Infinite Cake Recipe

It was Simon’s birthday yesterday and we whipped together another geeky bake! This time, Simon based his geeky bake on the famous Missing Square Puzzle, involving two arrangements made of similar shapes in slightly different configurations. Both arrangements seem to form a 13×5 right-angled triangles, but one has a 1×1 hole in it (hence the “paradox” is that depending on the arrangement, the area of the triangle seems to change).

Have you figured it out? Below is Simon’s explanation:

We also did our traditional presents quest. “You know what would be cool? Branching paths,” Simon asked me to level up in my quest making skills, meaning that every question can sometimes have more than one answer, creating branches. I was afraid I would mess everything up, unable to keep track of the branched sequences of hidden presents all over the apartment, but it actually turned out pretty neat. I’m sharing the questions below. To turn this quiz into a quest, just add descriptions of where you hid the presents to the correct answers and descriptions of where you hid nothing to the incorrect ones. I based my questions on this really awesome resource for computer history, called computerhistory.org The correct answers are marked in bold:

1. If you were born in 1979, just like me, what would have been your first computer, considering I had no money and would have gone for the cheaper option? A) Apple II B) IBM PC 5150 C) Commodore 64
2. Commodore’s Amiga 1000 sold for $1,295 (without monitor), which would amount to over five thousand dollars today if you account for inflation! This personal computer had audio and video capabilities beyond those found in most other personal computers. The inside of the Amiga case was engraved with the signatures of its designers and the paw print of one the designers’ dog Mitchy. Is that last bit true? A) True B) False
3. In 1980, the Media Lab opened at MIT to focus on “Digital Revolution”. Which areas? (multiple correct answers possible) A) electronic music B) machine learning C) holography D) computer graphics E) space travel F) architecture
4. Lisa was the first commercial personal computer with a graphical user interface. How much RAM did Lisa have? A) 1 MB B) 5 MB C) 10 MB D) 1 GB
5. The Internet as we know it (TCP/IP protocols) was originally a very modest network of networks owned by the US government. It competed against other protocols. Who were the main rivals? (More than one answer possible) A) OSI B) DECNET C) DESPOT D) SNA
6. Was the main “father of the web”, Tim Berners-Lee at CERN, the firtst person to invent hyperlinks or had hypertext existed before? A) Hypertext was originally invented by Tim Berners-Lee B) Hypertext was invented in the 1960s, but Tim Berners-Lee didn’t know C) Time Berners-Lee stole the idea
7. When was the @ invented (for the networked email protocol on APRAnet)? A) 1973 B) 1983 C) 1993
8. In the 1960s, when the first ATMs appeared, the paper used by some of the first ATMs was slightly radioactive, to be machine readable. True or false? A) True B) False
9. When Tim Berners-Lee submitted two proposals in 1989 for what will become the web, was either of them approved? A) one was approved B) both were approved C) Neither was approved
10. By Christmas 1990, Tim Berners-Lee prototyped WorldWideWeb in just 3 months on which computer: A) advanced NeXT computer B) Laser 128 computer C) Macintosh Portable
11. Browser War I involved: A) Mosaic vs. Netscape B) Netscape vs. Internet Explorer C) Firefox vs. Internet Explorer
12. The Internet as we know it (TCP/IP protocols) was originally a very modest network of networks owned by the US government. It competed against other protocols. Who were the main rivals? (More than one answer possible) A) OSI B) DECNET C) DESPOT D) SNA
13. When did the first Apple Store open? A) In 2001 in Virginia and California on the same day B) In 2000 in VA and in 2001 in CA C) In 2001 in CA and in 2002 in VA

Cake Recipe

If you want to know the actual recipe, we used the same dough as in last year’s geeky bake, the Rubik’s Cube Cake, our favorite Japanese chocolate-matcha flavor:

270 ml	milk (we used unsweetened oat milk)
9 full tbs	unsweetened raw chocolate powder/cocoa
6 tbs	matcha (Japanese green tea powder)
210 g	soft butter (unsalted)
330 g	raw sugar
1 1/2 ts	vanilla extract
5	eggs
165 ml	fresh whipping cream
300 g	flour (we used gluten free flour)
7 g	yeast

Warm up the oven for 165° Celsius (ca.330° Fahrenheit). Warm up the milk until it’s lukewarm and divide it into two bowls (pour 2/3 into one bowl and and 1/3 into the other). Whisk the chocolate powder into the large portion of milk and matcha powder into the smaller portion and set both aside. Take a big mixing dish and mix together in this order: butter, sugar, vanilla extract, eggs (beat/whip the eggs up with in a separate dish first), cream. Add the flour last. Separate your dough into two bowls again, 2/3 into one bowl and 1/3 into the other. Add the chocolate-milk mixture to the first bowl and the matcha-milk mixture to the second one and stir carefully. Pour most of the chocolate dough into the mold, then pour the matcha dough, and then the rest of the chocolate dough in top. Bake for about 45 minutes or until a wooden pricker you poke the cake with comes out dry.