We usually post stuff related to case mods rather than cake mods, but today is an exception. It’s our 01-th anniversary today and to celebrate we decided to bake a Hack-A-Day logo cake! The cake is a vanilla cake with vanilla frosting served on a homebrew circuit board platter. Celebrate our 01 Hack-A-Day style.

For this cake-mod you will need:
vanilla cake
frosting
various knives (spreading knife, box cutter, sharp kitchen knife)
chopstick or other square ended small clean tool
large green circuit board (like our motherboard isa bus extension card found on the street)
clear plastic from a zipper lock bag (to protect your cake eaters from solder lead and to protect your circuit board from cake and frosting)
black foam core board or similar
green lighting (super bright green led’s, green christmas lights, etc.)

First make a vanilla cake. Keep in mind this cake will be carved, so try to find a recipe that isn’t too crumbly. Our recipe is as follows:

Vanilla Cake Recipe (original here):
(this recipe is dairy-free and can be modded vegan, see original)

3 cups cake flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cups sugar

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (176 C). Mix together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Beat the eggs in a medium bowl. Add to the eggs the oil, water, vanilla and sugar. Mix the wet mixture into the dry ingredients. Spray two cake tins with non-stick spray and pour in the batter. We used 1 round pie dish/cake tin and 1 rectangular cake tin to have shapes conducive to the Hack-A-Day logo. Bake the cakes for 40 minutes or until a knife comes out clean. Let the cake cool for a few minutes then transfer to a rack for cooling.

Prepare a vanilla or any white frosting for the cake.  This frosting should be spreadable but quite thick to make the logo as white as possible.

Vanilla Frosting
(also dairy free)

3 cups confectioners sugar (aka powdered sugar, or half regular sugar half cornstarch)
1/2 cup soy margarine (available at health food stores, we did not find this so we used hydrogenated coconut oil — in france called Vegetaline and melted it ahead of time in a saucepan)
1 tsp vanilla
3 Tbs rice milk (or soy milk or water, can use vanilla or plain rice/soy milk)

Mix the melted soy margarine into the sugar with a fork or food processor until smooth.  Add the vanilla and continue to mix.  Before adding the rice milk, chill the mixture for a few minutes in the fridge.  Add in the rice milk bit by bit until the consistency is just spreadable and smooth.  Place the frosting back in the fridge for five minutes.

Next while the frosting is cooling, make a serving platter. Find a large circuit board and some black foam core board. Trace the shape of your circuit board on the foam core board and cut an opening with a box cutter. Cut a piece of plastic from a heavy duty ziplock bag a few centimeters larger than the circuit. Wrap the plastic over the circuit board to protect the circuit and to keep the cake edible. Pop the circuit board in place in the cavity carved in the foam core board.

When the cake has sufficiently cooled, carve the hackaday skull out of the round cake using a sharp knife. The cavities for the eyes and nose were started with a sharp knife and molded with the square end of a chopstick.  The cake is carved upside down for a flat level surface.

Now cut four wrench-bones out of the rectangular cake:

Place the carved cake on the serving platter.

Remove the frosting from the fridge and remix it until smooth with a fork.  Spread the frosting evenly on the skull first.  Push the frosting down into the eyes and nose with a chopstick.  Stick the wrenches to the skull with a daub of frosting and finally frost the wrenches.

Place the hackcake in the fridge to further cool the frosting.

To serve your skull and wrench bones cake, place some bright green LED’s or green christmas lights around the edge of your platter.

Final step: serve your cake to some hungry hackers. Happy HADA01!