Cake: a delicious dessert that everyone loves to eat. Whether it’s birthdays, weddings or any other type of celebration, you probably find yourself eating a piece of cake several times a year (or several times a month, if you’re lucky!). However, you’ll probably be surprised to learn that we’ve all been cutting the cake the wrong way for pretty much our entire lives.
Alex Bellos of Numberphile explains that when we cut the cake the traditional way (into equal-sized triangles), the cake dries out. When you remove the first triangle, the other pieces are exposed to the air, which dries them out and makes them stale fairly quickly. This only accelerates when you place the rest of the cake in the refrigerator.
So what we should be doing is cutting a cake according to Alex’s genius method. Here’s what you need to do.
Step 1: Cut the cake in half at the widest part of the circle.
Step 2: Make another cut parallel to the one you just made.
Step 3: Carefully lift out the slice you’ve just made. Cut it into portions, and enjoy!
Step 4: “Close” the cake by pushing the two sides together. You can secure it further by placing an elastic band around the circumference of the cake.
Step 5: The next time you want to dig into the cake, repeat these steps but use perpendicular cuts to the first ones.
And that’s it! You can repeat this process until all of the cake is gone. This method is genius because it allows the cake to retain its moisture — no more stale, dried out cake!
