simple. I wanted to do a cake that was in the spirit of a teeshirt design rather than a flat copy, so I thought this was a good concept - why not a thaumatrope made of cake? I like a challenge.

The cake was a cherry madiera with cherry flavoured buttercream and fondant. Carving it so that the central portion stood up vertically was tricky - I was convinced it would collapse as soon as I spun it. But it survived, even if it did get disturbingly lumpy.

The blackbird and cage are made from sugarpaste. The first birdie suffered a horrible beak mangling accident so had to be laid to rest. The second one required a dowel stuck up it to keep it upright. I probably should have made the cage a little more thin and delicate, but again, was worried about centrifugal forces flinging it across the kitchen.

I thought I might get away with filming on my lazy susan, but realised it needed a smooth rotation and considerably more speed. I also tried spinning the board on a drill, but it just made a massive hole in my cakeboard (and also the cake). So (being a modern girl only in possession of a cd player) I marched down to the second hand record shop and asked for the crappiest old record player they had. Exchange with bemused shop assistant went something like this:
“Well, this one isn’t very good.”
“No, I mean really bad. Do you have anything worse? I only need it to hold cake”
“Er. {Pause} This one needs repairing. You can have it for £5.”
“Great - do you think I can saw the arm off?”
“I take it you don’t want the speakers”.

The crappy arm was easily bent back. However, there followed a frustrating afternoon spent filming in our bike cupboard (only place with low enough light). Turns out that in order to get the illusion to work clearly (rather than appear as one big blue blur) the darn thing needs a strobe light. I don’t have a strobe, so there commenced a period of switching on and off various lights to see which would respond the fastest. The hallway lamp was the best option, so I sat there in the dark, trying to switch the switch really quickly, but in time with the rotation of the cake. This was surprisingly difficult and fatiguing, even at 32 rpm. Anyway, I shot as much as my fingers could take and then sped the film up on imovie. It sort of works, if you squint...?

Much like the t-shirt, the cake really only works in theory. (I think if you managed to actually spin wearing the tee at the required speed you’d pass out from the g forces - you really need wonderwoman to model it).

But hey, I’ve learned my lesson. Next time I’ll make it more complex and buy a strobe light. Or maybe build a giant zoetrope. Cake animation is the future.

(And of course, the cake was pretty good. Might stick with glace cherries next time. Organic cherries in syrup were pretty meh.)