1. Everyone who has played it tells me the cake is a lie
2. Everyone’s favourite character seems to be an inanimate metal box, called the Weighted Companion Cube.

So that is what I made. Keep reading for a step by step guide on how to make your own cake. I promise your geek will love you forever!

Step one: The cake part

I used vanilla sponge to make my cake, to reduce the cost and time involved. I guess you could use any type of cake you felt like. For my 7 inch cube, I needed 3 slab cakes (9 inches by 13 inches) to give me the 6 layers I needed. To stick the layers together, I used apricot jam with no fruit pieces, warmed slightly in the microwave to make it easier to spread. You will also need to use jam to stick on the first layer of icing. Apricot is ideal because any mistakes don’t show up!

Build up the layers using whatever pieces of cake you have available. Try not to line up any cuts in your layers, to make it stronger. Mine needed some wooden skewers through it to hold it together.

A word of warning – 3 slab cakes results in about 75 portions of cake!

Step two: The icing part

Icing a cube takes a lot of icing! I asked some very clever people in a cake shop, and they recommended 1kg of royal icing for the base layer, and another for corners, circles and hearts. I chose to use bought royal icing because it saved time, but you could always make your own.

For colouring the icing, you need some good quality food colouring. Black for the greys, and a bright red for the pink. Add a small amount, mix by kneading, and add more as necessary.

To cover the cake, I used 1kg of icing, cut into 5 pieces, and each one covered one side. To roll out the icing, use icing sugar to stop it sticking to the surface, but don’t turn it over, so one side remains icing sugar free. This means the colours won’t be spoiled by the icing sugar.

Step three: The fiddly bits

Make yourself a drawing, working out the size and shape of the parts you will need to stick on.

Then cut out the important parts to use as templates. Stick them on using a little water (and I mean a little! Things can get very soggy if you’re not careful!). For the corners and sides where there are multiple pieces, cut them out as one piece, and bend them to fit. For the hearts – I know they should be flush within the circles, but that was too fiddly for me, so I just stuck them on the outside. You could slot them into the circle if you have more patience than me!

Step four: Present your cake!

The finished article:

(Image editor’s note: for more picturey goodness, check out the full photoset on Flickr.)

On a more positive note, I attended Elly and Meri’s Wedding a couple of weeks ago. It was a lovely day, but the highlight for me has to be breakfast the next morning at Belle and Herbs. I had Blueberry Pancakes, and they were wonderful. I have had strong cravings for Blueberry pancakes ever since, so if anyone has a recipe for them, or knows where I can get some in London, Bishop’s Stortford or Cambridge, I would greatly appreciate it!

Bella Italia
Old Brompton Road
nr. South Kensington Tube

Our Meal
Spinach Cannelloni
Penne Pollo e Crema
The Godfather for 2

The Spinach Cannelloni was delicious, but the dish was very hot, and difficult to eat from.
Penne Pollo e Crema consists of Penne pasta, chicken, bacon, red onion, sweet peppers and a white wine and cream sauce. I really enjoyed it, although the bacon became a little overpowering of the other flavours.
Both the main dishes were very good, and the dessert was easily large enough for two – chocolate brownies, ice cream, whipped cream and chocolate sauce. It finished the meal off nicely.

The only negative thing about our meal was the service. The waitress was hostile, and the service was very slow. However, since we weren’t in a rush it didn’t spoil our meal.

How much will it cost?
Our meal cost £27 for a 2 course lunch for two people, including tip.

The Light of India.
67/69 Gloucester Road, very close to Gloucester Road Tube.

This small Indian Restaurant (seats 55) is actually a part of the Montana Hotel. Despite being small, there’s no need to book. We went on a Saturday evening, and it wasn’t full at any point during our meal. The food’s reasonably priced (for South Kensington!) with a main meat dish at around £8.

Our Meal

Onion Bhajis
Spring Rolls
Chicken Pakora

Chicken Korma
Lamb Pasanda
Chicken Makhani
Pilau Rice
Plain Nan, Peshwari Nan
Saag Aloo

The bhajis tasted wonderful, although I would say they were slightly overcooked (very very cripsy to the point of being hard). The others were nice, but not outstanding.
Where this restaurant excels is with its main courses. My personal favourite was the Pasanda, while Kayleigh prefered the Makhani, but they were all very good. The rice was light, and the peshwari nan was wonderful.

Service was excellent, as there were more staff than seemed necessary. Our waiter also seemed to take a liking to me, giving me pronuciation lessons…

Overall, I’d throughly recommend them, and will eat there again I’m sure.

How much will it cost?
We spent £70 for a 2 course meal for 3 people, including tip. (We had non-alcoholic drinks)