I would like to start this post by saying that this is hands down the nerdiest cake (or really anything) I've ever made in my entire life. But honestly, for a guy who loves one thing above all else - buses and transit - how could it not be nerdy? This particular fellow is the nerdiest of them all - he works in transportation policy, doesn't own a car, loves his bike and his bus pass beyond what is normal, and frequently tweets pictures of buses. If you must know, this nerd is Andrew and the present I got him for Christmas was a Lego Transit set that included a bus, a light rail train, stations, bikes and everything else.
I knew his birthday cake had to be just as nerdy as he is, but with limited time to plan and create it was going to be tricky. We returned home from Maui one and a half days before his birthday so it had to be something that I could craft quickly. Several ideas had to be thrown out the window due to time constraints (but I'm not telling because odds are, they will be recycled for next year!), but in the end the cake that had the candles was perfect.
In case you don't live in the Puget Sound area of Washington State, let me give you a little bit of background. While we have many different transit agencies that operate bus service, light rail and trains, most of them in the immediate Puget Sound area accept one type of bus pass. Our ORCA card makes it easy to transfer between these agencies without having to pay each time. You simply tap your card against one of these reader machines and you've paid. It's pretty great, but not the most exciting thing in the world (unless you happen to be named Andrew).
You can probably guess where I'm heading with this...
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| Birthday boy proudly shows off his nerdy cake! |
Here is the winning cake design! An ORCA card reader. Yep. NERDIEST cake I've ever made or dreamed up. The cake followed family tradition and was made of a chocolate chip cake recipe that Andrew's mom has used since he was a kid. The filling was a birthday boy request of peanut butter. Since Andrew despises fondant, the cake is covered with traditional buttercream.
I did manage to get away with using fondant for the screen, which reads "Happy Bday Andrew" and shows his fare paid is 27 years. That's a pretty expensive bus or light rail ride!
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| Andrew shows off his real ORCA card on the left with his edible version on the right. |
The ORCA card was made out of two blue raspberry Air Heads and I used food writer pens for the decorations. Much tastier but probably doesn't have any money on it to pay for a bus ride!
Yep, this kid definitely loves his buses and trains. Thankfully this ORCA card reader tasted much better than I imagine its plastic counterpart does.
I'd love to know what the dorkiest, nerdiest, most uncool cake you've ever made or had an idea for is!
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